Bitcoin Forum

Since there is no method to certainly know what BTC address belongs to who and anyone can easily query addresses in the blockchain, I was thinking of how much a rating system would be a good idea. I was thinking of a DB where you could register BTC addresses and then the community could appreciate them by voting. So, registered BTC addresses would have a kind of reputation.

How good this idea you think is? Or we have a system like this already?

Erm I think block.io and even (some addresses) in BC.info denote their owner's name/info(if the owner feels like it).

I don't see anything useful about this. There's way too many possible bitcoin addresses and anyone can easily change theirs at any time. You'll probably only end up with list of bitcoin addresses with the most bitcoins or total received transactions or few notable addresses that can easily be found by a simple google search.

It's a bad one, mainly because of the above two answers and also it could make those valuable addresses that hold many bitcoins a target for hackers and scammers so ditching this rating system will be better.

If people want to prove that they own an address, they can already do this quite easily as it stands.
And like other people have mentioned, there are already websites to check who owns a certain address, by checking where it's mentioned on the internet.

The idea of a reputation system is just flawed imo and could be easily faked or botted.

Too easy/trivial to create a new address.

If an address got a single negative review, it would never be reused.

What is the criteria that would be used to rate the address? Number of transactions, value or something else? What would people actualy vote for?
But like many here have already said you can easily create and use Bitcoin addresses with no limit so I can't see what would be the practical purpose of rating system like this.

Although you could create a new address anytime, it would start as 'untrusted' due to low history. You could use this system with an online shop where clients can rate providers and vice versa, but only if they had a deal with each other in the shop. As a client, you could rate only providers whom you have purchased something from already from the site.

The advice to people is not to reuse addresses, because of privacy reasons.
So tieing a reputation score to bitcoin addresses is pointless.

 The idea of encrypted currency depends on the basis of privacy, with the implementation of your idea Where is the privacy then?

Some websites and BTCTalk profils uses tags on BC.info


I think what OP is trying to do it identifying btc addresses like https://www.netki.com/#/home

No it's not a good idea, because every one could create a new address and start again without worries. A rating system could help people to trust a site/service (for example this address https://blockchain.info/it/address/12c6DSiU4Rq3P4ZxziKxzrL5LmMBrzjrJX belong to Satoshi Nakamoto...) but that's it. Info about addresses are already staked in internet and you can now if there is a link with an user,and even you can't know if a new address could lead to a scam or not :) .

Agree with vod and gaining address trust rating it could be possible to use it for scamming purposes.
we have many addresses and we can make and make more wallet address in one single wallet..
so anytime if we receive bad reputation in this wallet address we can use other wallet address that you can generate..

Where can u generate a cool address?

Really, is it feasible to rank bitcoin addresses for reputation. In my wallet, the address keeps on changing for security reasons. I am just imagining how I will go on doing like that for every address that is generated. if addresses were permanent, then it could be a very good idea.

Hi spendawgs, check this thread about vanity address:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=25804.0

There are also some online services, but the problem arise for the priv key, you are not sure to be the only that have the key so it's a risk save your bitcoin there.

I know about the advice, but I know about also people link their identity/organization to addresses in certain cases. Charities, for example. On a site where the seller person is willing to link his identity to the product/service that he is selling, what is the argument against losing privacy?


Were you writing about blockchain ( . ) info? If so, you could always use your old addresses as well. You may give one of your previous addresses to the seller and you still will see the received funds in your wallet. For your privacy, it is advised to use a new address for each transaction. That is why the site automatically generates them for you. However, you may see my example above to get a case when a person is willing to use the same address with good reason.

I am working on something very similar in the last year :
https://riders.io/
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1381832.0
http://themerkle.com/riders-uses-blockchain-analysis-to-issue-bitcoin-address-ratings/

In Riders, entities with "strong" history on the Blockchain get an High score, that doesn't mean that entities with hard-to-trace history are not reliable, it just says that clarity can reflect reliability on the Blockchain.
The reactions for my product were very interesting, some like it, some hate it.. but tracing the Blockchain and create a reliable scores is very difficult.
Now I am focusing my project on something much more useful, taking the "high" scores and merge them to an API that will help reduce transactions time between entities, also preventing double spends probability.

I call it  w h i t e s t r e a m  ;)
Its still far from being ready, lots of research needed for that, but I am on it..

http://site9209116.92.webydo.com/whitestream.html

Thank you for your reponse! Even if you cannot see the individuals in blockchain, you can see the entities. Entities of high reputation may be considered more reliable than entities with poor reputation (I do not say scammers, but without transaction history of positive feedback). It is like you would do an exchange with an entity that has excellent history on Bitcointalk over someone who has just joined even though you do not know the individuals behind the accounts.

