Build it with me: Bitcoin wallet for Mac

by niico on 5/31/2013, 11:26 PM with 32 comments
  • by msarnoff on 6/1/2013, 12:57 AM

    If you do decide to build this app, I would highly recommend making it open-source. Properly building a custom-skinned OS X app is not easy. Compared to UIKit on iOS, which was built from the ground up to support animation and appearance customization, AppKit is a dinosaur.

    When subclassing controls, you'll encounter AppKit bugs, things that can't be skinned without overriding private methods, and inconsistencies between OS versions. The animation APIs are woefully inadequate, especially if you need to support 10.7 or 10.6. (over two-thirds of the install base as of January, according to [1])

    If done well, the source code would be a valuable resource to the Mac developer community. Custom-styled desktop experiences are becoming the new norm, yet building them remains somewhat of a black art.

    [1] http://www.cultofmac.com/208455/os-x-mountain-lion-now-accou...

  • by jethroalias97 on 6/1/2013, 12:27 AM

    I expect people would be reluctant to use a client not sanctioned by bitcoin.org officially, although I'm not sure how difficult that is. It may be as simple as sending an email to get them to add it to the list.

    I would think that any new bitcoin wallet could be introducing a substantial security risk before it has been extensively field tested. If someone where to sneak some code in, or even just screw up a security protocol, all the stored bitcoins would be at risk.

    1) http://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

    2) https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Wallet

  • by nwh on 6/1/2013, 12:16 AM

    I'm struggling to feel enthusiastic about this one, it seems to be designed more to just do something with Bitcoin, rather than provide any actual innovation.

  • by ianpurton on 6/1/2013, 12:32 PM

    Hi niico,

    This looks a lot like https://www.strongcoin.com but with a dashboard. I will probably add this kind of functionality too. (I own strongcoin)

    But to build your app, I recommend you take the code for http://carbonwallet.com which is already available on github and submit a pull request for a dashboard like you have in your post.

    CarbonWallet is already available as a chrome application, and the logic is tried and tested.

  • by jbaudanza on 6/1/2013, 12:27 AM

    Maybe throw the code up on github?

  • by gesman on 6/1/2013, 12:51 AM

    I agree with you that most bitcoin wallets are either look ugly or are hackable online wallets maintained by third party.

    Among all I tried I like Electrum the most for it's speed and it's deterministic nature, i.e. the whole wallet can be fully recovered from passphrase, instead of regular backups.

  • by on 6/1/2013, 12:15 AM

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  • by question-all on 6/1/2013, 1:55 AM

    Are there no existing mac bitcoin wallets?

  • by brvs on 6/1/2013, 3:56 AM

    This will be useful to all the people who buy useful items and do practical things with bitcoins. Thank you!

  • by on 6/1/2013, 12:10 AM

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  • by kmasters on 6/1/2013, 9:03 AM

    There are a lot of issues around bitcoin and seeking to build a pretty interface to it addresses none of them.

    One of my objections to bitcoin is the suggestion that I use Tor to mask my IP to keep my actual IP from occurring in the blockchain.

    I think if you are telling users to use Tor to "stay safe" thats a problem already.

    Second, "balance" information from your wallet is also stored in the blockchain.

    Thats comforting, an IP address combined with how much bitcoin I possess. We have seen where that ended up more than once. Why not just paint a target on my forehead?

    Cold storage is one solution to backing up your bitcoin and keeping it offline until needed.

    Needing to "create a new bitcoin address" for every transaction, also fishy.

    I would rather someone build a solution to bitcoins defiencies than see a pretty screen.