Sajolida, please forward this message to s7r.
s7r,
If you do not have any specific ideas for updating the Electrum
documentation, I volunteer to take the lead. Otherwise, you can draft an
updated version of the documentation and I can update where necessary.
The goal is to document Electrum specifically for Tails and not
duplicate the existing Electrum wiki.
Most of the updates like wallet format happen automatically in the
background, so they do not need to be documented. I only recommend
making two additions.
The most obvious change to the user when updating Electrum versions is
that the default base unit changes which can be confusing. No, I do not
think that we should manually change the default base unit with a config
file. That decision should be made upstream. However, users should be
aware that the appearance of their Bitcoin balances changes especially
when sending Bitcoins.
DoS refers to the SPV vulnerability of servers withholding information
from their clients leading to an incorrect balance. Connecting to a
trusted .onion server protects against DoS. Yes, it is not a bug, but it
is a well-known limitation of SPV that is specifically relevant for Tor
users. Pleas read “Bitcoin over Tor is not a good idea”
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1410.6079.pdf .
Cheers,
Michael English
sajolida:
> Michael English:
>> Please see https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/9713 for context.
>>
>> Recommend users to manually select a trusted .onion server to protect
>> against DoS after note about SPV vulnerability.
>>
>> Make a note that Electrum uses mBTC as the default base unit. 1 mBTC =
>> 0.001 BTC. It can be changed in preferences.
>
> Thanks for the input. I'd like to see whoever is working on the update
> to 2.5.4 propose patches to the current documentation [1]. Then I don't
> mind editing and polishing it but I won't have time to do the
> investigation part myself. So thanks for starting it.
>
> - How would people "manually select a trusted .onion server"?
> - Where can people find "a trusted .onion server"?
> - How should our current warning about SPV be adapted?
>
> [1]:
> https://git-tails.immerda.ch/tails/tree/wiki/src/doc/anonymous_internet/electrum.mdwn
>
