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FAQ
Hive is a fully native Mac application, written in ObjC using Apple's frameworks, so writing a version for a different platform would mean basically writing a whole new app from scratch, sharing only the same name. We don't have any plans to do that.
For mobile users, we've built Hive Web. It's an HTML5 wallet that runs in your browser (note: it's not a web wallet like Coinbase - the keys are only kept locally in your browser). It should run on most modern browsers, though we've only released it recently and we didn't have time to test it everywhere yet.
Hive Web is also available as an iOS app on the App Store and an Android app on Google Play store.
There's also an older version of Hive for Android which was a fully native app based on the Schildbach wallet; however, we don't recommend using it anymore since it won't be maintained.
It's possible, but it would require a lot of work.
I've downloaded Hive, but it doesn't open. The icon just appears in the dock and disappears immediately.
You probably need to install Java first. You should be getting an error message telling you about that, but for some reason it sometimes doesn't appear. Try to install Java from here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572
The backend part (wallet management, network connections etc.) is handled by bitcoinj, which is a Java library. We've chosen it because it was (and probably still is) the most mature SPV implementation of a Bitcoin client. The UI is completely native though, written in ObjC using Apple's SDKs and frameworks.
We're planning to bundle a lightweight Java version inside Hive to make this easier, but we don't know when this will be ready.
- Make sure you've moved any bitcoins you had in the wallet to another address :)
- If you've used any apps from the "Applications" page, especially ones accessing remote services like Bitstamp or Coinbase, then:
- open Tools > Debugging Tools and run the "Clear application data" action
- log in to your accounts on those services and revoke access to them for Hive
- Delete the
~/Library/Application Support/Hivedirectory. - Delete the
~/Library/Preferences/com.hivewallet.Hive.plistfile. - Delete
Hive.app.
Hive is an SPV client, so it only downloads block headers - like e.g. Multibit or Electrum. This should take between a few minutes and half an hour depending in your connection and machine.
If you're worried that something's wrong with the sync, open the Tools > Debugging Tools dialog, and at the bottom of it there's a progress bar that shows the sync progress.
Right now you can't. We're planning to switch to a BIP32 HD wallet soon (#106), that will make it possible to generate new addresses for each transaction, and potentially also dividing the coins into subwallets.
The change goes back to the same address. Once we switch to an HD wallet, we'll be able to generate new addresses for the change.
You can't, the fee is calculated automatically by bitcoinj and can't be changed. Currently it's 100 bits for most transactions.
There is no import feature at the moment. As for exporting the wallet, you should be able to open the Hive wallet file in other bitcoinj-based wallets like Multibit (look for a bitcoinkit.wallet file inside Hive's Application Support folder). Warning: opening the wallet file in Multibit makes it unreadable for Hive, so make a copy of it first and open the copy in Multibit.
You can also export the private key to a file.
It's theoretically possible but it's not something we officially support. You could achieve this by manually copying the Hive data folder to another computer (though things like your contact list and transaction metadata won't be synced).
We don't have any plans to add such feature at the moment. Try Electrum or Armory if you want to create a cold storage.
We aren't planning to support any other cryptocurrencies in the OS X wallet. However, Hive Web is build to support any number of them - it currently supports Litecoin, and more are coming soon.
You set the password in the welcome wizard dialog that you go through at the beginning when you start Hive for the first time. On the second page of the wizard, you have to enter the password twice (you can always change it later by choosing Wallet -> Change Password from the menu, but you have to know the old password). If Hive is asking you for the password somewhere, it means you must have already set the password in the welcome wizard.
You can't. If you lose the password, you lose access to your money. None of your data is stored on any remote server controlled by us, the wallet is only stored on your computer in an encrypted form, so if there was any way to unlock the wallet without knowing the password, this means anyone with access to your computer could do that. The whole point of the password is to make sure that only the person who knows the password (i.e. you) can do anything with your Bitcoins - but this means you HAVE to know the password to access them.
Two-factor authentication in the traditional sense (SMS codes) doesn't make sense in a desktop wallet, since all your data is kept on your own computer, not somewhere on our server. That said, we'd love to add support for Trezor at some point in the future, which would have a similar effect for security, but we don't have any roadmap for this yet.
The only thing that's actually encrypted in the wallet file is the private key. It's encrypted with a symmetric AES key generated on the fly from the password you enter using Scrypt algorithm. When you enter the password later, Hive generates the AES key again and decrypts the private key temporarily in memory.
