Desktop wallet: Why do you place a high priority on?

General Counterparty
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Hello,

I read "Counterparty Community Update, Jan 07:" and I'm constantly amazed at how fast the progress.

I'm very curious about why you place a high priority on the desktop wallet. I'm satisfied with the web-based wallet so far. Is there any specific reasons?

P.S.

I can't wait to see the tutorials video on YouTube!

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It is all about trust and security. Some people are uncomfortable having to rely on an always-on internet connected devices to interact with the Counterparty Protocol.

Many people in the Bitcoin ecosystem have offline computers running their wallets. And when they need to make transactions they sign them on the offline computer and broadcast those transactions to the network via an online computer.

This would be amazing to have this same level of confidence with Counterparty.

BTW, I would imagine that many online Bitcoin service (e.g. exchange, payment processor) use an offline (air-gapped) computer as a part of their security procedures. If they wanted to add Counterparty to their services, having a quality useable desktop wallet may be the last thing they require to integrate Counterparty.

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@Equality 7-2521 (whoa, that’s a captcha nick if I’ve ever seen one! I don’t know if you can get notified like this (or should I surround your nick with quotes?))


Those are good points. 

Privacy is another important aspect. Although Counterparty doesn’t datamine user access, other entities can.
A desktop version adds better privacy and to further enhance that one could have multiple (2, or 3) wallets - one online (for smaller amounts) and one Desktop based.

Fed Node provides a full copy of Counterwallet and one can use the counterpartyd CLI too, but the both of those options require additional skills. 

I think one problem that is yet to be overcome is the need to have a local copy of the Bitcoin blockchain. I kind of solved that issue by setting up a dedicated bitcoind server at home, but not everyone has the luxury of doing that. I also have a copy that I fire up from time to time, but if you do that on your desktop or notebook next time you want to use CW to send some XCP somewhere you may need to wait 3 hours for BItcoin Core to catch up with the blockchain.

Perhaps a VPN back home to one’s dedicated server can help (although I think the latency would cause problems and it still requires a bitcoind at home).
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@something, yeah I’m not sure how to reference my username properly either!

When I say security I include privacy, but it is good that you made it explicit.

Surely counterpartyd could interface with a remote Bitcoin Blockchain API service like Blockchain.info or Chain.com instead of running a local copy? Couldn’t you also download just the recent embedded Counterparty data from “trusted” sources?

Another simple reason why a Desktop Client might be very useful is that it is being written in the Python programming language. This might be more approachable for a lot of developers than the Javascript that Counterwallet is written in. Even if a developer doesn’t know Python they may be able to follow the code of a native Desktop Client better. Also… my personal dream is that some day we will see a port of Bitcoin Armory - Counterparty Armory, and Armory is written in Python too.

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@“Equality 7-2521” I think online blockchain API services are interesting and I hope it’ll ultimately become one of the back-end configuration options.


I agree - Python should help a lot. JavaScript seems hard to learn casually, while Python seems easier to read to me.
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I tried learning JavaScript, and it has almost infinite amounts of ambiguity and quirks (that often make no sense without ages of study). It’s like a secret language, and can aptly be described as ‘code’ in more than just one way.

I’m guessing this will also be modular, making it possible for people to easily build their own GUIs using this as a base.

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@Equality 7-2521, @something, @deliciousowl

Thank you so much for providing valuable comments. I'm getting worried about security especially since Bitstamp was hacked. So I was thinking that using "Armory Offline Address" as one of ways to save my assets safely. I strongly hope that the desktop counterparty wallet will enhance security and privacy. Thanks, 

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I personally prefer paper wallets. They are very convenient to transfer funds to, and you can easily sweep back into Counterwallet.