Why aren't IP addresses and mac addresses used?

[jp123]

Even with id and bitcoin.

[pooya87]

Used for what exactly?
IP addresses are used to find other peers on the network and for connection only.
Mac address is usually not something your device advertises to the world.

[bitmover]

Even with id and bitcoin.

would you like to send bitcoin to your IP address instead of your public address?

That is not how it works.

Public "address" is just a name, a representation of your public key.

Beyond that name there is a pair of keys, the  public key and the private key. Public keys are used to receive money, and the private key is used to spend money.

You are getting confused with the word "address", but that word has nothing to do with IP address.

you can read all about it here, in Mastering Bitcoin:
https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/mastering-bitcoin/9781491902639/ch04.html

From the book

Figure 4-1. Private key, public key, and bitcoin address

[TryNinja]

See: [pull] Remove send to IP address and IP transactions support

Remove send to IP transaction support, as it is insecure and would confuse users when used.

An IP is a terrible identifier as it does not identify a person or organization. Furthermore, man-in-the-middle attacks are trivial as the internet has no "proof that you have ip XXX" API. In the future address shortening services based on "user@domain" would be useful, but these will likely be based on third party APIs and not on this code.

-snip-

[franky1]

"send to IP" was never where the output was an IP
the output was always a publickey(bitcoin address)

it was where instead of having a collection of IP connections to relay a transaction to the broader network. the software was have a feature to send a request to a specifc resipient to request a normal public key, sign the transaction with normal bitcoin key outputs.. and send to a specific IP instead of the standard multiple IP relay method

it was an idea. so that in addition to the signed transaction. a user can send other relevant data aswell such as receipt messages to the recipient direct and get messages back without having to disclose it to the network

it was about direct contact messages between payer and payee. not outputs that were IP

[BlackHatCoiner]

IP addresses were a thing back in 2010.

It was later disabled and there are lots of reasons why it shouldn't be an option.

• Privacy ruination.
• Both participants have to be online.
• Possible port forward.

And that was just for the full nodes. In a lightweight client, it can't work.

[NotATether]

The IP address method only allows for one "receiving address" per user and won't work when you're behind NAT, which assigns a common IPV4 address for many users (and don't even get started with IPV6, most home ISPs specifically disable that).

MAC addresses can be reset and changed which makes them unsuitable to use as the basis of a bitcoin address.

[titular]

Even with id and bitcoin.

I'm not entirely sure what this is asking..

IP addresses and MAC addresses on the network would certainly pose some sort of anonymity risk.

Your post should contain details as to what exactly you are inquiring about.

[vjudeu]

IP addresses and hostnames (or onion addresses) are used inside Lightning Network, but not alone, public keys are also needed and nodes are mainly identified by that public keys.