Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] Fwd: [BIP 15] Aliases

From: Khalahan <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:36:57 +0100

Namecoin is a peer-to-peer generic name/value datastore system.
Don't forget it's not limited to .bit usage ! So, directly mapping
things to .bit url would not be the optimal way of using namecoin.

Namecoin is specificaly designed to map things to names in a fully
decentralized way. So, it's the perfect starting point to map names to
other things (a public bitcoin address, an url, etc)
You won't have all the advantages of namecoin when using other systems
like DNS and HTTP(S) as the first entry point.

What is namecoin ?

* proven technology :
- do not mix the namecoin technology and the dot-bit namespace with .bit
domains (dot-bit domains needs dot-bit compatible dns servers or proxies
+ namecoin and have a small visibility due to the nature of
top-to-bottom domain name system controlled by ICANN, namecoin needs
only namecoin to store data !)
- as proven and secure as bitcoin
- merged mining provides a secure network

* decentralized :
- a lot of nodes, and you can have your own node
- everybody can register his own name, by itself with the namecoin
software (bitcoin could even allow registration directly from it,
easily) or by using a name provider
- everybody can become a name provider (register for your friends and
resell names).

* no single point of failure :
- DNS and HTTPS have several limitations (Man in the Middle attacks, no
reliable authority of certifications, domain seizure, ...)

* designed for that :
- namecoin uses a system of namespaces to separate each usages :
http://dot-bit.org/Main_Page#Namespaces.
For example, the "personal namespace" draft
(http://dot-bit.org/Personal_Namespace) could be extended to support
mapping to a bitcoin address, or a dedicated namespace can be used if
prefered (the "bitcoin/" or "alias/" or "map/" prefixes for example).

* easily connectable to bitcoin
- they both use RPC and json to exchange informations, so connecting one
to the other is really easy
- bitcoin could even allow registration of names by sending an RPC
request to namecoin

* extensible and not limited :
- you are not forced to store a bitcoin address directly in namecoin,
you can also store an url or a domain name
- allows additional security : add a certificate fingerprint combined
with an https url (so, using DNS or HTTP(S) is not a major problem
anymore if the first point of entry is really secure and configurable
[and you use and self-signed certificate])
- really easy to update
- simple for simple cases
- possibility to use a nick, an email address or a domain as name
- other methods to get bitcoins addresses can be added later, protocol
is extensible

Examples of possible registered names in namecoin with the "personal
namespace" (with the "p/" prefix) :

* An individual person with well known public addresses :
"p/khal":
{
    "email": "[email-masked]",
    "bitcoin": "1KHAL8bUjnkMRMg9yd2dNrYnJgZGH8Nj6T",
    "namecoin": "N1KHAL5C1CRzy58NdJwp1tbLze3XrkFxx9"
}

* Another individual person with well known public addresses :
"p/[email-masked]":
{
    "bitcoin": "1KHAL8bUjnkMRMg9yd2dNrYnJgZGH8Nj6T",
    "namecoin": "N1KHAL5C1CRzy58NdJwp1tbLze3XrkFxx9"
}

* A merchant accepting payments in bitcoin, namecoin, paypal or
othercoin (to show you how the whole namespace could be used) :
"p/mymerchant.com":
{
    "bitcoin": {
        "url": "https://payto.mymerchant.com/bitcoin/",
        "fpr": "54FFA829023FC4DEF26B9339E07F7A743DF9F926"
        "cert": "https://payto.mymerchant.com/certificate.pem",
    },
    "namecoin": {
        "url": "https://payto.mymerchant.com/namecoin/",
        "fpr": "54FFA829023FC4DEF26B9339E07F7A743DF9F926"
    },
    "paypal": "[email-masked]",
    "othercoin": "oxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
}

* A merchant with a public address, an url to generate custom addresses
and a domain name (not sure if this case is really usefull, maybe as
fallback)
"p/mymerchant2":
{
    "bitcoin": {
        "url": "https://payto.mymerchant.com/bitcoin/",
        "fpr": "54FFA829023FC4DEF26B9339E07F7A743DF9F926",
        "dns": "_bitcoin.payto.mymerchant.com",
        "address": "1KHAL8bUjnkMRMg9yd2dNrYnJgZGH8Nj6T",
    }
}

* How to use it in bitcoin ?

Several possibilities of address syntax :
- khal, [email-masked], mymerchant.com, mymerchant2 : no syntax limit
- mymerchant2@bitcoin : will conflict with names already containing a @
- mymerchant2@namecoin : same
- namecoin:mymerchant2 : strange syntax, confusing with the "uri scheme"
- namecoin://mymerchant2 : same
- other ?

Here is how things would be processed when people put an address to pay
to in the bitcoin client :

* address : khal
-> RPC to namecoin for "p/khal"
-> json processing for "p/khal->bitcoin"
-> result : 1KHAL8bUjnkMRMg9yd2dNrYnJgZGH8Nj6T

* address : [email-masked]
-> RPC to namecoin for "p/[email-masked]"
-> json processing for "p/[email-masked]>bitcoin"
-> result : 1KHAL8bUjnkMRMg9yd2dNrYnJgZGH8Nj6T

* address : mymerchant.com
-> RPC to namecoin for "p/mymerchant.com"
-> json processing for "p/mymerchant.com->bitcoin"
-> json processing for "p/mymerchant.com->bitcoin->url" and
"p/mymerchant.com->bitcoin->fpr"
-> https request to "https://payto.mymerchant.com/bitcoin/"
-> result : 1xyxyxyxyxyxyxyxyxyxyxyxyxyxy

* address : mymerchant2
-> RPC to namecoin for "p/mymerchant2"
-> json processing for "p/mymerchant2->bitcoin"
-> json processing for "p/mymerchant2->bitcoin->url" and
"p/mymerchant2->bitcoin->fpr"
-> https request to "https://payto.mymerchant.com/bitcoin/"
-> result : error (website unavailable, page not found, timeout, etc)
-> json processing for "p/mymerchant2->bitcoin->dns"
-> dns request for "_bitcoin.payto.mymerchant.com"
-> result : 1xyxyxyxyxyxyxyxyxyxyxyxyxyxy

Le 13/12/2011 14:06, Gavin Andresen a écrit :
> I agree with Mike Hearn and Christian Decker-- paying to
> [email-masked]' should become, behind the scenes, a HTTPS query to
> https://foo.com/something. If you just want to (say) donate to
> eff.org, then paying to [email-masked]' aught to work nicely.
>
> And if namecoin ever takes off you'll pay to [email-masked]'.
>
> It seems to me that if it was DNS-based, the address should be
> something like 'somebody.bitcoin.foo.com'. But I think it is unlikely
> people will setup and run a custom DNS server just to support bitcoin
> payments.
>

-- 
Best Regards,
Khalahan
http://dot-bit.org/