My personal opinion is that the ideal first client has three features:
(1) Starts up and is usable within a couple minutes (even 10 min the first
time would be okay, to sync block headers)
(2) Supports Windows, Linux and OSX
(3) Uses deterministic wallets that can produce a permanent backup
(preferably paper)
Encryption is a major upside, too, but people new enough to Bitcoin that
they need such a simple client, can survive without encryption (thye're not
going to be holding a ton of coins) -- as long as they are made aware that
they do not currently have encryption, and the associated risks (and other
options).
I think it's extremely important that users have a clear way to backup
their coins to offline media or paper, in such a way that they don't ever
need to worry about it again. Not only does it give users protection
against hard-drive loss, it means that they may find it again in the far
future when they haven't used Bitcoin in 2 years, and it reminds them that
they still have coins (and they don't have to type in 1000 private keys to
get their coins)
For that reason, I think Multibit is an excellent choice. I haven't spent
much time with it, but I do understand it to satisfy (1) and (2) clearly,
and (3) may be happening in the near future (along with encryption). But I
do wonder if it has enough staffing behind it to be the center of attention
(no offense to jim618, but if this becomes the "de-facto" client for new
users, we should make sure there's a lot of people available to support it
-- what if a major security bug is found? how long would it take the
current team to identify, fix and test that bug?)
-Alan
On Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 12:46 PM, Mike Hearn <m...@plan99.net> wrote:
> At the moment if you visit bitcoin.org then you're recommended to
> download the full client. I think we all agree that at some point we
> need to start presenting users with something more like this:
>
>
> To get started, download wallet apps A or B.
>
> If you'd like to contribute your computing resources to the Bitcoin
> network and have a fast computer with an unfiltered internet
> connection, download:
>
> - for desktop machines, Bitcoin-Qt
> - for servers, bitcoind
>
>
>
> Obviously not that exact wording.
>
> I personally feel it's a bit early for this, but it's true that users
> are being turned away by the fact that they're pointed to Bitcoin-Qt
> by default, so having some kind of roadmap or plan for changing that
> would be good.
>
> I think MultiBit is maturing into a client that I'd feel comfortable
> recommending to end users who take the fast-start path, though it
> still has a few serious lacks (encrypted wallets aren't released yet,
> bloom filters will help performance a lot, needs to catch up with some
> newer features). But there doesn't have to be a one true client.
>
> The alternative, I guess, is to make Bitcoin-Qt have an SPV mode. I'm
> not convinced this is the best use of time, but if somebody steps up
> to do it, that could also work. MultiBit has some unique features that
> are quite useful like integrating charting and exchange rate feeds.
>
> What does everyone think on this?
>
>
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