Clients: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:27, 27 March 2013

This table compares the features of the different clients. All of the listed clients are open-source.

Wallet Security: How well the client protects your private keys from people with access to the machine the wallet is stored on. The private keys can be encrypted, for example. The private keys can also be either stored on your device or on a remote server.
Network Security: Clients which more fully implement the Bitcoin network protocol are safer -- they can't be as easily tricked by powerful attackers. A client which fully implements the protocol will always use the correct block chain and will never allow double-spends or invalid transactions to exist in the block chain under any circumstances. Clients which only partially implement the protocol typically trust that 50% or more of the network's mining power is honest. Some clients trust one or more remote servers to protect them from double-spends and other network attacks.
Setup Time: Some clients require that you download and verify a large amount of data before you can send or receive BTC.
Maturity: When the project was started.

Client	Get Started	Audience	Wallet Security	Network Security	Backups	Setup Time	Disk Space	Maturity	Multi-user
Armory	Download	Power users	Encrypted, on-device	Addon	One-time	Varies	6+ GB	Jul 2011	Multi-wallet
Bitcoin Wallet	Google Play BlackBerry World	Everyone	Isolated, on-device	Partial	Manual	1 hour	30 MB	Mar 2011	on JB tablets
Bitcoin-Qt	Download	End-users	Encrypted, on-device	Full	Manual	Hours	6+ GB	May 2011	No
bitcoind	Download	Programmers	Encrypted, on-device	Full	Manual	Hours	6+ GB	Aug 2009	Virtual accounts
Electrum	Download	Power users	Encrypted, on-device	Minimal	Memorized	Minutes	5 MB	Nov 2011	No
MultiBit	Download	End-users	None, on-device	Partial	No	Seconds	50 MB	Jul 2011	Multi-wallet
My Wallet	Web-based	Everyone	Encrypted, on a server	Remote	Automatic	Minutes	None	Dec 2011	Yes

This table shows additional information about various Bitcoin clients that may be relevant to developers.

Client	Website	Source Code	License	Discussion	Architecture
Armory	Link	Github	AGPLv3	Bitcointalk	Integrated
Bitcoin Wallet	Link	Google Code Github	GPLv3	Bitcointalk / Google Groups	SPV
Bitcoin-Qt / bitcoind	Link	Github	MIT	Sourceforge	Integrated
Electrum	Link	Gitorious	GPLv3	Sourceforge	Server-Client
MultiBit	Link	Github	MIT	Google Groups	SPV
My Wallet	Link	Github	BSD*	None	Server-Client

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 |-
 ! {{CLGood|Bitcoin-Qt}}
-|| [http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/ Download] || {{CLGood|End-users}} || {{CLGood|Encrypted, on-device}} || {{CLBest|Full}} || Manual || {{CLBad|Hours - days}} || {{CLBad|6+ GB}} || {{CLGood|May 2011}} || No || {{CLLinux}}{{CLMac}}{{CLWin}}
+|| [http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/ Download] || {{CLGood|End-users}} || {{CLGood|Encrypted, on-device}} || {{CLBest|Full}} || Manual || {{CLBad|Hours}} || {{CLBad|6+ GB}} || {{CLGood|May 2011}} || No || {{CLLinux}}{{CLMac}}{{CLWin}}
 |-
 ! bitcoind
-|| [http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/ Download] || Programmers || {{CLGood|Encrypted, on-device}} || {{CLBest|Full}} || Manual || {{CLBad|Hours - days}} || {{CLBad|6+ GB}} || {{CLBest|Aug 2009}} || {{CLGood|Virtual accounts}} || {{CLLinux}}{{CLWin}}
+|| [http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/ Download] || Programmers || {{CLGood|Encrypted, on-device}} || {{CLBest|Full}} || Manual || {{CLBad|Hours}} || {{CLBad|6+ GB}} || {{CLBest|Aug 2009}} || {{CLGood|Virtual accounts}} || {{CLLinux}}{{CLWin}}
 |-
 ! Electrum