bitcoin address shortener

[oyster2000]

Pretty new to bitcoin, dont know if this has been discussed before, but what has struck me for this to catch on and really go viral would be to easily remember someones address to send to, without having to copy and paste! Some type of shortener like the url shorteners do their work with urls  (bit.ly etc) ?  Would the bitcoin client(s) eventually implement something like this?

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[Jere.Jones]

I am working on that exact thing at bitdex.net.

Jere

[lulzplzkthx]

I've already done this located here. Unfortunately, I don't have a short URL. Still easier to remember though. In the future when the client supports bitcoin: URI requests, it will automatically pop open a send dialog.

[khal]

I've done a patch for the bitcoin client to send payments to email addresses and url :
- Discussion
- Pull request

It's not finished yet. What do you think about ?

[ploum]

Thanks for pointing the thread about your patch. I missed it and it's really needed. See my answer and my proposed protocol.

[FreeMoney]

I'm working on this as well.

[Gavin Andresen]

This is where I think maybe a standard https-based protocol might work nicely, so the same address shortening services can be used either in the bitcoin client and for online e-wallets.

Something simple, like user says "Please use these services for resolving addresses:
   https://bitdex.net/resolve
   https://btcquick.com/resolve
   https://mtgox.com/finduser
"

Protocol could just be POST the text the user types into the address field and get back JSON with a bitcoin address and maybe some extra information to reassure the user that they're paying gavin@acm.org "Gavin Andresen (my picture) (my gpg key fingerprint)" and not gaven@acm.org "Gaven Smith (some other guy's picture) (no gpg key fingerprint)" ...

[ryepdx]

This is where I think maybe a standard https-based protocol might work nicely, so the same address shortening services can be used either in the bitcoin client and for online e-wallets.

+1

Building modular, pluggable bitcoin services would be in the best interests of our community, I think. The less custom code a person has to write to get a new bitcoin business up to standards, the better.