Bitcoin Forum

I am using Bitcoin since couple years and of course i am a big fan.

But I experiencenced some inconveniences in daily use, which I want the community to
know about and I have a proposal how to largely mend this inconveniences:

Even for me, as a person which is familiar with computers since decades, its not always easy to deal with Bitcoin. The
main reason for that is: Bitcoin addresses are not handy.

Dealing with 33 digit public keys and with QR tags is difficult for inexperienced users (think of your sisters, mums and grandparents).
If I have a Bitcoin address or a QR of an address on my phone , how to get it easy to my computer or vice versa? If I got a Bitcoin address on paper (without QR tag) how to make it digital, without tipping a lot? For someone without technical understanding tasks like this are like impossible.

This is my proposal:
Every future new Bitcoin wallet address is connected with a pseudonym. So if I get a new address I choose a name for that wallet, which is conected with that wallet address in the block chain. If my mum wants to send BTC to me, she just puts my choosen name for that wallet in the address field of her Bitcoin client. If I want to send BTC to Amnesty International, I put "Amnesty International" on the address field. Miners should ensure that all pseudonyms are unique, and connect them with the according wallet addresses in the blockchain.

Anonymity is is obtained, nobody has to choose his real name.

Today Bitcoin is like the Internet without name severs, just a lot of numbers and letters nobody can remember. I think my proposal would make Bitcoin much more user friendly and succeed much faster.

I ask the developers to think about my proposal.
By the way, I am not a programmer and I dont know about technical feasibility.

What you're proposing is very similar to firstbits (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Firstbits). It's a bad idea for several reasons, listed in the wiki, I see no reason why this shouldn't be done as a separate network, something like namecoin.

I understand you criticism. Still my oppinion is, the system is not hany as it is (se the points listed above).
And I belive in Bitcoin and want Bitcoin to succeed, not Altcoins like Namecoin.

You can use a namecoin-like system to map bitcoin addresses to pseudonyms you desire, without bloating bitcoin itself.

Like this I still can not enter the wallet name as receiver in any wallet client.
I have to use additionl software and set up. That makes things more complicated, not easier.

My oppinion is Bitcoin must be more user friendly to succeed in the masses.
It must be possible to explain how to pay something with Bitcoin in 5 minutes, for any one. Dealing with QR tags and copy+paste addresses is something no all peoples are able to.

And if you add such a feature into bitcoin directly it makes its code more bloated, making it more difficult for developers to re-implement, and also making wallet development harder. Adding the same feature on top of bitcoin layer only makes wallet development harder. In any case if such a feature is so important to you, you will use a wallet that supports it, with any shortcomings it might have but you can live with.

That might be. As I mentioned I am not a programmer.
Just want developers to know this idea and think about. Cause I think it would give BTC a good push.

I dont want that feature for me. I just think it would be great to improve Bitcoin as a system.

I think all here welcome new ideas but there's a reason firstbits didn't catch on - because they have several problems as stated in the wiki and in the end are not that important, at least for the moment.

Complicated handling is the main reason masses are not using Bitcoin.
How can an older person pay in a web shop if shes not able to copy+paste the address? But if the shop displays a simple wallet name, she will be able to.
How can I forward my address to someone (who ive just met offline) without pics of QR tags? Even if I do it with QR tags, how to get that tag as a pic as an address in my wallet client? Of course for us its possible but you have to admit its not esy and quick. For my grandmother its impossible.
If Bitcoin wants to succeed, it has to be easy in handling for every one, like cash.

yeah. some kind of username thing would be awesome indeed. it might bloat the blockchain even more though

In my imagination the additional code in the blockchain looks just like "1561BfPq4HAp8BpE3rDoojyqCgbo3BTvdb=TheOnly1"  ;)
But I fear it is not that easy...

So you still need an address? What's the point then :)

As I am not a programmer, I think the addresses are still needed for the system. But in my oppinion users should not be confronted with addresses and stuff. Just with theyr choosen wallet names.

So nothing else is needed than a possibility to connect a wallet public key with a name. I dont think this is such a difficult and big change in Bitcoin system...

Get it??

If the address is still needed then you have done nothing, because you will still need to get it from somewhere, be it a qr code or another service. It actually is difficult to add this to bitcoin directly, that's why it should be added as another layer on top of it (offload it to wallets directly) using a different blockchain.

Honestly, I have no idea how to realize this.
But I know, the target must be to enter in Blockchain wallet (or any other wallet) receiver field a name. Without installing additional software and without set up anything.

I definitely agree with you that there's possible improvements in term of UX.
On the technical side, I don't think this mechanism should be implemented at the level of bitcoin protocol.

(1) As suggested by prezbo, I guess the schema would be a public referential (like namecoin) with a bitcoin address (or a stealth address for better privacy).

At UX level, it would require that :
(2) wallets interface with this referential to translate a name in an address
(3) there's an easy way to manage your profile

Current state:
(1) already exists
(3) some solutions have appeared (like onename.io (https://onename.io/))
The missing step is (2) which depends on wallets developers. I'm confident that it will happen sooner or later because it sounds like a legit feature.

Setting up a Bitcoin address as "your" Bitcoin address or "account" is a very bad idea.  You should be using a different Bitcoin address for every single transaction.  That is, every time you want someone to send you BTC you should generate a brand new, never been used Bitcoin address for them to use to send you BTC and every time you send someone BTC you should ask for a brand new, never been used address to use to send them BTC.

Rather than go into details I will let you know that someone has just done kind of what you are asking for here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=755051.0

I went into a lot more detail in that thread as to why address reuse is a bad idea.  All my comments there apply equally well here.

Ok, Ive read some of you posts and I pretty much agree. But still my oppinion didnt change. In this case there must be something like an automatism to change the addresses a little bit: I buy at Amazon it shows me a different address (name) all the time: "AmazonBitcoin4678", "AmazonBitcoin4679" and so on. Still possible to remember, possible to write down or to tell it to someone on the phone.

That sounds pretty good to me.