Bitcoin Vanity Addresses Revisited

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I'm sure this has been addressed before, but why can't some entity devise a service that allows somebody to generated their own Bitcoin vanity address, something along the lines of how FirstBits does it? That way the average Joe isn't stuck with something like 15cULo1jnCreXk8xGrvyRkSb7PtMbGFwbd (not real).

Examply:

Barnwood Naturals LLC has a domain located at http://www.barnwoodnaturals.com/. They put in a lot of time and effort to build their brand and may not be too keen on pasting some generic Bitcoin address onto their sleek looking website or business cards. But if it were possible for them to generate their address like 1BarnwoodNaturalsLLCat5035803900ph, which upon clicking (or inserting) redirects to their real address, no matter how ugly it looks, they may be more inclined to embrace Bitcoin.

In fact, in this case the 1 is not even needed. Nor does the address need to be restricted to exactly 34 characters, although a limit should be set (40?), as well as what other characters can be used (_-*^$()#@, etc.).

If this were possible, then we may be able to see the following:

If paying with Bitcoin, please use BarnwoodNatualsLLC(ph)503-580-3900. (upon clicking, a form is generated showing the actual address for client's records and a place to input their address for payment processing)

Other examples of how the newly created address would look:

TravisSinclair(addy)123ElmRogersParkOH
JonJonInc(ph)555-222-9035
ILovePinkiePieWithAllMyHeart
HomelessJackieOnTheRoad
AmericanEndowmentFoundation(ph)888-440-4233

Design the site so that it's very easy for a person to get their Bitcoin vanity address. The ONLY requirement needed to create their one-of-a-kind address is that they have to already have a real Bitcoin address that has already been used at least once and registered in the Blockchain.

I believe that the more personal Bitcoin is, the more people will embrace and use it.

~Bruno K~

[Phinnaeus Gage]

The site I'm envisioning would have dropdown boxes on the form page. All a person would have to do is insert their chosen or company name, and either address, phone, city, state, etc. (or a finite combination). The address is automatically generated for them and if they like it, they click accept or start over.

Mullen'sBar&Grill(630)505-0299

[evoorhees]

Why wouldn't they just say, "Click here to pay with Bitcoin" and that link would then open up the URI or wallet software? 

[hamdi]

forget that.

vanity as it is, is great.

[crazy_rabbit]

I'm sure this has been addressed before, but why can't some entity devise a service that allows somebody to generated their own Bitcoin vanity address, something along the lines of how FirstBits does it? That way the average Joe isn't stuck with something like 15cULo1jnCreXk8xGrvyRkSb7PtMbGFwbd (not real).

Examply:

Barnwood Naturals LLC has a domain located at http://www.barnwoodnaturals.com/. They put in a lot of time and effort to build their brand and may not be too keen on pasting some generic Bitcoin address onto their sleek looking website or business cards. But if it were possible for them to generate their address like 1BarnwoodNaturalsLLCat5035803900ph, which upon clicking (or inserting) redirects to their real address, no matter how ugly it looks, they may be more inclined to embrace Bitcoin.

In fact, in this case the 1 is not even needed. Nor does the address need to be restricted to exactly 34 characters, although a limit should be set (40?), as well as what other characters can be used (_-*^$()#@, etc.).

If this were possible, then we may be able to see the following:

If paying with Bitcoin, please use BarnwoodNatualsLLC(ph)503-580-3900. (upon clicking, a form is generated showing the actual address for client's records and a place to input their address for payment processing)

Other examples of how the newly created address would look:

TravisSinclair(addy)123ElmRogersParkOH
JonJonInc(ph)555-222-9035
ILovePinkiePieWithAllMyHeart
HomelessJackieOnTheRoad
AmericanEndowmentFoundation(ph)888-440-4233

Design the site so that it's very easy for a person to get their Bitcoin vanity address. The ONLY requirement needed to create their one-of-a-kind address is that they have to already have a real Bitcoin address that has already been used at least once and registered in the Blockchain.

I believe that the more personal Bitcoin is, the more people will embrace and use it.

~Bruno K~

I had thought about a system like that earlier- it's in one of forum posts. The trick is- what does the magic of "upon clicking, a form is generated"? A phone book like DNS? Some sort of hash? It's difficult to say.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

forget that.

vanity as it is, is great.

Yes, but limited from a marketing/branding standpoint.

