Quote from: running on January 05, 2012, 03:37:27 AM

Quote from: Maged on January 03, 2012, 04:14:28 AM

Quote from: running on January 03, 2012, 12:51:23 AM

Do I have any alternative? Like, say, don't download the blockchain from the deadslow P2P network, but from some "trusted" place like blockexplorer?

Electrum is what you're looking for, then:
http://ecdsa.org/electrum/

This is awesome. I am not sure if I like the strange wallet generation and the fact that I can't import my own wallet.dat, but other than that, I really like this.

Quote from: Stephen Gornick on January 03, 2012, 03:54:07 AM

Or a paper-based wallet -- http://www.bitaddress.org

How does the paper-based wallet work? More exactly - I know I can check the balance on, say, block explorer, but how do I send the bitcoins to someone when I have the private key?

+1 for Electrum thin client. It really rocks with all the functions : fast blockchain no need to download, import private keys!