Hiding wallet complexities for newbies

[m3110w]

Hi All,

I installed Electrum on my Win 7 pc and I'm now trying to learn how to use it properly.

I'm a newbie now digging into bitcoin details. Wow. It's a little more complicated than I expected. I'm now trying to wrap my head around things like Change Addresses and related topics. Not easy for a newb like me. But I like learning new things.

Are there wallets keychains that successfully and safely hide all the complexities of Change Addresses without putting coins at risk? Or, to put it another way, what is the best wallet for total techno-phobic newbies who are allergic to any technical details?

Is something like the Coinbase online wallet best for total non-geek newbies? Does the Coinbase wallet successfully and safely hide all Change Address and other complexity?

Thanks,

Advait

PS: I'm a fanatic about backing up my important data in multiple ways.

PPS: I'm also reading thru the posts at http://bitzuma.com/posts/a-beginners-guide-to-the-electrum-bitcoin-wallet/. There's a lot to learn!

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[jjacob]

Hi All,

I installed Electrum on my Win 7 pc and I'm now trying to learn how to use it properly.

I'm a newbie now digging into bitcoin details. Wow. It's a little more complicated than I expected. I'm now trying to wrap my head around things like Change Addresses and related topics. Not easy for a newb like me. But I like learning new things.

Are there wallets keychains that successfully and safely hide all the complexities of Change Addresses without putting coins at risk? Or, to put it another way, what is the best wallet for total techno-phobic newbies who are allergic to any technical details?

Is something like the Coinbase online wallet best for total non-geek newbies? Does the Coinbase wallet successfully and safely hide all Change Address and other complexity?

Thanks,

Advait

PS: I'm a fanatic about backing up my important data in multiple ways.

PPS: I'm also reading thru the posts at http://bitzuma.com/posts/a-beginners-guide-to-the-electrum-bitcoin-wallet/. There's a lot to learn!

Electrum is an awesome choice. I am not sure I understand what you mean by "safely hide all the complexities of Change Addresses", but electrum has an option to enable/disable change addresses.

With respect to backing up data, you don't need to worry. You just need to note down the 12 word seed. Back that up in as many ways as you see fit.

[m3110w]

Electrum is an awesome choice. I am not sure I understand what you mean by "safely hide all the complexities of Change Addresses", but electrum has an option to enable/disable change addresses.

With respect to backing up data, you don't need to worry. You just need to note down the 12 word seed. Back that up in as many ways as you see fit.

My understanding is that disabling Change Addresses reduces privacy and I would like to maintain privacy. From what I read it also seems that I have to really understand Change Addresses and use them correctly otherwise I could easily lose my bitcoin. So as a newbie I was just wondering if some wallets keep the good features of Change Addresses but hide the complexity.

Any insights on this would be appreciated. Thanks! And I'll read thru the Electrum documentation some more. Kinda complicated! But I like a challenge.

I may get a Coinbase account and play around with their wallet to see how it compares.

Cheers,

Advait

[jjacob]

My understanding is that disabling Change Addresses reduces privacy and I would like to maintain privacy.

That is absolutely correct. Change addresses help you maintain privacy and it is always advisable to enable them.

From what I read it also seems that I have to really understand Change Addresses and use them correctly otherwise I could easily lose my bitcoin.

From where did you get this notion? You can't lose your bitcoins by not understanding how change addresses work.

[sifter]

Use bitcoin-qt .


In my opinion it's the easiest to use.

[pooya87]

Hi All,

I installed Electrum on my Win 7 pc and I'm now trying to learn how to use it properly.

I'm a newbie now digging into bitcoin details. Wow. It's a little more complicated than I expected. I'm now trying to wrap my head around things like Change Addresses and related topics. Not easy for a newb like me. But I like learning new things.

Are there wallets keychains that successfully and safely hide all the complexities of Change Addresses without putting coins at risk? Or, to put it another way, what is the best wallet for total techno-phobic newbies who are allergic to any technical details?

Is something like the Coinbase online wallet best for total non-geek newbies? Does the Coinbase wallet successfully and safely hide all Change Address and other complexity?

Thanks,

Advait

PS: I'm a fanatic about backing up my important data in multiple ways.