Why wouldn't they just say, "Click here to pay with Bitcoin" and that link would then open up the URI or wallet software?  

Yes, this too works well, but people may be taken aback when they first encounter a string of foreign digits. With my idea, I can tell somebody on the phone (or in person) to forward payment to Bruno Smith at my phone number. Then they visit the site and insert on the form page my name and phone number and only one address is shown having those inputs.

~Bruno K~

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I had thought about a system like that earlier- it's in one of forum posts. The trick is- what does the magic of "upon clicking, a form is generated"? A phone book like DNS? Some sort of hash? It's difficult to say.

The only main function of the site to generate and maintain the newly created vanity names, matching them up to actual addresses. It can even be accomplished without logging in, for the user would just send a micropayment to the site proving he has control of that address.

If a user wants to change the Bitcoin address by keep their desired vanity address, they would need to send two micropayments; one from the original and one from the new address.

I'm not sure if I addressed your question(s). I'm just thinking this out on the fly.

~Bruno K~

[Yankee (BitInstant)]

I'm sure you can just port this to an online website: http://nyhm.net/bitcoin/vanity/

[rxw]

So, what your proposing isn't a vanity address in the usual sense (someone spends an unfathomable amount of gpu cycles trying to brute force an actual bitcoin address that meets their criteria), but rather a site where someone can register a string (an "address") and associate with an actual bitcoin address? Then a customer could go to the site to make a payment using just the string?

It seems like a simple enough idea, but like someone said above, I'm not sure what the benefits would be over having a "Click here to pay!" link on a website would be. Also, bitcoin's regular address scheme handles typos with checksums and such, how would this site prevent typos? If Google registered "Google" on the site, what's to stop a scammer from registering "Googel" to point to their own personal bitcoin address?

[BitPay Business Solutions]

using the same address over and over again, whether its a vanity or not, poses problems. 

When a payment comes in, how do you know:

1.  who just paid you?
2.  what is it for?
3.  is it the right amount?

the bitcoin: URI is a good tool for any "click to pay" application, and hidden behind it you can use unique addresses.  Here's an example, click it and see what happens (only works if you have a URI-supported client)

http://lovebitcoins.org/developers.html

here are the URI-supported clients that we know of:

https://bitpay.com/bitcoin-compatible-wallets

[Phinnaeus Gage]

So, what your proposing isn't a vanity address in the usual sense (someone spends an unfathomable amount of gpu cycles trying to brute force an actual bitcoin address that meets their criteria), but rather a site where someone can register a string (an "address") and associate with an actual bitcoin address? Then a customer could go to the site to make a payment using just the string?

It seems like a simple enough idea, but like someone said above, I'm not sure what the benefits would be over having a "Click here to pay!" link on a website would be. Also, bitcoin's regular address scheme handles typos with checksums and such, how would this site prevent typos? If Google registered "Google" on the site, what's to stop a scammer from registering "Googel" to point to their own personal bitcoin address?

Your assessment (in bold above) is correct, but the site doesn't handle any distributions of funds.

From the great comments to date, I may have to rethink this idea a tad. I see that most aspects have been covered in some way or another.

The key idea I was trying to incorporate is the personal aspect via a custom self-generated address.

Please enter your Bitcoin address or BVA below:

^{______________________________________}
| FrankLazoo@(983)401-8872             |
|________________________________|

The BVA matches 15cULo1jnCreXk8xGrvyRkSb7PtMbGFwbd. If this is correct, please press

The user could even have the option of inputting as much or as little information to coincide with his unique identity.

Or they can attach this to their about me pages on all their social network sites.

Like I've stated, I'm just thinking to the nth degree here.

~Bruno K~

EDIT: MYBVA.ME (mybva.me) is available.

[2112]

From the great comments to date, I may have to rethink this idea a tad. I see that most aspects have been covered in some way or another.

Whatever you come up with, you have to remember that phone numbers have country code. If you are going to post any more phone numbers in the format without country code eg. (1)(503)580-3900; +1.503.580-3900; etc. I reserve the right to tease you mercilessly.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

From the great comments to date, I may have to rethink this idea a tad. I see that most aspects have been covered in some way or another.

Whatever you come up with, you have to remember that phone numbers have country code. If you are going to post any more phone numbers in the format without country code eg. (1)(503)580-3900; +1.503.580-3900; etc. I reserve the right to tease you mercilessly.

