[announce] Namecoin - a distributed naming system based on Bitcoin

[phelix]

Really does no one consider the possibility of making the GUI a web application that runs in browser on the users own machine? It would be like running an instawallet on your own computer with the possibility of entering in console commands.

The issue there is the blockchain; in order to do anything, or show the user anything, the web application needs a trusted copy of the blockchain. If it's a locally-running app, most users don't have a database program running on their local machine for a web app to hook into. As a public website that users can visit (like instawallet, or blockchain.info's wallet) that's very doable (the server also connects to the P2P network and trusts its own database records for users to query), and I mentioned that as something I'm looking into, using node, like the bitcoinjs project.

Actually I was thinking the pesron would be a running a full LAMP setup. Albeit customised.

LAMP for a local GUI? That really does not make sense.

[crazy_rabbit]

Really does no one consider the possibility of making the GUI a web application that runs in browser on the users own machine? It would be like running an instawallet on your own computer with the possibility of entering in console commands.

The issue there is the blockchain; in order to do anything, or show the user anything, the web application needs a trusted copy of the blockchain. If it's a locally-running app, most users don't have a database program running on their local machine for a web app to hook into. As a public website that users can visit (like instawallet, or blockchain.info's wallet) that's very doable (the server also connects to the P2P network and trusts its own database records for users to query), and I mentioned that as something I'm looking into, using node, like the bitcoinjs project.

Actually I was thinking the pesron would be a running a full LAMP setup. Albeit customised.

LAMP for a local GUI? That really does not make sense.

No really, I have a version of an instawallet running on my local machine in a VM image that is basically a vanilla Ubuntu LAMP installation with the coind server running. I log in through my browser on my host computer and I can send, receive, check stats of the network, etc...

I know it's not the best way of doing it, but it does work.

[drawingthesun]

I wonder if Namecoins has just uncover a flaw in the Bitcoin system.

Just take a look at what happen with Namecoins now, someone just brought up some serious hash power, taking the dificulty from 3500 all the way up to 55k, then retired back to Bitcoins (i guess).
Now Namecoins are on a depresion, pleople stoping mining them, next dificulty is stimated at 16k, but at this rate it will not happen until 07/08/2011.

I just think its way to easy for a big spender to crush NMC with less then a million dollars, because you would be able to do a 51% attack, correct?

This is why the popular alt coins use scrypt, so ASIC miners can't just jump chains to cause havoc. If a coin can be mined with a Bitcoin ASIC then its doomed, the hashing algorithm must be different.

Bitcoin can't suffer from this problem because it has already attracted the largest amount of hash power. Even if every alt coin switch to Bitcoin it would not change the difficulty too much.

If you make a alt coin based on the SHA hashing of Bitcoin then you will be attacked easily.

[virtualmaster]

I wonder if Namecoins has just uncover a flaw in the Bitcoin system.

Just take a look at what happen with Namecoins now, someone just brought up some serious hash power, taking the dificulty from 3500 all the way up to 55k, then retired back to Bitcoins (i guess).
Now Namecoins are on a depresion, pleople stoping mining them, next dificulty is stimated at 16k, but at this rate it will not happen until 07/08/2011.

I just think its way to easy for a big spender to crush NMC with less then a million dollars, because you would be able to do a 51% attack, correct?

This is why the popular alt coins use scrypt, so ASIC miners can't just jump chains to cause havoc. If a coin can be mined with a Bitcoin ASIC then its doomed, the hashing algorithm must be different.

Bitcoin can't suffer from this problem because it has already attracted the largest amount of hash power. Even if every alt coin switch to Bitcoin it would not change the difficulty too much.

If you make a alt coin based on the SHA hashing of Bitcoin then you will be attacked easily.

This is absolute nonsense. Exactly the opposite is the case. The Namecoin network had all the time a higher hashrate/market volume than any other chain. This is because of the merged mining with bitcoin. Because of this high hashrate it is not profitable to make solo mining for namecoin and it has the lowest mining reward.
Scrypt doesn't protect at all against miner switch, they need only to change the mining program even if it is using different parameter but they cannot bundle their efforts to protect the network if they are different parameters.
Just compare the facts:
http://dustcoin.com/mining

[phelix]

Really does no one consider the possibility of making the GUI a web application that runs in browser on the users own machine? It would be like running an instawallet on your own computer with the possibility of entering in console commands.

