Bitcoin aliases with Namecoin ID : Send bitcoins to an alias

[khal]

Here is a new proposal for the Bitcoin alias system :
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0015#Namecoin_ID

You enter an alias to send bitcoin to.
Example of alias :

Code:

$ namecoind name_show id/khal
{
  "bitcoin" : "N15mJsVMHNtVDedDnD8vu82M5hCfn3nJWq"
}

It is based on Namecoin and the identity namespace
Aim of this namespace is to store email address, bitcoin address, namecoin address, gpg keys, etc. All that is related to an online and public identity.
Each application has its own space, so Bitcoin will store its data in the "bitcoin" space.

The specification currently allows :
- a single address
- multiple addresses
- addresses with labels
- a secure way to get an address from an http request
- the user to be prompted for some data (a customer id or an order id for example) that a merchant will receive and associate with a bitcoin address

What do you think ?
Do we really need multiple addresses and labels ?
Did i missed some important use case ?

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[paraipan]

interesting...

[someguy123]

Great idea possibly. Still the issue of squatters possibly buying out well-known id's too.. not sure how well that'll go.

[Bitinvestor]

Each application has its own space, so Bitcoin will store its data in the "bitcoin" space.

I don't understand this. Why not one "cryptocoin" space that all coins can access? You could have BTC, NMC, and LTC addresses registered in your alias. When you want to send some NMC the Namecoin client uses the NMC address and when you want to send some BTC the Bitcoin client uses the BTC address.

The specification currently allows :
- a single address
- multiple addresses
- addresses with labels
- the user to be prompted for some data (a customer id or an order id for example) that a merchant will receive and associate with a bitcoin address

This looks good. It seems to be flexible enough to allow future uses that nobody envisions yet.

- a secure way to get an address from an http request

Sorry, I don't understand. Please explain.

What do you think ?
Do we really need multiple addresses and labels ?

I think so.

Did i missed some important use case ?

I'm under the impression that it's up to the user to decide what he wants to register under his alias: cryptocoin addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, etc. If this is the case then it should be future proof.

[Bitinvestor]

Great idea possibly. Still the issue of squatters possibly buying out well-known id's too.. not sure how well that'll go.

Yeah, if this takes off then we will end up with names similar to the usernames on Ebay. The only way to prevent squatting is to make it expensive to register a name, but then fewer people will use it.

[khal]

Each application has its own space, so Bitcoin will store its data in the "bitcoin" space.

I don't understand this. Why not one "cryptocoin" space that all coins can access? You could have BTC, NMC, and LTC addresses registered in your alias. When you want to send some NMC the Namecoin client uses the NMC address and when you want to send some BTC the Bitcoin client uses the BTC address.

Each coin can update his format separately and implement features when they want. I think it's more clear like that too.

- a secure way to get an address from an http request

Sorry, I don't understand. Please explain.

I've updated the BIP 15.
Here is a copy/paste :

You can put an url and a bitcoin address that will be used to sign the result. It means that a query to this url will return a bitcoin address and a signature. Bitcoin can then check (with the verify_message function) that the returned address has not been replaced by another one.

Did i missed some important use case ?

I'm under the impression that it's up to the user to decide what he wants to register under his alias: cryptocoin addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, etc. If this is the case then it should be future proof.

Yes, applications and the community propose their formats/spaces and users decide what to put under their alias.

Great idea possibly. Still the issue of squatters possibly buying out well-known id's too.. not sure how well that'll go.

Yeah, if this takes off then we will end up with names similar to the usernames on Ebay. The only way to prevent squatting is to make it expensive to register a name, but then fewer people will use it.

Indeed, but before reaching ebay's popularity.... :p
Emails are interesting for that point, because it is segmented by domain names.
Maybe we could use a syntax like <name>@<group/location/what we want> ?

[punningclan]

Nice idea. I am really interested to see NameCoin crank its gears.

[khal]

Some other infos about aliases on this topic, and a binary file (linux64) to test the sendtoalias function in namecoin :
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=83793.0

[bitcats]

See here: https://ecdsa.org/bitcoin.id/bart.simpson

[bitcreditscc]

Did anyone ever get round to writing code for this.

[bitcats]

Wow, you've exhumed a 3y old thread   

[bitcreditscc]

Wow, you've exhumed a 3y old thread   

Does that effect it's relevance in today's world? 

[bitcats]

Wow, you've exhumed a 3y old thread   

Does that effect it's relevance in today's world? 

I dont think so but who can tell ... ^

[thelibertycap]

It's a shame this thread died, i liked the idea of a universal alias that can receive BTC or other alts.
You can look at an actual implementation of an aliasing system in XMR - https://openalias.org/. Such scheme could be used in BTC as well i think.

[bitcreditscc]

It's a shame this thread died, i liked the idea of a universal alias that can receive BTC or other alts.
You can look at an actual implementation of an aliasing system in XMR - https://openalias.org/. Such scheme could be used in BTC as well i think.

One of the first thing a person sees when introduced to crypto is those mangled addresses, already that's a bad start. Simplifying as many aspects as possible can encourage wider spread adoption.

[ArticMine]

It's a shame this thread died, i liked the idea of a universal alias that can receive BTC or other alts.
You can look at an actual implementation of an aliasing system in XMR - https://openalias.org/. Such scheme could be used in BTC as well i think.

Openalias can be used with Bitcoin (XBT). It also supports both Namecoin DNS (.bit etc) and ICANN DNS (.com etc)

[cassini]

Did anyone ever get round to writing code for this.

Yep, see nameid.org.
Already works for OpenID, Bitmessage, and Namecoin-internal payments (send NMCs to id).
Technically it shouldn't be too difficult to integrate this system in a Bitcoin client (send BTCs to id).

It is still not very handy for everyday's use. One has to download the whole NMC blockchain to be able to use nameid.
Light clients are being discussed at the moment, and Armory support is in the make (not sure if any progress has been made during the last few weeks, though).

[Bimmerhead]

Is there a web front end for registering a name?  I see oneid.io allows you to view, but not register.