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Namecoin Wallet for Android

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2015 5:07 am
by HashEngineering
The Bitcoin Wallet (https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ach.wallet) has been forked for Namecoin. This is an light weight Android app that is currently in a Beta phase. The functions have been tested (Send, Receive, Exchange Rates, Paper Wallet Sweep), but more feedback is required by other users using other devices.

This app does not support any of the naming functions of Namecoin, it only supports sending and receiving Namecoins. Can the naming services be provided later? We are not sure. The wallet is a light weight wallet and does not store the entire blockchain on the phone. This app does not use bloom filters (this feature is not available in the current Namecoin source code). It uses IRC to connect to peers. It must download the entire blockchain (headers only) before it syncs (it currently doesn't support the checkpoints feature of Bitcoin Wallet/BitcoinJ).

Feel free to download the app and test with a limited Namecoins.

Source Code:
* https://github.com/HashEngineering/namecoinj
* https://github.com/HashEngineering/namecoin-wallet
Downloads:
* https://github.com/HashEngineering/name ... t/releases
* https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... oin.wallet

Project History:
I was contacted about making a Namecoin Wallet for Android in the 2nd Quarter of 2014, but was busy working on some other projects. Shortly thereafter, I learned that another developer was found to port the Bitcoin Wallet and BitcoinJ projects to Namecoin. On January 1 of this year, I was curious about the status of this project, but found no app in the Google Play Store and no source code for namecoinj or any other related library or app. After posting an inquiry on reddit, I decided to take up this project. Previous Research had indicated that another developer for an unpublished DevCoin wallet had written the code for handle the Merge Mining feature (AuxPow) and that code was added to a very recent version of BitCoin Wallet 4.14 and BitcoinJ 0.12.2 (each of which has a few of my own modifications).

Bounty:
I am not aware of a bounty for this project. Donations are welcomed.

Re: Namecoin Wallet for Android

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 2:34 am
by pitbull
Thank you for building this. I installed it on my phone this evening, I'll report back once it syncs up. It has a decent interface, although I found it difficult to find my wallet address. One must tap on the QR code, and then the address is displayed. Not hard to find, but would be nice if it were more intuitive or preferrably displayed, and the user taps this to get a qr code. In order for me to send NMC to it I had to type out the address, and I suspect this will be the case of many users. I'm not fond of the purple color in the logo, and the N needs the classic tilt. It seems rather odd there are already two one-star reviews, one claiming to have had coins stolen. Who are these people? I can't find any mention of this happening on the forum, reddit or IRC. It would be nice to know exactly what the app needs permissions for, I can guess what and why but if you spelled it out it would alleviate some concern and seemingly build a little more trust up front.

Naming functionality would be huge, why are you not sure if it's even feasible? Heck I'd be quite thrilled with a GUI that trusts another server which namecoin is running on and using rpc calls to it, so that I can play with names on the go.

I appreciated your effort, and look forward to seeing further development from you.

Re: Namecoin Wallet for Android

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 2:48 am
by HashEngineering
pitbull wrote:Thank you for building this. I installed it on my phone this evening, I'll report back once it syncs up. It has a decent interface, although I found it difficult to find my wallet address. One must tap on the QR code, and then the address is displayed. Not hard to find, but would be nice if it were more intuitive or preferrably displayed, and the user taps this to get a qr code. In order for me to send NMC to it I had to type out the address, and I suspect this will be the case of many users.
What you have described is actually a design feature of the Bitcoin Wallet. If you want to get your address on your computer, for instance, then you must go to "Request Coins", then hit the triangle button (Request form Local App), then you can choose your email program to send it to your email. Everytime you do a request, you will get a new address. This is a new feature in the Bitcoin Wallet as well. It is trying to encourage us to use a different address everytime for security and book keeping. The Wallet stores all the addresses used, but doesn't show them.
pitbull wrote: I'm not fond of the purple color in the logo, and the N needs the classic tilt. It seems rather odd there are already two one-star reviews, one claiming to have had coins stolen. Who are these people? I can't find any mention of this happening on the forum, reddit or IRC. It would be nice to know exactly what the app needs permissions for, I can guess what and why but if you spelled it out it would alleviate some concern and seemingly build a little more trust up front.
I need to do some more work on the Google Play area. This was the first time one of my apps had so much trouble with devices, etc.
pitbull wrote: Naming functionality would be huge, why are you not sure if it's even feasible? Heck I'd be quite thrilled with a GUI that trusts another server which namecoin is running on and using rpc calls to it, so that I can play with names on the go.

Even if the only attention you get is from crickets, I appreciated your effort, and look forward to seeing further development from you.
I have been thinking today that some Naming functionality will be possible. This is a light wallet, so it doesn't have the entire blockchain on the phone to do any work with, which may be required for some of the functionality of naming.

Re: Namecoin Wallet for Android

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 6:04 pm
by pitbull
I sent some nmc to the wallet, it was very slow to sync and left me feeling for several hours like my coins may indeed be gone. I also swept a private key in to test further, and it showed this balance immediately before the sync was even complete. I would suggest prominently showing that the wallet is syncing, it took some time before the message of how far behind the wallet was got displayed. I sent 10 namecoin in and swept a small amount from another address, and all coins were eventually accounted for, and were sent to another address for safer keeping. I'm happy to report no stolen coins, contrary to the reviews on the app store.

Overall, good job and I'm looking forward to this being improved. You should post a QR code for tips!

Re: Namecoin Wallet for Android

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 6:42 am
by HashEngineering
The stolen coins report from the app store was removed, but it turned out to be for another wallet that I did (darkcoin).

Syncing for first time users is slow. I plan to fix this soon with a feature called checkpoints. Tips can be sent using the "Donate/Tips" option in the wallet.