Fungibility of Bitcoin is one of the biggest value propositions it has. When you add a rating mechanism to it, it creates a "I can't accept this Bitcoin, but I can accept this one." That would be detrimental.

The reason why this discussion is in the Project development section instead of the Development & Technical Discussion is that the rating system would run at a higher level than BTC so you, in fact, could ignore the rating and proceed with the BTC transaction. It would expand the information you have about the context instead of taking the feature away.

Of course, understood.

The question is, you or I may ignore it, but some others may not ignore it. Others could decide my addresses, for example, are not trustworthy.

After strong market research I can say that Bitcoin rating system has high demand, especially from the new Bitcoin users, not early adopters Bitcointallk like or some Exchanges that afraid form tax payments..
In the future, when Bitcoin will be more popular, Banks and governments who going to deal with Crypto's will probably have some "trust" mechanism or API for secure transactions, people in the Bitcoin community living in caves and think that Bitcoin gonna stay in the dark forever, you don't understand that rating system or other reputation system don't gonna hurt the decentralization or what Bitcoin achieved so far, you will always be able to use Bitcoin anonymously, but other organization just proffer to work in a more secure ways, that's all..

        

You have optimistic spirit.
Yes it will be good features for any merchant. The possibility scammer also will have a more chance for their action, since the address easily generated.
Anyway how about this rating system will be implement? To the site which listed address? Implement it to blockchain system will be hard way or even impossible.

Seems like a pretty good idea.. But there are always an unlimited amount of bitcoin addresses that can be made, and many can just rate themselves up and up..

I am hearing the problem of starting up where everyone starts as "untrustworthy", but since it would be implemented above the BTC network, for example in an online community, members would have the chance to upload proof and the reponsible Staff could check it so members will have the chance to build up their ratings. For example, you are not forced to link your driver ID to your BTC address, but if you do, that certainly should increase your rating and prevent "rating up yourself" since you have only one valid from certain IDs.

One person can have thousands of addresses. We all all know how easy it is. One click. So you got bad rep ? So what make another address. Won't solve the issue.

It is not necessarily the bad rep that makes an address untrusted. In general, new addresses should be considered riskier than addresses that provenly belong to trusted people. You do not get better appreciated by generating a new address, do you?

Look to this very forum for an example.  People can create unlimited accounts.  Each account starts out as basically untrusted.  If you want to build a reputation, like me, you use the same account and do positive things.  If you are going to build a good reputation, you will build it on your account, not your bitcoin address.

Nothing stops you from scamming.  You scam, get a bad rating, then move on to a new account.

Creating bitcoin addresses is much easier than creating accounts.  Your idea will not work.   :-\

It is exactly what Vod said. It is too much work to create rating system for addresses and goal still won't be reached. So why bother?
I am not against serious rating system in general, but certainly don't want to use it with bitcoin addresses, can we base it on something else?

Would end up having just valid and not used addresses by the moment users would create a new address.
It would be usefull for some e-commerce that use bitcoin but is more up to the platform that is using it.
I don't think it would work but there is something to do in this direction at least to "reward" honest users

What would the ultimate goal be? To create a easy accessible database of user's information linked to their pseudo-anonymous Bitcoin address? The people who would benefit the most out of this, would be the 3letter government agencies and the hackers targetting individuals with money. I am not keen on doing the leg work for these entities, so I would avoid using data collection services like this. Satoshi wanted Bitcoin to be pseudo-anonymous. ^hmmmm^

the idea  to create trust system based on a bitcoin address is not going to work
too easy to create  a new one and not enough personal information included in any btc addy for it to functon as a brand so to say
i.e. if you,supposedly,gain trust and use your one old trusted bitcoin addy forever...how will it help you?
its not like I see a set of numbers and letters and go WOW that is Mr.XXXX addy,so that must be good
besides people like anonymity,connect an address to a person forever and you deprive him of that
not even talking about online "ratings" or polls to determine how trusted that particular addy is...too much hassle

How about if you have one address fro rating and do not use it for transactions. Use if for verifications and ratings only.

Yes, BTC users who have had legit behavioral features for some time would wish to see their honesty appreciated, I think. Alot of people are not afraid to scam because they could easily disappear without consequences. Allowing users to take responsibility will lead them prefer honest behavioral more. Such a system needs a through-out thinking, though so I will leave this project for later. In the meantime, I will think of something else I could base the system on, but which could help improve honesty among crypto users.