Im using Version 3.13. Is this app downloading the blockchain to my phone to sync?

I was just about to use it (the latest version), but on the send page, there was nowhere to input a fee amount.  It was a small transaction and I didn't want it in limbo so I used another app.  Where the heck do I type in the fee amount??

Can you still have an option to change it though?  And maybe just a pop-up warning about changing it?

I very much want to be able to control the fee myself.

Because that's part of the entire purpose of bitcoin: control.  Maybe I want to donate more to the miners because I feel like supporting the network.  Maybe I am connected to a single trusted node that I know relays dust and mines for a pool that includes dust in blocks, and I want to send a no-fee dust transaction that I know will take a long time to confirm but I want to send it anyway.

The point is that while I may know what the network may or may not accept, I still want to ability to have the final say in what I do.  Isn't that the whole point of bitcoin?  For the user to have the final say on how he uses his money?

I'd much rather have a warning that says "You might fuck this up, don't say I didn't warn you" but still lets me do it.  Maybe like an option in the settings menu that's turned off by default but can be enabled and shows that pop-up warning when enabled.

The problem with "just that option" is that it adds to the overall complexity of the app. Needs to be tested, maintained and supported. There is already far too many special cases. So generally I'm trying to remove options that are not needed any more.

My overall focus on the app is safety and being easy to use. I do not priorize rather specific needs of power users. I think those are better off using specialized tools. That said, maybe someone should start a branch of the app aimed at power users? It's all open source.

The "single trusted node" model is not supported - it's missing authentication. Including dust in blocks is something I don't want to encourage or support at all. Rather than donating via the transaction fee why don't you just use a separate transaction?

Support for the algorithm has been merged for bitcoinj 0.10, which I think will be released shortly. However, it does not yet contain any wallet integration. I hope (but cannot know) that integration will happen in bitcoinj 0.11. At about the same time, I will try to roll first previews of HD wallets in Bitcoin Wallet. For a release, some more plumbing needs to be done, for example adapting the backup format.

I'd say its at least 2-3 months away. But don't take my word for it.

Rates are taken from Bitcoincharts, and if that's not available blockchain.info. Its refreshed every 10 minutes.

What do you want to do manually?

It's a weighted average. In case of Bitcoincharts and USD, it's weighted both over time (24h) and 13 exchanges:

http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/currency/USD.html

I think what it might be beneficial if some of you guys fork the project, or pay someone to do it for you.

There is a growing pile of feature requests here that are basically pointless, but a small number of people feel very strongly about, like being able to explicitly set fees or control the precise times the app runs.

It's fine to say "it should only start when I want it to start" or "the point of bitcoin is control" but that feedback is nonsensical. These aren't reasons, they're emotions. Just plug your phone in and watch adb logcat for a while, you'll see your phone is always doing lots of things in the background. This is really common and normal behaviour for Android smartphones. If you're bothered by the connection bars in your tray, go into settings and disable that so you don't see any evidence it's connecting, done.

If app developers don't push back on this kind of request, you end up with this:

  http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/11/this-is-what-happens-when-you-let-developers-create-ui.html

A setting for everything, but I just want to send my money!

A "Bitcoin Wallet for Experts" app might be appropriate. You could use the same codebase and add whatever features anyone wants.

Forget about all those trivial issues above.  I think this is a much more important issue to discuss:


Technical discussion of this specific issued moved to here:  https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/271486.0