Bitmessage v0.3.0 is available. It is an important release with a new change relevant to everyone.
The most significant change is the move from version 2 to version 3 addresses.
With version 3 addresses, users may set the minimum-Proof-of-Work-difficulty that they require of others in order to receive a message. The network-minimum difficulty is 1 but you may, for example, demand that people who send you messages accomplish a proof of work with a difficulty of 1.5.
Before making new addresses, see the 'Demanded difficulty' tab in the settings menu.
The next new feature is encrypted broadcasts. Broadcasts sent from v3 addresses will now all be encrypted. Broadcasts sent from v2 addresses will remain in clear-text until 2013-05-28 at 10:00 UTC at which time all upgraded clients will automatically switch to using encrypted broadcasts for all addresses.
Note that broadcasts are only encrypted with the address of the person sending them.
Anyone who has the address may read the broadcast. Some people may try to decrypt all broadcasts with all addresses ever seen on the network; this is expected.
The purpose of this feature is to encrypt the data sufficiently well such that unencrypted data will not flow through your Internet connection that you are not actually interested in.
Going forward, all new addresses will be v3 addresses thus it would be wise to upgrade soon so that you may receive messages from new Bitmessage users. v2 and v3 addresses will remain mutually-compatible indefinitely.
The next new feature is Daemon mode which allows Bitmessage to run without a graphical user interface. https://bitmessage.org/wiki/Daemon
You may report issues to the Github issue tracker or by replying to this bitmessage. https://github.com/Bitmessage/PyBitmessage/issues
Users who downloaded the source code with git may use 'git pull origin master' to upgrade.
All the best, Atheros
https://bitmessage.org/
https://github.com/Bitmessage/PyBitmessage

Do I have to be logged in 24-7 to not miss any bitmessages? (or at least once every day)

As long as it is on for a little while once every two days you will never miss messages. If you have it off longer than that the sender of the message will resend it the next time they are online.


You are using Windows. Windows limits the number of outgoing connections which is causing your issue. The newest code, which you will be running on the next release, limits the number of outgoing connections for Windows users to solve the "connection slowness" issue you are feeling. Unfortunately the next version won't connect any faster but at least you won't notice it when it is running.

Interesting you need to leave it running... I supposed this is the same bad news just like when you realize bitcoins make you your own bank and now you have to protect your own assets...

Liberating and empowering, but as the same time risky and burdensome... not for everyone.

This sounds like it makes you your own e-mail server... liberating and empowering, but at the same time burdensome... not for everyone.

Still cool though!

Unlike an email server you only need to connect once every two days to never miss any messages and also you obviously need-not worry about domain names or IP addresses.