PPS: I'm also reading thru the posts at http://bitzuma.com/posts/a-beginners-guide-to-the-electrum-bitcoin-wallet/. There's a lot to learn!

i think if you are having trouble with wallets and security and also you don't have much BTC, you should start with online wallets like coinbase and blockchain.info
then switch to desktop

[LiteCoinGuy]

you can be sure that it will be alot easier in the future (in 2012 there was only the qt-wallet).
so dont worry 

[Amph]

use bitcoin core or multibit, they are very simple to use, the second is better for newbie as you don't need to sync the whole blockchain

[ColderThanIce]

i would recommend electrum. you don't need to download the whole blockchain, and it offers change addresses too. plus it offers a bunch of additional tools as well, so you can make custom transactions, sign a tx from an offline pc and then broadcast it from an online one, etc. overall a great wallet imo.

[lynn_402]

I'd recommend taking a few hours to learn these complexities instead of hiding them. Being informed it the only way to have a satisfactory experience with cryptocurrencies.

[m3110w]

use bitcoin core or multibit, they are very simple to use, the second is better for newbie as you don't need to sync the whole blockchain

I went with Electrum cause MultiBit (if i remember correctly) requires Java and Java has a lot of security issues. I got rid of Java years ago. I'm using Win7.

[lophie]

use bitcoin core or multibit, they are very simple to use, the second is better for newbie as you don't need to sync the whole blockchain

I went with Electrum cause MultiBit (if i remember correctly) requires Java and Java has a lot of security issues. I got rid of Java years ago. I'm using Win7.

there is a basic mode in electrum where it even hides your addresses and give you just one to recieve and change it automatically from time to time. very easy to use.

[Amph]

use bitcoin core or multibit, they are very simple to use, the second is better for newbie as you don't need to sync the whole blockchain

I went with Electrum cause MultiBit (if i remember correctly) requires Java and Java has a lot of security issues. I got rid of Java years ago. I'm using Win7.

you can download the blockchain, and use core, for security use a pendrive, for cold storage, unless you want to sign offline transaction, eletrucm and armory aren't really needed

[m3110w]

use bitcoin core or multibit, they are very simple to use, the second is better for newbie as you don't need to sync the whole blockchain

I went with Electrum cause MultiBit (if i remember correctly) requires Java and Java has a lot of security issues. I got rid of Java years ago. I'm using Win7.

you can download the blockchain, and use core, for security use a pendrive, for cold storage, unless you want to sign offline transaction, eletrucm and armory aren't really needed

I think the blockchain is currently something like 25GB? That sound right? Here is India bandwidth is too expensive for that.

Also not enough room on my hard drive. But I've got a stack of old 3.5" floppies; that may work... 

[ranochigo]

use bitcoin core or multibit, they are very simple to use, the second is better for newbie as you don't need to sync the whole blockchain

I went with Electrum cause MultiBit (if i remember correctly) requires Java and Java has a lot of security issues. I got rid of Java years ago. I'm using Win7.

you can download the blockchain, and use core, for security use a pendrive, for cold storage, unless you want to sign offline transaction, eletrucm and armory aren't really needed

I think the blockchain is currently something like 25GB? That sound right? Here is India bandwidth is too expensive for that.

Also not enough room on my hard drive. But I've got a stack of old 3.5" floppies; that may work... 

It is currently 30+GB. Floppy disk... Hmm I hope you are just kidding. If you really want to preserve bandwidth, you can try online wallets like greenaddress which allows you to control your own private key and you don't have to download the blockchain.

[kwaasteniet]

Also not enough room on my hard drive. But I've got a stack of old 3.5" floppies; that may work... 

What the hell are floppies?

[SirChiko]

Also not enough room on my hard drive. But I've got a stack of old 3.5" floppies; that may work... 

What the hell are floppies?

When were you born guys? It's media before cds were invented. You gotta be like 10 years old if you don't know that.

[foxkyu]

Hi All,
I installed Electrum on my Win 7 pc and I'm now trying to learn how to use it properly.
I'm a newbie now digging into bitcoin details. Wow. It's a little more complicated than I expected. I'm now trying to wrap my head around things like Change Addresses and related topics. Not easy for a newb like me. But I like learning new things.
Are there wallets keychains that successfully and safely hide all the complexities of Change Addresses without putting coins at risk? Or, to put it another way, what is the best wallet for total techno-phobic newbies who are allergic to any technical details?
Is something like the Coinbase online wallet best for total non-geek newbies? Does the Coinbase wallet successfully and safely hide all Change Address and other complexity?

Thanks,
Advait
PS: I'm a fanatic about backing up my important data in multiple ways.
PPS: I'm also reading thru the posts at http://bitzuma.com/posts/a-beginners-guide-to-the-electrum-bitcoin-wallet/. There's a lot to learn!

as far i know, you can't change bitcoin address, but you can change only the label
and what you can do is to create new bitcoin address