[ANN] Shorten Your Bitcoin Address to a Rememberable URL

[mrflibblehat]

Hi All,

I have created http://mybtcaddr.com which in turn allows you to create DNS TXT records with a URL Prefix (Subdomain in a way).

Due to the way DNS works it could take an hour or two before your address shows up, but usually its pretty instant.

There are still going to be a few bugs as the site is still being developed so please let me know if you find one via PM.

The Reason Behind This

There are actually 2 reasons why I have created this site.

1) Hopefully one day it will be incorporated into the bitcoin client itself, so we dont have to remember them long bitcoin strings we can just type mrflib.mybtcaddr.com and the bitcoins will be on their way. (I doubt this will ever happen realistically)

2) I am always forgetting my bitcoin address (its not easy to remember) and im sure others do too. So I thought it would be a good reason to set this up.

Instructions

1) Go onto the site
2) enter your url prefix (usually your username or a name you will remember)
3) enter your bitcoin address
4) click submit. There you go

Now you can check via command prompt or via a web based TXT checker like http://www.whatsmyip.us/txt

To check via command prompt all you need to do is type (I use myself as an example)

So my easy to remember address now is mrflib.mybtcaddr.com or you can visit your own personal url e.g http://mybtcaddr.com/mrflib/ ..Please Note - It may take a while for the DNS to propagate so your address will not show right away, you may have to wait an hour or two.

Abuse

This is a free service provided to the community, Please do not abuse because its so easy for me to just delete the record you created, the site is still under development

Still To Do
+ Add More Measures to stop abuse

[Theospaul]

This looks pretty cool.
Much easier as well than remembering a wallet address.
It's pretty unique not seen much like it, would be really good if they incorporated it into the bitcoin client.

Well done with this looking forward to seeing more and will be using this one for sure

[fp]

What's stopping you from altering the TXT record later with your own BTC address? I'll admit though it's a clever idea.

[mrflibblehat]

What's stopping you from altering the TXT record later with your own BTC address? I'll admit though it's a clever idea.

With regards to the bitcoin client, I get your point, I never thought of that, It would have to be handled by bitcoin devs themselves and if they ever wish to implement it I would be more than happy to hand the site over to them.

With regards to just remembering your BTC address, there would be no reason for me to do this to people. Most people know the first/last few letters of their bitcoin address and would surely notice any changes.

It would be good to be able to come up with an anti-tampering idea though, if anyone can think of anything.

[fp]

With regards to the bitcoin client, I get your point, I never thought of that, It would have to be handled by bitcoin devs themselves

That still relies on trusting someone which goes against the spirit of bitcoin because the protocol is trustless.

Most people know the first/last few letters of their bitcoin address and would surely notice any changes.

I'm not sure who your target user is but while people might know their own bitcoin address, when they send their user.mybtcaddr.com address to someone, the receiver has no idea if the address was tamperered with or changed even temporarily and this could be quite an expensive mistake.

Programs like vanitygen can generate similar looking addresses.

The following are generated that start with 1mfr (from your username as an example) and end with 3

Code:

Address: 1mrfyA3HstyMjGrdVRQQCsGoSR8VsExy3
Address: 1mrfESSa9PpSpgsdiszN1T3ABG1uqrEd3
Address: 1mrfJJBJa9Cq6JNMNE9VHeac4RexzM7t3
Address: 1mrfokfnEi8fMWH4oa5kzz28aDYZFCLp3

It would be good to be able to come up with an anti-tampering idea though, if anyone can think of anything.

I think it will be really difficult to achieve that in way that makes it really simple for the average person but I could be wrong.

[mrflibblehat]

With regards to the bitcoin client, I get your point, I never thought of that, It would have to be handled by bitcoin devs themselves

That still relies on trusting someone which goes against the spirit of bitcoin because the protocol is trustless.

Most people know the first/last few letters of their bitcoin address and would surely notice any changes.

I'm not sure who your target user is but while people might know their own bitcoin address, when they send their user.mybtcaddr.com address to someone, the receiver has no idea if the address was tamperered with or changed even temporarily and this could be quite an expensive mistake.

Programs like vanitygen can generate similar looking addresses.

The following are generated that start with 1mfr (from your username as an example) and end with 3

Code:

Address: 1mrfyA3HstyMjGrdVRQQCsGoSR8VsExy3
Address: 1mrfESSa9PpSpgsdiszN1T3ABG1uqrEd3
Address: 1mrfJJBJa9Cq6JNMNE9VHeac4RexzM7t3
Address: 1mrfokfnEi8fMWH4oa5kzz28aDYZFCLp3

It would be good to be able to come up with an anti-tampering idea though, if anyone can think of anything.

I think it will be really difficult to achieve that in way that makes it really simple for the average person but I could be wrong.

Good Points Made.

We do trust people like blockchain.info with wallets though, they could host a service like this, they are known to be trustworthy. right?

My target user was someone like myself who goes away a lot to family/friends and needs my bitcoin address when im there, I actually have it on my phone but thats beside the point, Having a URL I can quickly check makes it so much easier for me.

Maybe I should release the code into the public domain so people can use it on their own websites? do you think that would be a better idea?

[mrflibblehat]

Just added personal pages when you create your TXT records. It will create a page for you e.g http://mybtcaddr.com/mrflib/ as http://mybtcaddr.com/<USERNAME>/

..Please Note - It may take a while for the DNS to propagate so your address will not show right away, you may have to wait an hour or two.

[Theospaul]

It's good to be safe and careful

But not at the cost of passing up a good idea,
I like this idea and think that there will be a lot of others who do
and yeah once the trust issue is sorted think this will really take off.