You are correct, 2112, but I was just showing examples for example sake. If by chance such a site were built, and phone numbers were to become part of vanity addresses, that concern would most likely be addressed.

As far as for the length of a vanity address being maxed at 40(?), the other extreme could easily be 5(?).

Imagine the following BVAs:

BadBear
demonoid
eurovps

Or just a full name:

TerryWright
BobFoote
BeckyLong
EricVonSustern

Hell, an actual domain name could be the BVA:

kens5.com
coachella.com
primitiveshoes.com
crazyforcows.com
bayliner.com
nrafoundation.org

[SgtSpike]

Wasn't this already done by one of those bitcoin banks?  And it wasn't very successful...

Personally, I don't think putting a 3rd party between the one paying and the one receiving is a good idea if the only purpose is to make it look more friendly to the end user.  And if we ARE going to put a 3rd party between the two, at least make it something independently verifiable (like firstbits are).

Ideally, a client should support firstbits right out of the box, and then people could just pay "1barnwood".  That's by far the best "user friendly" solution, in my opinion.

[Pieter Wuille]

Sorry, but humans shouldn't ever see a Bitcoin address at all.

In my opinion it is even wrong that we call it an address, as it implies it is a fixed identifier for a destination at which people accept coins. It's just a code for a public key, and if possible, it shouldn't even be reused (*).

Bitcoin addresses should be things like e-mail addresses or URI's, where the actual public key used for the transaction is negotiated and generated on-the-fly.

(*) I know I have a fixed donation address below, which contradicts my idea, but for now it seems no usable alternative is available.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Wasn't this already done by one of those bitcoin banks?  And it wasn't very successful...

Personally, I don't think putting a 3rd party between the one paying and the one receiving is a good idea if the only purpose is to make it look more friendly to the end user.  And if we ARE going to put a 3rd party between the two, at least make it something independently verifiable (like firstbits are).

Ideally, a client should support firstbits right out of the box, and then people could just pay "1barnwood".  That's by far the best "user friendly" solution, in my opinion.

Exactly! I wasn't trying to replace firstbits. In fact, it's them I wish would consider this option. 1barnwood is a fine example, but more looking like this: BarnWood.

Firstbits makes Bitcoin addresses easy to remember and share. A firstbits address uniquely identifies a Bitcoin address, usually in less than 7 characters.

I'm still going to put some more thought into this idea. Thanks to all who've commented to date.

~Bruno K~

[Gabi]

15cULo1jnCreXk8xGrvyRkSb7PtMbGFwbd

culo means ass in italian 

[nibor]

See: https://bitcoinvanity.appspot.com

Will display firstbits at bottom of screen if available.

[TalkingAntColony]

A company could run a website that acts as an address lookup/registry service. It would work like this:

 - For a small BTC fee, users can register a string to a BTC address (or pool of BTC addresses)

 - A pool of strings can be pointed to a pool of BTC addresses, with random or sequential selection. One time BTC address use can also work. Ex. Google can direct "Google," "Googel," etc to a pool of one-time use BTC addresses. They must replenish the pool if it runs out. Site could auto-generate addresses but that requires some trust.

 - (Optional) If user pays fee with the registered BTC address, the account is "verified." This can be used to display some sort of notification to payers

 - A simple API allows apps to do an address lookup (forward or reverse) and receive an XML reply. The reply could optionally be signed by the priv key of BTC address owner to eliminate trust issues (prevents site from inserting wrong address, would require publishing pub key of the address).

- The API functionality would also need to be available through the website.

 - Fees would be in place for associating a new string. There could be some pricing structure for bulk string association. Expiration and renewal fees would be needed as well to mitigate squatting. The goal would be to make it cheap for someone to register and hold a few dozen strings, but expensive to register hundreds or more.

 - The site could also be used for QR code, Facebook, Twitter, etc association.

 - The business model would likely benefit from a freemium system. Ex user can register one string to one address for free that expires after some time. If they want more or want to do a pool of strings -> pool of addresses, they need to pay for the registry.

That's all I can think of now but it seems like if someone invested the time to develop it, they would have a good chance of profitability as well as contributing a valuable tool to the BTC community.

[SgtSpike]

Someone tried making a service almost exactly like that before, TalkingAntColony.  It wasn't very popular.  Who knows, maybe if it was done today, it would be popular?