Quote from: bosian on December 27, 2013, 09:58:26 PM

Quote from: KleinMatthias on December 27, 2013, 09:40:35 PM

Hi,

Since not all users of this coin are as active as you are, may I ask for a feature in a future wallet version?

Please implement one of the following features:
1) an autoupdate feature which automatically keeps the QT updated without the user doing anything (or with the user just clicking an "update" button which only appears when new updates are available - but where the entire update process is done automatically)
2) a notification feature where the user can enter his eMail address into the wallet and the wallet sends him an eMail when a new version is available? That requires - of course - that the wallet has a way to check for updates. But since Microsoft/Apple/Adobe/andalltheothers can do it, so can you :-)
3) (for those who don't even run their QT all the time) a notification feature where the user can enter his eMail address into the wallet and the wallet sends that eMail address plus its own version information to a central server of yours which then sends out an eMail when a new software version is available. And which sends a warning eMail when a mantatory update has to be performed.

Naturally, as of today, the Cryptocurrency-community has been very active but with the price explosion of the Bitcoin last month, more and more "normal users" will enter the market.
They will not keep their wallet running all the time.
They will not check the forum all the time.
But they might spend hard cash on buying this coin at an exchange and then send it over to their wallet. As a community, we even need that kind of passive user - and we need their money buying this coin.
And when they find ways to spend or donate the coin, they will. And for that purpose they will open their wallets - but not in between.

Having said this, I personally prefer feature (3) because it has a few advantage over the other 2:

It keeps even those "passive" users in the loop that do not run their wallet regularily.
That way, if a really important change has to be made (e.g. a new blockchain), even those users won't lose their money because they get a notification. Think of the bad publicity when "normal users" start losing their money because they simply ignored their wallets for months only to find them not working anymore because weeks before, a new blockchain or equally invasive measure was introduced without them knowing.
That feature can be extended for marketing purposes: add a checkmark "the makers of this coin are allowed to send me exciting news about this coin yaddayaddaya" - and voila you get yourself a free marketing database with tons of eMail addresses that you can use to keep engaging your users. Notify them of new shops where they can pay with this currency. Notify them of faucets. Notify them of exchanges that trade this coin. Notify them of the rise in value of that coin. And so on. Just keep engaging even the passive users - because to make a currency successful, you need every hand and every dollar you can get.

You guys and all the other professionals or those that have privacy concerns won't use that feature - and should never be required to do so. But the regular passive user will get that fuzzy feeling that he will be informed of important stuff without him spending much time checking bitcointalk or their wallets. And that will give him extra confidence when it comes to him spending the coin or buying the coin with his FIAT.

Just a few additional remarks:

Naturally, the best possible combination would be (3) with (1) where the users gets a "move your ass and update your wallet or else..." eMail (friendly version, of course) - and then he opens the wallet and clicks on the "update" button and that's it for him.
May be the required serverside portion (the thing that collects all version information and the eMail addresses and which also allows for sending out mass eMails to all users in that database) could be written in a generic way so that other virtual currencies can implement that feature, too?
May be, future wallets should have a default setting that causes them to run in the background as a service whenever the computer starts. That way, even many passive users will contribute to the P2P network without them even knowing. But that was just a sideline remark and describes a completely different feature request. But then again, while you are at it... :-)

Don't know. What do you guys think about that feature request?
Does anyone second that request?
Does anyone have a better idea how to solve the above mentioned challenges that this new species of regular, passive users will introduce in the weeks and months to come?

Thanks
Matt
_{GRA: 96cLQrQu9kYYMCn1cHEMsaiUDDuC9vnF8P}

P.S. Just a full disclosure: I have posted this same feature request to the thread of some other cryptocurrencies as well.

Thanks for your great suggestions. But the key features of the crypto coins are (a) anonymous (b) de-centralized
with email associated with wallet you violate (a) and in order for updates you need a centralized place to announce the new version. So I am not sure on these...

We will read in more detail your suggestions, since it is pretty long and detail. Thanks again for your great suggestions, and I sent some tips to you.

Thanks for your friendly reply.
Yes, the issue (or rather: paradigm) you mentioned is clear to me - and I value anonymity and the de-centralized approach. But there are a few points that I would like to say about that:
1. Such update feature / notification feature should NEVER be mandatory, only optional for the type of User I mentioned who will gladly give up part of anonymity for convencience / peace of mind
2. The network itself will remain de-centralized. Most coins already have a centralized approach when it comes to software-distribution, though: GitHub or their homepage. So an autoupdate-feature would not change that
3. if the wallet actually only transfers the eMail-address + the QT version (and not addresses etc.), the anonymity is not much less than in e.g. this forum. Many people use their real names (I do, for example), many post their addresses, some use their regular eMail addresses etc. I am almost sure that if somebody would do a big datamining trying to find personal information on a given user account (whose coin address is known because he used e.g. a giveaway thread), he would most likely succeed. So in theory, Cryptocoins can be anonymous, but in real life they are rather pseudonomous. And even that is weakened by every piece of information users leave of themselves in the www. So such notification feature doesn't really change much here - as long as (1) remains valid.

Thanks again