The issue there is the blockchain; in order to do anything, or show the user anything, the web application needs a trusted copy of the blockchain. If it's a locally-running app, most users don't have a database program running on their local machine for a web app to hook into. As a public website that users can visit (like instawallet, or blockchain.info's wallet) that's very doable (the server also connects to the P2P network and trusts its own database records for users to query), and I mentioned that as something I'm looking into, using node, like the bitcoinjs project.

Actually I was thinking the pesron would be a running a full LAMP setup. Albeit customised.

LAMP for a local GUI? That really does not make sense.

No really, I have a version of an instawallet running on my local machine in a VM image that is basically a vanilla Ubuntu LAMP installation with the coind server running. I log in through my browser on my host computer and I can send, receive, check stats of the network, etc...

I know it's not the best way of doing it, but it does work.

Sounds very complicated.

[virtualmaster]

Really does no one consider the possibility of making the GUI a web application that runs in browser on the users own machine? It would be like running an instawallet on your own computer with the possibility of entering in console commands.

The issue there is the blockchain; in order to do anything, or show the user anything, the web application needs a trusted copy of the blockchain. If it's a locally-running app, most users don't have a database program running on their local machine for a web app to hook into. As a public website that users can visit (like instawallet, or blockchain.info's wallet) that's very doable (the server also connects to the P2P network and trusts its own database records for users to query), and I mentioned that as something I'm looking into, using node, like the bitcoinjs project.

Actually I was thinking the pesron would be a running a full LAMP setup. Albeit customised.

LAMP for a local GUI? That really does not make sense.

No really, I have a version of an instawallet running on my local machine in a VM image that is basically a vanilla Ubuntu LAMP installation with the coind server running. I log in through my browser on my host computer and I can send, receive, check stats of the network, etc...

I know it's not the best way of doing it, but it does work.

Whatever you develop for the namecoin network it is better than nothing and the community will surely accept it positively.
Best would be a Satoshi based client for the security. However if you like and can work better in a web environment it would be also helpful.
From LAMP as I see it would be enough A+P for a web client and it would be portable for every operation system. If you make it minimalistic without unnecessary complications it will be  easier for others to understand it and eventually continue your work.
Yesterday I started also to make something browser based for namecoin(just html with javascript) and I intend to release it this week.

[snailbrain]

nmc client based on the default bitcoin qt client coming soon..

[lunarboy]

What are the possibilities of creating a merged Lite client like Multibit or Electrum by incorporating into their existing structure. Perhaps as an Add-on for NMC compatibility?   

[marcus_of_augustus]

nmc client based on the default bitcoin qt client coming soon..

Are you serious?? ... this would be exceptional, i hope you are not jagging our chains here?

[midnightlightning]

I've nearly got a port working based on the bitcoinjs-server nodejs library, as well. I've gotten it to connect to the peer network, though it seems there's some difference in how the block difficulty progression is calculated for NMC... Once I get that and add the logic for the NMC-specific Scripts, that will be another option for end users to run locally via Node, and as a web framework for web applications as well!

[marcus_of_augustus]

I've nearly got a port working based on the bitcoinjs-server nodejs library, as well. I've gotten it to connect to the peer network, though it seems there's some difference in how the block difficulty progression is calculated for NMC... Once I get that and add the logic for the NMC-specific Scripts, that will be another option for end users to run locally via Node, and as a web framework for web applications as well!

You might have seen this already?

http://sourceforge.net/projects/namecoinj/

It seems to work, is a little buggy but i don't think anybody really trusted because of the big fat binary buried inside the jar ball ...

[snailbrain]

nmc client based on the default bitcoin qt client coming soon..

Are you serious?? ... this would be exceptional, i hope you are not jagging our chains here?

yes.. in process now..
eta 14 days qt client (should work linux/windows)
2nd part, 2 weeks later, should include name registration, with some fixed fields to change, like ns, IP).. anything really advanced will need to be done in console window

if all goes according to plan

[nelisky]

nmc client based on the default bitcoin qt client coming soon..

Are you serious?? ... this would be exceptional, i hope you are not jagging our chains here?

yes.. in process now..
eta 14 days qt client (should work linux/windows)
2nd part, 2 weeks later, should include name registration, with some fixed fields to change, like ns, IP).. anything really advanced will need to be done in console window

if all goes according to plan

Just clarifying, if I understood our PM exchange properly, you are taking the 0.3.50 NMC client and giving it a QT GUI, right? You are not updating the base client to match the newer bitcoin source?

