Re: [bitcoin-dev] BIPable-idea: Consistent and better definition of the term 'address'

From: Chris Belcher <belcher@riseup•net>
To: bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation.org
Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] BIPable-idea: Consistent and better definition of the term 'address'
Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2019 20:32:13 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <6fe67006-7131-a861-61fa-65392d5be069@riseup.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <58e44347-6eee-a0c3-3b8a-965c7450780e@emilengler.com>

This is an excellent idea and I hope something like this happens.

I've had the idea of using an intermediate name to make the transition
easier, for example "Bitcoin address" becomes "Bitcoin invoice address"
which after 10 years becomes "Bitcoin invoice" (or "Bitcoin invoice").

"Invoice" would also work well because Lightning uses the name invoice
for the object which is used to receive payments. So it's easy to
imagine that the GUI text input presented to users can be called
"invoice" and users can put both kinds of invoices there leaving the
wallet to easily figure out whether it makes an on-chain transaction or
a Lightning Network transaction.

Changing a commonly-used name like this could be very hard, but the
gains in terms of privacy are immense.

On 05/10/2019 22:57, Emil Engler via bitcoin-dev wrote:
> Hello dear mailing list subscribers.
> Before I'll explain my idea here, I need to define a term first
> 
> 'address':
> When I use the terms address, pubkey, etc., I mean the same: The Base58
> string
> 
> Ok now let's get into it:
> As you should know, sending bitcoins to an address more than once is a
> very bad approach.
> In my opinion the problem why so many people are still doing this is
> because of the term 'address' which is used in lots of wallets,
> implementations, BIP 21 and so on. It is a design issue.
> With the term 'address' most people identify things that are fixed and
> don't change really often (e.g postal address, IP address [depends on
> provider], Domain, E-Mail address, ...).
> Because of this most people compare bitcoin addresses with e-mail
> addresses and use this address to send the recipient money multiple times.
> 
> My suggestion would be to change the term address in wallets, the URI
> scheme and so on to something of the following options by a
> Informational/Process BIP:
> 
> * Payment Password
> * Transaction Password
> * ...
> 
> The guideline for the term should indicate that it is:
> * temporary
> * Something that identifies the recipient
> 
> I've chosen 'password' because they can be used as a pseudonym to
> identify a person.
> This is already used in stuff like bank transfers where something like
> the transaction id should be used as the purpose or at universities
> there are student numbers.
> The first is probably a better example because student numbers aren't
> temporary.
> 
> What do you think? Should I write a BIP for this or use another term?
> Feedback is most welcome :)
> 
> Greetings,
> Emil Engler
> 
> 
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