Bitcoin is going to be big, we predicted way back in 2010. The value of Bitcoin soared from a little over 1 USD in 2011 to a mammoth 1000 USD in 2013. Bitcoin is now a world-wide phenomenon with nearly 100,000 transactions every day. The revolutionary new "internet currency" is changing the world as we know it. Be it any platform, if you want to use Bitcoins, you have to have reliable Bitcoin clients. And here we'll discuss 3 of the best free Bitcoin clients available for Ubuntu (and Linux) and the required steps for installing each one of them.
The biggest priority as far as a Bitcoin user is concerned is security, and MultiBit bitcoin client is a perfect blend of security and functionality. MultiBit is free to download, is very easy to install and is open source (MIT license). It is a very good wallet management software for Bitcoin beginners with many advanced features such as the support for multiple wallets, locally stored encrypted private keys etc. Do the following to install MultiBit in Ubuntu.
Armory is a Bitcoin wallet management platform which is designed from the ground up to provide the highest level of security to savvy Bitcoin users. It is intended for the super-paranoid among you, who don't like to take any chances when it comes to Bitcoin management.
Apart from the usual set of features like support for multiple wallets and such, Armory has many advanced functionalities like offline wallets, built-in dialog for printing permanent copies of your wallet, three different user modes for beginners and advanced users alike and so on. The only draw-back is the fact that, Armory needs either bitcoin-qt or bitcoind (bitcoin-qt without GUI) to work, which inturn translates into significant disk-space usage. According to the Armory devs, it is not possible to remove this dependency without compromising on the security and privacy that Armory currently offers.
Armory is open-source (licensed under the AGPL V3) and it's available for free download and use. Luckily for Ubuntu users, well tested DEB packages are available for easy installation of Armory Bitcoin client.
And then there's Bitcoin-Qt, the official Bitcoin client which acts as the backbone of Bitcoin's network security. As we noted earlier, a client like Armory needs Bitcoin-Qt or its headless counterpart in order to run properly. Since Bitcoin-Qt is run by the majority of the nodes, it is well-maintained, thoroughly tested and reviewed, and has fool-proof security. Though the functionalities are more basic when compared to Armory or MultiBit.
The biggest priority as far as a Bitcoin user is concerned is security, and MultiBit bitcoin client is a perfect blend of security and functionality. MultiBit is free to download, is very easy to install and is open source (MIT license). It is a very good wallet management software for Bitcoin beginners with many advanced features such as the support for multiple wallets, locally stored encrypted private keys etc. Do the following to install MultiBit in Ubuntu.
- Download the latest MultiBit installer for Linux (No direct links for your own safety).
- Open Terminal (CTRL + ALT + T) and CD into your Downloads folder.
cd ~/Downloads/
- Make the downloaded file executable.
chmod +x multibit-0.5.16-linux.jar
- Now, to install MultiBit, you need to have the latest Java version installed.
sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jdk
- Done. Now let's do the installation. Copy-paste the following command into Terminal.
java -jar multibit-0.5.16-linux.jar
- An installation wizard will pop up walking you through the required steps. Finish it and you're ready to go. MultiBit installation has been completed successfully.
Armory is a Bitcoin wallet management platform which is designed from the ground up to provide the highest level of security to savvy Bitcoin users. It is intended for the super-paranoid among you, who don't like to take any chances when it comes to Bitcoin management.
Apart from the usual set of features like support for multiple wallets and such, Armory has many advanced functionalities like offline wallets, built-in dialog for printing permanent copies of your wallet, three different user modes for beginners and advanced users alike and so on. The only draw-back is the fact that, Armory needs either bitcoin-qt or bitcoind (bitcoin-qt without GUI) to work, which inturn translates into significant disk-space usage. According to the Armory devs, it is not possible to remove this dependency without compromising on the security and privacy that Armory currently offers.
Armory is open-source (licensed under the AGPL V3) and it's available for free download and use. Luckily for Ubuntu users, well tested DEB packages are available for easy installation of Armory Bitcoin client.
- Installation of Armory in Ubuntu is rather simple. Download the appropriate DEB file.
- And double-click to install it. Ubuntu Software Center will do the rest. Before installing though, I would recommend you to verify the authenticity of the downloaded Armory DEB package by following the instructions given in the download page.
- And that's it. Armory is installed and ready to go. More Armory download options.
And then there's Bitcoin-Qt, the official Bitcoin client which acts as the backbone of Bitcoin's network security. As we noted earlier, a client like Armory needs Bitcoin-Qt or its headless counterpart in order to run properly. Since Bitcoin-Qt is run by the majority of the nodes, it is well-maintained, thoroughly tested and reviewed, and has fool-proof security. Though the functionalities are more basic when compared to Armory or MultiBit.
- To install the latest stable version of Bitcoin-Qt (0.8.6 ie.) in Ubuntu, you need to add the following PPA. Do the following in Terminal.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bitcoin/bitcoin sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install bitcoin-qt
- Done. Launch Bitcoin-Qt from Unity dash. More Bitcoin-Qt download options.