Consider upgrade path for existing wallet users

[kyranjamie]

What behaviours should we support for users of the previous wallet versions? @yknl brought this up in an earlier call.

More than likely, we want existing wallet users to be able to seamlessly transition over to this wallet.

[markmhendrickson]

I believe @yknl mentioned recently that we can't push an update dialog to the existing wallet upon open, so there's no way to way to integrate such an upgrade path into existing installs exactly.

I also assume that the existing wallet will simply stuff functioning / start throwing errors upon usage once we switch to 2.0, though perhaps it's not so straightforward as that (@yknl any ideas here?).

We'll update https://wallet.blockstack.org/, of course, to list the new wallet and encourage all existing wallet users to remove the old install and upgrade there. But I'm not sure we need any special information in that context, though perhaps @ryanarndtcm has ideas?

[kyranjamie]

Sure. I was thinking more along the lines of detecting a previous wallet install, and offering a "wallet import" option.

[yknl]

I also assume that the existing wallet will simply stuff functioning / start throwing errors upon usage once we switch to 2.0, though perhaps it's not so straightforward as that (@yknl any ideas here?).

The existing version of the wallet will prevent any transactions from being broadcasted once mainnet 2.0 is live.

In terms of migrating to the new version, there doesn't seem to be a clean way of migrating automatically. The user needs to input a password for the new version in order to encrypt the private key and data. In addition, the private key is never stored on disk in the current version for security reasons. This means the user needs to go through the full onboarding flow again. (This is not necessary for hardware wallet setups)

Another area of concern is the structure of the data persisted by electron store. After updating to the new version, assuming the app will try to read the old persisted data from the same storage location, will it crash due to the incompatible format?

[kyranjamie]

Perhaps it's not that valuable, and we can reasonably expect users to re-enter their seed, but;

Assuming we were to do it, we'd have to find a reliable way of identifying an earlier wallet install. I think it'd be safer to install with a separate software name, as to not risk any overwriting etc, and require an import wallet, then delete old wallet step. electron-store has a version migration feature, which might be handy. Though, owing to this issue of one of its dependencies, we might have to remove it.

Alternatively, we could just display some additional content for users with an existing wallet install. Providing them extra guidance that, firstly, their funds are safe, and then prompting them to restore/reconfirm their wallet with their seed phrase. A great opportunity to make sure they still have it.

[ryanarndtcm]

Kyran, that makes sense to me. The current wallet shows as "open" once installing the seed phrase the first time, and so people believe it's always "logged in" and they can always send their STX. On the year anniversary of purchase, a number of folks appeared in support who had never logged in to their Stacks Wallet other than during the purchase, and they then realized they lost their seed phrase. The current UI makes it seem that its logged in all the time and so its all fine - but that their seed phrase is actually still needed. This is why I think it would be beneficial if people have to enter their seed phrase to view even the public information and once they leave the Stacks Wallet app they are "logged out." I also understand there is a balance in asking them to do it too much as some folks were just fine with it how it is as well.

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On Fri, Sep 18, 2020 at 11:48 AM kyranjamie ***@***.***> wrote: Perhaps it's not that valuable, and we can reasonably expect users to re-enter their seed, but; Assuming we were to do it, we'd have to find a reliable way of identifying an earlier wallet install. I think it'd be safer to install with a separate software name, as to not risk any overwriting etc, and require an import wallet, then delete old wallet step. electron-store has a version migration feature, which might be handy. Though, owing to this issue of one of its dependencies <sindresorhus/conf#126>, we might have to remove it. Alternatively, we could just display some additional content for users with an existing wallet install. Providing them extra guidance that, firstly, their funds are safe, and then prompting them to restore/reconfirm their wallet with their seed phrase. A great opportunity to make sure they still have it. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#245 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AMOV57JK7J5YIYYMDCVES4DSGNXMHANCNFSM4RQVG3MA> .

-- Ryan Arndt Community Support Partner Blockstack PBC

[kyranjamie]

The previous wallet doesn't persis the seed phrase in anyway, so there's little value in detecting whether the previous version was installed. Further, the new wallet will be installed in parallel to the current one. So closing out this issue.