Bitcoin Forum

A new version of namecoin is available ! :)

Project : http://dot-bit.org/
Files : http://dot-bit.org/files/

Improved performances :

* New index for names, created at first startup
* Faster name_scan (3x)
* Faster name_list (11x !)

New rpc commands :

* sendtoname : sendtoname <namecoinname> <amount> [comment] [comment-to]
- allow you to send namecoin to last owner of a name

* name_show : name_show <name>
- show only one name (same as name_scan "xx" 1) or nothing of name is not found

* name_filter : name_filter [regexp] [maxage=36000] [from=0] [nb=0] [stat]
- filter names with regular expressions, height of a name (to get only names from last X blocks), to count names, etc
Examples :
* list all unexpired names
namecoind name_filter

* list all names in the d/ namespace
namecoind name_filter "^d/" 0

* list names modified last 150 blocks
namecoind name_filter "^d/" 150

* count names modified last 150 blocks
namecoind name_filter "^d/" 150 0 0 stat

* list 20 names from number 100
namecoind name_filter "" 0 100 20

Other

* name_scan now only returns the minimum of data (8MB instead of 16MB)
* if index of names (nameindexfull.dat) is deleted, it'll be recreated at startup.
* default rpc port updated to not conflict with bitcoin
* config file renamed to namecoin.conf (it's never too late...). Still works with original name. Same for pid file.


Some really useful changes !
NamecoinToBind (https://github.com/khalahan/NamecoinToBind) will be updated soon to benefit from this.

Check it out !  :P

Is this supposed to be in alt coin ?  ::)

Hum, possible (i've an old habit to post here :p). Could someone move it if it fits better in Alt coin ?

Did you test namecoin ? :p

Wow, I thought it was mostly dead. Glad to see Namecoin still being worked on.
Are there any plans to make the jump to the 0.6.x bitcoin sources?

EDIT: Also, what about Windows support for this newest version?

No, namecoin is not dead. There is still a lot of work done, on a lot of external tools (proxies, bridges, dns servers, etc) needed for all this to work. And it's not finished :). So, that's why there was no new namecoin releases (most of work done on other things). But, using it day to day was a bit frustrating, so, i've written some code to reduce my frustration :p

You can currently browse .bit easily, with Foxyproxy for example : http://dot-bit.org/How_To_Configure_Foxyproxy. But, you must trust my server, so, that's not perfect for everybody.
Our next step is to provide an easy tool to do the same on your computer (like the namecoin bundle (http://dot-bit.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=349)).


Rebasing namecoin on bitcoin 0.6.x will be done by vinced if nobody else is volunteer. But, vince is almost disappeared... so any help is welcome.

For the windows build, i've contacted twobits, who built the previous versions. If some body else want to provide binaries for windows and mac, they are welcome too.

For sure, we don't have as much developers as bitcoin :p

Hello khal, I wonder if you could give us your opinion on point number five below:


It seems that here is an opportunity for namecoin to make itself useful for bitcoin and gain wider adoption. What do you think?

The alias feature is mentioned in the BIP 0015 (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0015) and has been discussed on the bitcoin development mailing list.
I think Namecoin is the perfect solution for aliases because it relies on no external server (no dns server, no forced external service, etc), benefits from the blockchain advantages and would be very easy to add into bitcoin.

PS : BIP 0015 page is locked, so it's not possible so add Namecoin to the list.

But here is the the summary :
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Talk:BIP_0015#Namecoin_aliases

And the Alias specification for Namecoin :
http://dot-bit.org/Namespace:Aliases

If it were to be added to Bitcoin then it would have to go through the BIP process which doesn't seem easy to me, but I understand that you meant it would be easy from a programming standpoint. I think it would be much easier to implement it first in Namecoin as a proof of concept. Can you do this?

There is a similar feature in this release of namecoin : sendtoname.
You can send namecoins to a name owner. It first gets the address associated with a name and then send coins to this address.

But, adding name_getjson function would be a more complete proof of concept indeed.