[snailbrain]

nmc client based on the default bitcoin qt client coming soon..

Are you serious?? ... this would be exceptional, i hope you are not jagging our chains here?

yes.. in process now..
eta 14 days qt client (should work linux/windows)
2nd part, 2 weeks later, should include name registration, with some fixed fields to change, like ns, IP).. anything really advanced will need to be done in console window

if all goes according to plan

Just clarifying, if I understood our PM exchange properly, you are taking the 0.3.50 NMC client and giving it a QT GUI, right? You are not updating the base client to match the newer bitcoin source?

correct... although the namecoin code will need a minor adjustment to work with the gui (will be commented in the code)..


anyone know why my daemon crashes when i use the sendtoname command?

have debug.log if anyone wants to check (in win764).. everything else works spot on from what i can tell

[marcus_of_augustus]

nmc client based on the default bitcoin qt client coming soon..

Are you serious?? ... this would be exceptional, i hope you are not jagging our chains here?

yes.. in process now..
eta 14 days qt client (should work linux/windows)
2nd part, 2 weeks later, should include name registration, with some fixed fields to change, like ns, IP).. anything really advanced will need to be done in console window

if all goes according to plan

Looking forward to it ... will you submit pull request to namecoin/namecoin github repo (khal still controls this I think)?

[twobits]

Updated Mac port, and a gui version for sending coins for windows as well.

https://www.box.com/s/cv35rbugsvvz1lbi1iw4

[nelisky]

Updated Mac port, and a gui version for sending coins for windows as well.

https://www.box.com/s/cv35rbugsvvz1lbi1iw4

Can you share the source code? Pushing binaries around is dangerous (for users) at best.

[zamgo]

Updated Mac port, and a gui version for sending coins for windows as well.

--URL REMOVED--

Can you share the source code? Pushing binaries around is dangerous (for users) at best.

Yes.   Binaries from unknown sources are very dangerous.  

It's great there is some new namecoin work being done, but it has to be in the open for all of us to see or else no one will trust it.

Post the source on github or another suitable location and let us all review it.  

[twobits]

Can you share the source code? Pushing binaries around is dangerous (for users) at best.

Yes.   Binaries from unknown sources are very dangerous.   

It's great there is some new namecoin work being done, but it has to be in the open for all of us to see or else no one will trust it.

Post the source on github or another suitable location and let us all review it. 

I have no idea is nelisky is trolling, but I know for sure zamgo is for whatever reason. 

I know he knows where the heck to find the sources. ( https://github.com/namecoin/namecoin )

The mac build is just an update to the one already featured on http://dot-bit.org/  , and the windows build is similar  as what I used to do.  Just in this case someone at least updated it already.

In any case, I am now that I have built the new baseline, I am starting to  make some changes to the code to aid someone who wanted  me to do something with the namecoin code for them.    People used to say thank you for them.   I won't bother posting those results if the community has become such trolls of stating the obvious and all of the sudden pretending they can't find the damn source code for namecoin, and stating the obvious to not run binaries you don't trust and build from source yourselves if you want.  Anyway, the build are there for those that want them, and are easily ignored by those that don't.  If they don't get downloaded I will know there is not demand for them anymore and not to waste my time uploading them.

[nelisky]

I have no idea is nelisky is trolling, but I know for sure zamgo is for whatever reason. 

I know he knows where the heck to find the sources. ( https://github.com/namecoin/namecoin )

The mac build is just an update to the one already featured on http://dot-bit.org/  , and the windows build is similar  as what I used to do.  Just in this case someone at least updated it already.

That's new, being hinted as a troll. Look, I'm sure you mean well and everyone will know that you just meant you compiled the latest from namecoin git but that's not what I read on your post, I read it as "I altered the code, improved it somehow, here's a shiny binary and no reference to the source code".

Now that you explained I know that was not the case, you didn't change anything, just compiled. Fine, but a set of instructions on how to build it would be much better received.

I can quickly cook a namecoin version for windows/mac with a small easter egg added and you have no way of verifying, and you know the type of easter eggs that are common around here, right?

Be cool, and stay safe. Distributing binaries is a major no-no in most cases, and advocating it even if your intentions and code are the best will teach users to trust binaries referenced from threads, and that usually ends in "help, my wallet has been stolen and I don't know why" kind of posts.