Edit of original post:
After a lot of discussion and reading on the numerous standard and rules of Fedora packaging I’ve decided to not go forward with this project. I’m really sad, I think it’s a great idea but the main problem is with all the rules and guideline I have to follow while packaging MEW/mycrypto and other wallets. I cannot include dependency in a single package, so just for mew/mycrypto I had to package all the node dependency and the list was crazy.
I could be doing it anyway and not being part of the fedora project but it would mean people using my spin would have to trust me 100% for not tampering with code or anything inside the OS. So I know I wouldn’t put that amount of trust into someone I don’t know, why would you ? Anyway you shouldn’t! So it’s on hold for now, I’ll follow the guideline updates few folks told me there could be some adjustment soon regarding the kind of dependency I had in my packages..
If anyone reading this have experience in packaging in Fedora and think they can help I would be more than happy to revive this project. Send me an email at arsenick@fedoraproject.org
It’s been a long time since my last post here. A lot of things have changed and getting older with more responsibility mean less time to play around and update my internet life!
So a little recap of the last year for my digital life, I’m now a full time Openstack administrator and a lot of my time last year has been used to learn about the Openstack platform and read about blockchains and distributed ledger technology. I really liked the connection blockchain made with the opensource and the decentralized and fair way of doing things.
With Crypto you are responsible for your own security, the blockchain is deemed secure, but you have to handle and keep your private key in a safe place. That’s the weak point for most people, this and not sending eth to scammer impersonating vitalik on twitter…
So here I am, and here’s my new project, MyLiveCrypto. The idea is pretty simple, a readonly Live Fedora spin with CryptoCurrency wallet already installed. Anybody running windows could reboot their PC/Laptop, boot into the live image and at the very least they won’t have to worry about getting their private key stoled by a virus or a malware. I understand that using this spin put the trust on the creator, I don’t have yet a good way to mitigate this but as the project advance I hope to find ways of being transparent enough so other people could look into the details and verify everything.
This is the first draft so I would like to have comments and idea, here’s a recap of the main feature I aim for the V0.1 release, this is gonna be a small start as I have to learn the spin process and create few packages, follow fedora guideline etc…
- Live image with graphical desktop
- Firefox and Brave already installed
- Basic packaging of MEW and MyCrypto. The first release will only contain Ethereum wallet.
- Basic packaging for a local version of ethaddress.org offline paper wallet generator (https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/3jz85n/ethaddressorg_paper_wallets_for_ethereum/)
- Basic packaging of offline paperwallet generator for Bitcoin (https://github.com/pointbiz/bitaddress.org)
- Basic rebrand of the visual of background and plymouth splash screen
- Documentation with best practice, hint and rule of thumb regarding the use of the live image. I want this to open automatically when the X Session start.
Todo for V0.2
- Find a way to pre-install few browser extensions, metamask, Cryptonite, EtherAddressLookup
- Make few posts on reddit to see what people think of the ideas and create a poll to see which wallet should I add into the distro for other blockchain
- Add more Ethereum wallet.
- Add more Bitcoin wallet.
- Try to see if Parity could be installed, with geth 1.8 fast sync on a usd key to provite a metamask alternative ?
Ideas for later
- Grub menu with a selection for booting completely offline to generate transaction with “offline wallet” (at least MEW or MyCrypto).
- Offer easy usb key encryption to store private keys. Careful with the FS used, people might want to read this key on windows.
- Package and install Ledger wallet desktop app once it’s released.
- Look into different solution to verify the integrity of the live image.
That’s it for now, I’ll update this blog when I reach certain milestone, like completing a package etc.. For now I’m working to generate a basic live media image, once everything work as I’d like to and I’m comfortable with the process, I’ll put more work into the MEW and MyCrypto packaging.
Let me know if you are interested in the project!
Arsenick Blog 