For example, you could have this alias registered :

And bitcoin would query it like that :
and namecoin :
The namecoin client can propose to select "khal donation" or "khal default". If default is selected, one is chosen randomly.

The current draft for bitcoin/namecoin aliases (https://dot-bit.org/Namespace:Aliases) says it can return several labels and several addresses. I don't know if this is really useful or not.

What do you think ?

watching

Great!

Long live namecoin ! Will instal later when home.

I've thought about it for a little while and here are my high-level suggestions (I'm not a programmer and my understanding of Namecoin is limited):

* Only allow e-mail addresses to be registered as aliases and verify that the person who registers it has access to it. This can be automated like most mailing lists do. It is necessary to provide this basic level of security to prevent Bulanula from associating his wallet address with gavin@acm.org, for example.

* Make it independent of any coin (except Namecoin, obviously). Leave it up to the user to decide which coins to use and provide a secure data structure that any coin (existing or yet to be invented) can query to associate an e-mail address with a wallet address. While this feature isn't implemented by other coins it should still be possible to query Namecoin manually to list all the addresses for gavin@acm.org so that the right one can be copied and pasted into the client.

* Allow the aliases to be modified quickly in case somebody loses his wallet or changes his e-mail address. Also make sure that people get notified early on when it is necessary to renew their alias to keep it in the blockchain.

Is this possible?

If you want a feature to add existing email addresses and to ckeck if someone really owns it, you insert control and you want someone else to control a registered alias. This is not possible in namecoin because there is no central control (and it must be like that for security reasons !).
What you can do is :
- adding alias with .bit domains, for example : khal@dot-bit.bit or khal@tor.bit
- adding alias with a namecoin mark : khal25@namecoin, manu44@namecoin, khal25@alia
- adding alias without domains : khal25, manu44

This is the case. One registration allows you to associate any kind of data (bitcoin address, namecoin, msn/jabber/xmpp email, nickname, gpg key, website, etc) with a unique "word". See it as an identity manager.

Namecoin works like bitcoin. If you loose your wallet, you loose your keys, you loose you alias (but you have the time to give another one to people you know before it expires. Somebody can still query you and send you bitcoin for example).
What you can do is send the private key/wallet somewhere : on you mail address for example :p

Not the way you imagine it, but yes, it is possible :p

I know it would be convenient to use existing emails addresses but it is only possible if 1 person control the system. Are you sure you really want 1 person controlling 10'000 bitcoin addresses ?

I see. No problem, it simply means that we have to make sure that we use the correct alias, just like we do with phone numbers and e-mail addresses.


How about #Khal#, #Gavin.Andresen#, or #Bitinvestor# as pattern for the aliases? It would be easily recognized as a payment address and it can't be confused with an e-mail address.


Excellent! So what else do we need to make this work?

This looks like a bit like hash tags. So, why not @Khal ?
Anyway, bitcoin can use the syntax it wants, namecoin will store data in it's own format (example: alias/Khal instead of #Khal)


1. Add the Namecoin proposal to the existing BIP 15
2. Choose Namecoin as the solution among others
3. Finalize and validate the Alias specification (https://dot-bit.org/Namespace:Aliases)
4. Explain how to create an alias

Because it looks a bit like an e-mail address. I didn't know about hash tags (http://hashtags.org/). How about $Khal$, or $Khal? I hope all keyboards around the world have a $ symbol.


No, no, that comes later. I mean what needs to be done to get it working in Namecoin, now? There is nothing stopping us from starting to use it now. It should be much easier to get one or more of the other altcoins to adopt it (if it works).Then the Bitcoin developers can test it and if they like it they can add it to Bitcoin. I don't want to wait a few years until somebody manages to take it through the BIP process.

1. Decide which pattern to use for the alias
2. Write a sendtoalias() function
3. Create an alias
4. Test it
5. If it works, tell others how to use it
6. If it doesn't work, make it work

1. No special pattern used in namecoin itself, use the alias directly

2. Code is available here (new rpc command sendtoalias) :
https://github.com/khalahan/namecoin

3. The existing alias is "khal" (stored in namecoin as "id/khal") and contains that data :

4. Use the command below to send me 2NMC :
The coins will be sent to my namecoin address N1KHAL5C1CRzy58NdJwp1tbLze3XrkFxx9.

