making BTC addresses more indexable with prefixes!

[Desolator]

Since a lot of things are the same length and character set as a bitcoin address and there's 100% random with 0 static characters, they're very hard to identify with a Google search for example.  So if I was looking at a website and it was cool and I thought maybe they take BTC donations but can't find it, I can't do a "some keyword site:http://thatonesiteorwhatever.com/" google search string because I can't supply the keyword because I'd have to know part of the bitcoin address.

So my solution is simple.  Allow the totally optional letters "BTC" before any address.  So like:
hey, send me some tips and donations and stuff at BTC1E9KYg64m1fceAXTsLY2VfXK5u2eL7a3St

Just make the next version of the client strip off "btc" or "BTC" from any address on the fly without complaining.  It's a text control interpretation and string manipulation change!  1 line of code!  Plus, that future-proofs the addresses against competing protocols.  Then you could have a same-character-count addressing system in some other currency and know that it's not a bitcoin one because of the prefix.  Then you don't sit there trying it 5 times before you realize it's not from the bitcoin system.  It's genius!  What do you all think?

[molecular]

Since a lot of things are the same length and character set as a bitcoin address and there's 100% random with 0 static characters, they're very hard to identify with a Google search for example.  So if I was looking at a website and it was cool and I thought maybe they take BTC donations but can't find it, I can't do a "some keyword site:http://thatonesiteorwhatever.com/" google search string because I can't supply the keyword because I'd have to know part of the bitcoin address.

So my solution is simple.  Allow the totally optional letters "BTC" before any address.  So like:
hey, send me some tips and donations and stuff at BTC1E9KYg64m1fceAXTsLY2VfXK5u2eL7a3St

Just make the next version of the client strip off "btc" or "BTC" from any address on the fly without complaining.  It's a text control interpretation and string manipulation change!  1 line of code!  Plus, that future-proofs the addresses against competing protocols.  Then you could have a same-character-count addressing system in some other currency and know that it's not a bitcoin one because of the prefix.  Then you don't sit there trying it 5 times before you realize it's not from the bitcoin system.  It's genius!  What do you all think?

I think noone answers because frankly, this has so many problems and triggers so many suggestions I don't even know where to begin. Also: I think this solves a problem that doesn't exist.

[Pieter Wuille]

How about allowing the totally optional string "bitcoin:" before an address?

[Desolator]

I had a feeling it'd cause a problem or two but not a whole lot.  You make it sound like the apocalypse.  I mean retroactively finding every address and adding it wouldn't be mandatory, obviously.  It'd work with or without the prefix.  And I specifically said "BTC" is the prefix because the word "Bitcoin" would be too likely to be found in other text.  Like if the site is all about bitcoins and you just want to find any occurrences of addresses, that wouldn't help much.  Then again BTC is an abbreviation already so maybe Bitcoin Address = BTCADD.  I just googled it.  It's a letter away from a spanish company and that's about it, lol.

You know, it'd be simpler for people to just use it with a colon and space and everyone just be smart enough to not copy and paste that part Not so friendly to new users but it wouldn't require a client alteration.

I will agree that this isn't a "problem" yet but it will be.  There actually is 1 user here with a sig with 4 identically formatted addresses and they had to label them:

BTC: xxxxxxxxxxx
LTC: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and two others I don't even remember.  So it's definitely going to be a problem for more people sooner than you think.

[FreeMoney]

Better to have some alert to robots or just some fixed content ("We accept bitcoin"?) that identifies you as accepting bitcoin. Many BTC accepting stores won't even be displaying an address in an index-able area.

[Desolator]

I would think it wouldn't so much be a store as a public non-bitcoin forum or tech support forum or charity organization.  Btw found another one Liquid00's sig:

Cryptocurrencies FTW

BTC :  12Zu56v2CENZREzQnaEia37CeBEEDG96fK
LTC :   Ld9NE3DvGmG7znJ5vYQ23W6QrAk8vgzdUP
PPC :   PAuKaf5fv25rS8Ki2dSB1D3rcXu7sqET16

So since people are already doing this, we should just unofficially standardize something.

[DeathAndTaxes]

There is no need.  1xxxx is a Bitcoin address (3xxxx is a Bitcoin P2SH address).   Lxxxx is a Litecoin address.  Pxxxx is a PeePee Coin address.

Writing

BTC :  12Zu56v2CENZREzQnaEia37CeBEEDG96fK

instead of just

12Zu56v2CENZREzQnaEia37CeBEEDG96fK

is simply being verbose.

[Dabs]

Pseudo code:

1. Check if string begins with 1.
2. Check if string is 34 characters or less. (What is the smallest? Check the "physical" bitcoins by casascius.)
3. Check if string only has allowed characters (base58check).
4. Check the checksum of the string if it is a valid address. (There is code for this.)

[Desolator]

I don't think Google does any of that thought  But also I think my post was about convenience and speed, lol.  You know what's faster than those steps?  Trying to send 0.0000001 BTC to it and see if it works, lol.  Btw what would happen if I attempted to send a bitcoin transaction to a non-existent but correctly formatted bitcoin address?  Would it get rejected or assign it to a wallet file that hasn't been created yet or something?

Total side question: why do they all start with 1?

[molecular]

I don't think Google does any of that thought  But also I think my post was about convenience and speed, lol.  You know what's faster than those steps?  Trying to send 0.0000001 BTC to it and see if it works, lol.  Btw what would happen if I attempted to send a bitcoin transaction to a non-existent but correctly formatted bitcoin address?  Would it get rejected or assign it to a wallet file that hasn't been created yet or something?

Total side question: why do they all start with 1?

so we know it's a bitcoin address and not one of the other coins which start with different prefixes. Also: bitcoin multisig addresses start with "3".

[chrisrico]

You know what's faster than those steps?  Trying to send 0.0000001 BTC to it and see if it works, lol.

Not really, because the client would take those steps before attempting to create the transaction.