Bitcoin Startup KeepKey Ends Support For Multibit Wallet Software

Jul 27, 2017 at 23:00 UTC by Wolfie Zhao

The long-running bitcoin wallet Multibit is being discontinued, the firm that bought it last year has announced.

Dating back to 2011, Multibit was a popular choice among community members, hitting a one-million-downloads milestone in early 2014. And as CoinDesk reported in May of last year, hardware wallet provider KeepKey moved to acquire Multibit for an undisclosed amount that was denominated in bitcoin. The original developers behind Multibit departed the project following the sale.

Just over a year later, KeepKey CTO Ken Hodler has announced the startup will no longer maintain the wallet software.

The reason: the code, according to Hodler, is in dire need of a reworking, especially in the light of an overall increase in network fees as well as forthcoming changes to bitcoin's code aimed at increasing the thoughput of transactions.

He wrote in a blog post yesterday:

"The reality is that Multibit is in need of a lot of work. It has stubborn bugs that have caused us and Multibit users much grief. Additionally, bitcoin has gone through a fundamental change in regards to the way fees work. The addition of SegWit in the coming weeks will mean the Multibit software has fallen still further behind."

Support for the software, Hodler said, will be ending effective immediately, and he suggested that users move their funds to another wallet. He concluded the post by thanking the past developers of the wallet software.

"Multibit was a fantastic piece of software in its time, and we want to thank the Multibit developers for such an important contribution to Bitcoin's history," he wrote.