All the wallet management code, including encryption/decryption algorithms, is provided by bitcoinj, a popular Java Bitcoin library written by Mike Hearn and used in multiple wallet apps.
It's probably as safe as you can get with a desktop wallet. We all keep some of our bitcoins in our Hive wallets, and some of us use it every day to make transactions. That said, you need to make sure that your password is reasonably complex, but also that you don't forget it - remember, if you forget the password, we won't be able to help you.
It's also not recommended to keep any significant sums of money in any hot wallet (whether it's online or desktop-based) - with a desktop wallet, there's always the risk of getting your computer compromised with a malware. If you have a lot of bitcoins, move some of them to a cold storage.
By default it's saved in ~/Dropbox/Hive-xxxxx, where xxxxx is a prefix of your address. If you have an Apps folder inside your Dropbox folder, then it's saved there instead. The backup folder contains two files: bitcoinkit.wallet (wallet data, including the encrypted private keys) and Hive.storedata (database with things like contacts and transaction info).
Important: the wallet file in the backup is encrypted with the same password as the original wallet file, so if you forget the password, the backup won't help you (but this also means your coins can't be stolen by just hacking your Dropbox account, which unfortunately happens sometimes).
If you want to do that, hold the Alt key when clicking the "Enable" button in the Backup Center - then you will see a save file dialog where you can set the location for the Dropbox backup.
Something went wrong with my wallet, but the Dropbox backup is done at startup so it has overwritten my old backup...
Dropbox stores all previous versions of files for at least a month. Open the backup folder in Finder, find the bitcoinkit.wallet file, right-click it and select "View Previous Versions" - this should open your Dropbox account in the browser and show you at least a few previous versions of the wallet file. You can then revert to any of the old versions.
The Hive data folder is kept in ~/Library/Application Support/Hive, and it's best to back up the whole folder. The most important file is BitcoinJ.network/bitcoinkit.wallet, it's the wallet file that keeps your private keys - this is the only thing that's absolutely required to get your coins back.
It's not possible to do that from the UI yet. You'll need to create a Hive folder manually in ~/Library/Application Support and copy the files from the backup into that folder. Then start Hive, and it should detect the existing wallet and send you straight to the main window without going through the welcome wizard (note: you'll have to wait a bit for it to resynchronize with the Bitcoin network again).
Right now this it's not possible to do this from the UI. If you're determined, you might be able to do that using Mike Hearn's Bitcoinj wallet tool. You should also be able to import Hive's wallet file into Multibit (since they both use bitcoinj behind the scenes, so the file format is the same) and export the key from there. Warning: opening a wallet in Multibit makes it unreadable for Hive, so make a copy of the wallet file first and then open that copy in Multibit.
If you're experiencing any issues with our third-party apps, please contact their support mail.
- Betcoin (Circle, Dice, Prize): https://www.betcoin.tm/support
- Feed the Children: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=300631.120
- Mobile Recharge: support@piiko.com
- SatoshiRat: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=283054.100
It means Hive is unable to connect to the Bitcoin network for some reason. Check your network connection, and make sure you can connect to the Internet from other applications (e.g. in the browser). If all other apps seem to work fine, then it might be your firewall - Hive connects to other Bitcoin peers on port 8333, so your system must allow connections on this port. You can also check the newest log file in ~/Library/Logs/Hive, there should be some error messages at the end that might give you some clues.
This is a workaround for a problem that happens sometimes, Hive just needs to resynchronize with the Bitcoin network. This should take several minutes (up to half an hour), and when it's done everything should be back to normal. To avoid further problems, try not to send any transactions until it's finished (you can track the progress by checking the progress bar in the Tools > Debugging Tools dialog).
If you want to help us fix this, please send us the log files from ~/Library/Logs/Hive to macsupport@hivewallet.com.
Make sure you have a reliable connection when making a transaction. Try restarting your Hive app and wait for 10-20 minutes. It should confirm the transaction after the standard confirmation time.
See: Sending Bitcoin from a pending transaction.
Try checking from the app store if that certain app you have needs to be updated. Check also if you have a reliable connection. If not, please let us know and we can do something about it.
In the latest version of Hive, you can go to Tools > Debugging Info and click the "Open log directory" button at the bottom.
Otherwise:
- Open Finder > select "Go", hold Alt and click "Library".
- Open "Logs" directory and then "Hive".
- There should be some files there named e.g.
Hive 2014-xxxxxx.log. If you're having some kind of problem, send us those.