Minor updates to docs including electrum and apt-get list

README.md

@@ -7,7 +7,9 @@ is upgraded for segwit and to be used only for that; to use non-segwit use [0.2.
 
 ### Quickstart
 
-**You need Bitcoin Core to use; get it running first.**
+**For good quality privacy, performance and reliability, Bitcoin Core is required for Makers (yield generators), and recommended for takers (doing coinjoins). Use version 0.15+ ideally; 0.13.1+ required.**
+
+For doing coinjoins (Taker side), you can also run without Bitcoin Core, connecting to Electrum servers.
 
 Once you've downloaded this repo, either as a zip file, and extracted it, or via `git clone`:
 

docs/INSTALL.md

@@ -24,8 +24,7 @@ is actually newer in version number, than what was there already.
 
 To install everything (client and server), install these packages:
 
-    sudo apt-get install python-dev python-pip git build-essential
-    automake pkg-config libtool libffi-dev libssl-dev
+    sudo apt-get install python-dev python-pip git build-essential automake pkg-config libtool libffi-dev libssl-dev
 
 (+ `libsodium-dev` if you can find it, else build after)
 
@@ -85,7 +84,7 @@ In the former case you will need still to install the local packages:
 
 and then edit your `joinmarket.cfg` section `DAEMON`, setting `no_daemon = 0`.
 
-The latter case applies to the Electrum plugin, see [here](https://github.com/AdamISZ/electrum-joinmarket-plugin).
+The latter case applies to the Electrum plugin (not currently operational), see [here](https://github.com/AdamISZ/electrum-joinmarket-plugin).
 
 There, you need to install the client code (without Joinmarket's bitcoin):
 

docs/JOINMARKET-QT-GUIDE.md

@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ You will get the following error screen initially:
 ![](images/JMQrpcfailed.png)
 
 ... because your rpc connection to Bitcoin Core is not set up. A `joinmarket.cfg` file
-has been created in the directory you're running in. Open it and edit:
+has been created in the directory you're running in. If you're running Bitcoin Core, open it and edit:
 
     [BLOCKCHAIN]
     rpc_user = yourusername-as-in-bitcoin.conf
@@ -46,7 +46,9 @@ has been created in the directory you're running in. Open it and edit:
     rpc_host = localhost #default usually correct 
     rpc_port = 8332 # default for mainnet
 
-Once the rpc connection is correct, you will be presented with this start screen:
+If you're not using Core, you can set the value of `blockchain_source` in that section to `electrum-server`.
+
+Once the rpc connection is correct (or using Electrum), you will be presented with this start screen:
 
 ![](images/JMQInitregtest.png)
 

docs/USAGE.md

@@ -3,16 +3,18 @@ followed a manual installation as per [here](INSTALL.md)).
 
 (If you want to run Joinmarket-Qt, start with the [walkthrough](JOINMARKET-QT-GUIDE.md) instead of this.)
 
-### Zeroth step: configuring for Bitcoin Core
+### Zeroth step: configuring for Bitcoin Core (or using Electrum servers).
 
-Until such time as we have a better solution for a light client, Joinmarket only
-realistically supports use with Bitcoin Core to connect to the Bitcoin network.
-The node *can* be pruned.
+It's highly recommended to run Joinmarket using a Bitcoin Core instance to connect to the Bitcoin network,
+and in the case of running a yield generator it's basically required. It gives better privacy, performance
+and reliability.
 
-**Use with another interface to the blockchain should be considered highly experimental
-(and in most cases it doesn't really work, as well as being terrible for privacy). It is not supported at this time.**
+The Bitcoin Core node *can* be pruned.
 
-Configuring Joinmarket for Core is now drastically reduced, since there is no longer any `walletnotify` used.
+To run one or more simple coinjoins without requiring Bitcoin Core, you can set the value of `blockchain_source` in the `[BLOCKCHAIN]` section of `joinmarket.cfg` (see below) to `electrum-server`.
+This will choose servers randomly and should sync the wallet quite quickly (a few seconds), but is not *perfectly* reliable (connections will fail occasionally; just try again).
+
+Configuring Joinmarket for Core is now reduced, since there is no longer any `walletnotify` used.
 
 First thing to do: in `scripts/`, run:
 
@@ -27,6 +29,8 @@ and edit:
     rpc_host = localhost #default usually correct 
     rpc_port = 8332 # default for mainnet
 
+(or, if not using Core, just make the edit mentioned above for `electrum-server`).
+
 Then retry the same `generate` command; it should now not error (see below).
 If you still get rpc connection errors, make sure you can connect to your Core node using the command line first.
 
@@ -40,7 +44,7 @@ BUT: a couple of differences:
 * The layout is also slightly different, but it's the same information.
 * The BIP32 paths look like m/49'/0'/0'/0/000 instead of m/0/0/0/000; that's just a new segwit standard.
 
-(The new standard *should* be compatible with TREZOR, including the 12 word seed; other wallets, mostly not, although standards haven't settled down yet).
+(The new standard *should* be compatible with TREZOR and possibly Ledger, including the 12 word seed; other wallets, mostly not, although standards haven't settled down yet).
 
 ### Second step: Funding the wallet.
 

scripts/README.md

@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ This is the same as in normal Joinmarket.
 
 ### joinmarketd.py
 
-This file's role is explained in the main README in the top level directory. It only
+This file is to be considered experimental for now. It only
 takes two arguments, the port it serves on (default 27183), and whether to use TLS for
 client-server communication (default 0=no tls, 1=tls):