5. Copy/paste the sendtoalias function in other softwares and add a part to do a name_show query to namecoin (namecoin has a direct database access so it doesn't need it).

6. Beta phase is here to tell us :)
Things may change a bit if needed, so consider this a beta phase.

This is fantastic news! I'm busy today but I will try it out tomorrow. Thanks!

Here is a binary for linux 64 bits if people want to test quickly :
http://dot-bit.org/files/temp/namecoind-sendtoalias

Can somebody make a namecoind windows binary??

Whatever happened to that dude who came along with an alternative distributed DNS scheme, the guy who posted a link to his white paper in the forum here.  Did he merge efforts with yours or strike out alone?

That would be forum username "pent", but he seems to have been caught up in a stupid ponzi scheme, and I for that reason am not taking him seriously anymore.

Nope, according to https://github.com/khalahan/namecoin building is only supported on Linux for now.

I did that and here's what I get:

My bad, it works! How can I create an alias?

Thanks for the donation of 1NMC :D. Hope to send them back soon :p

You must register an alias prefixed with "id/" in namecoin.

Here is mine to give you an idea :

Fake example of registration :

To be sure you put a valid json "value", copy/paste the value here :
http://dot-bit.org/tools/domainCheck.php

ps : don't use more than 520 characters to avoid a bug that will be solved soon.

Nop, building on mac and windows is possible (I should correct this old README...).
We just need someone able to do it on latest release :) (you can still use latest available version for windows on http://dot-bit.org, but the new commands won't be available)

Namecoin does not hide server location, Tor .onion service does.

Namecoin does not hide visitor location, Tor does.

Namecoin needs separate DNS configuration, Tor .onion addresses works ouf-of-box, at least for Tor bundle.

Namecoin needs constant mining, Tor does not need.

Namecoin is secure from takeover, Tor .onion addresses also are secure.

Namecoin is interesting experiment and proof-of-concept, but there are better solutions. .onion FTW!

Do you know bitcoin and namecoin can go through tor : https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Tor#bitcoind ? I'm sure you knew it.

So, are people forced to use unreadable and unmemorable addresses because it works out of the box ? Should they stay like that forever ? Namecoin couldn't be integrated in tor bundle if they want that ? People can't install namecoin if they want ?
I don't understand the problem with giving more possibilities.

Namecoin is THE solution, really. All other solutions are really shit ! If Tor people didn't add namecoin into tor they are stupid. Do i need to put a smiley ?

+10

Namecoin can make Tor URLs more "human-like"... They complement each other...

actually a lot has been going on lately...
sub

Sent :

You should have received the coins at the registered address :)

I have received the coins, thanks! Registering an alias is more complicated and error-prone than it needs to be. There should be a createalias() function that asks a few questions and then performs the necessary steps. What happens behind the scenes when one calls name_firstupdate? It took a while for name_show to actually show the alias.


No need for a smiley but why don't you add Tor into Namecoin? Governments and big companies like Google and Facebook love to spy on us in order to control us and to sell our data to advertisers. Any alternative to the mainstream Internet should be encrypted by default and this includes Namecoin.

Have you ever tried to access or implement a high-bandwidth site as a Tor hidden service?  Many times a site will be legal and free from interference in most of the world, but you need something like Namecoin to make it universally accessible. 

eh?, what does this even mean?

Sorry if it doesn't make any sense, I'm still learning about Namecoin and I've never used Tor. As I understand it, when you browse .bit sites you can still be tracked and everything is unencrypted, just like on the ordinary Internet, correct?

Correct.

namecoin is just another DNS system. Advantages of .bit are: domain cannot be stolen by government agency, they are cheaper than ussual domain names.
However, .bit domains can be also used to browse websites on darknet like tor. So instead of writing <long string of random letters>.onion, you just type hidden-website.bit

There is possibility tu run namecoin itself via tor, but it is not needed.
When it comes to mining, since invention of merged mining, most hashing power comes from bitcoin miners anyway... so there is no need to mine for ordinary users.

A GUI would be interesting, indeed, to allow easy registration of domains, alias, etc.

A name_firstupdate reveals the name you are registering, a name_new doesn't.
So, normal process is name_new, wait 12 blocks (the network will wait before accepting a name_firstupdate), the name_firstupdate is accepted.

If you launch the name_firstupdate just after the name_new (0 confirmation), someone could see the name you want to register and do the same (name_new + name_firstupdate.

This is a common misconception also it seems, and wrong in several ways.

By running a local Namecoin process you hold a complete database of .bit sites locally (as in right there on your hard-drive) so never have to send DNS traffic out over the internet (where it can be easily monitored by ISP, etc) to look-up the IP addresses of the sites you need/want to get to.

In this way XXXX.onion addresses that have ".bit" look-up locally can be found without having to tell the whole world you are browsing to XXX.onion.

It is a true decentralised DNS that allows for fully-autonomous domain name look-up, if you set it up right .... and therefore, absolutely not "just another DNS system."  No other DNS system comes close to this amount of privacy (for the user) feature.

Excellent, thanks for your explanations Deafboy and marcus_of_augustus. I'm going to install Tor and try this for myself.


A GUI would be nice, but I was thinking of a simple function that would work something like this:

Please enter the name of the alias: bitinvestor
Do you want to add a Bitcoin address (y/n): y
Please enter the address: 12GDjkEWCK7DY6316igF9omUQPtxQ5jd5V
Do you want to add a Namecoin address (y/n): y
Please enter the address: NDqxkdTDCJtGE2WZg2HBcpMU7XPDWt4LXQ
Do you want to add an e-mail address (y/n): n
Do you want to add a phone number (y/n): n
The cost will be 0.1 NMC. Do you want to create the alias (y/n): y
The alias has been created and can be accessed in 12 blocks.

This would be sufficient for most people and if somebody needs to put something else in there then he can do it manually.

you could hardly be more wrong. namecoin is a coin accounting and generic key/data storage system.

Sorry, I thought we were speaking just about browsing regular websites through the .bit domains. In this point of view it is just another dns.  And your connection to http server is as vulnerable to middle man as always. I know that lot of other data can be also stored in blockchain.

No sorry, you are still wrong because it can provide for fully-autonomous (i.e. local look-up of regular .bit domains) also. You are correct that data can be stored in the namecoin blockchain, unlike bitcoin. :)

It is not in any way shape or form, "just another DNS" ... but yes it can do regular DNS as one small part of its total functionality. How about that?

My favorite use-case that I hope can be widely implemented is that of storing a public key fingerprint in the Namecoin system. This is how you can kill off the CA system and still be secure.

What needs to be done to make this happen? I'm not familiar with how the CA system works in detail, but I do know that the cost of it can be a real burden for smaller websites.

The main thing is a way to validate it on the client side. The storage of the fingerprint in the Namecoin system already works.

donwloaded the 3.5 to a fresh VM, namecoind gets stuck at 10500 blocks, there is no output nothing.

EDIT: nvm, the one sending me the chain got stuck, after restarting namecoind it works now :)

completely missed the sendtoalias command.

would be interesting to also add a sendbtctoalias command that would open a bitcoin uri: bitcoin:1bitcoinaddress

Yes, it's working (it as a beta version, may still change, so it is only present in my github tree : https://github.com/khalahan/namecoin)

Indeed, it could be a simple way to start managing bitcoin aliases.
Does the main client bitcoin client support uri schemes ?

good to see you alive. I thought you had been kidnapped by the cia. :)

I don't usually use bitcoin-qt any more but I think it has. Just noticed URI support does not work any more on my own machine with latest electrum and multibit 0.5.7 installed so this is a problem.

Also looking into shared namecoin/bitcoin private keys. I was not aware it is possible to calculate the corresponding namecoin address from a bitcoin address and vice versa.