> > > Why do you need it? Because you don't want to implement a login system? > Very, very few websites are the sort of place where they'd want to > authenticate with only a Bitcoin address. If for no other reason than > they'd have no way to email you, and if you lost your wallet, you'd lose > all your associated data. > Well, the major difference is that you could sign up effortlessy to a service, and associate your email later. If more people sign up to more services, it's a good thing for the ecosystem. > > >> Without such a standard protocol, you could never envision a pure Bitcoin >> physical locker rental, or booking an hotel room via Bitcoin and opening >> the door through the paying address. >> > > In future there often won't be a simple paying address. For instance, if > my coins are in a multi-sig relationship with a risk analysis service, > there will be two keys for each input and an arbitrary number of inputs. So > does that mean the risk analysis service gets to open my locker? Why? > > What if I do a shared spend/CoinJoin type tx? Now anyone who took part in > the shared tx with me can get into my hotel room too? > > In a perfect world, you would pay your locker with a "normal" transaction. The same way you shouldn't play satoshi dice from a shared wallet. But your point is totaly valid, and I don't have answer to that except that I'd love to have a Bitcoin authenticated locker in our Bitcoin co working office. > > > These are the kinds of problems that crop up when you mix together two > different things: the act of paying, and the act of identifying yourself. > You're assuming that replacing a password people can remember with a > physical token (their phone) which can be stolen or lost, would be seen as > an upgrade. Given a choice between two physical lockers, one of which lets > me open it with a password and one of which insists on a cryptographic > token, I'm going to go for the former because the chances of me losing my > phone is much higher than me forgetting my password. > > All the tools you need already exist in the form of client certificates, > with the advantage that web servers and web browsers already support them. > The biggest pain point with them is backup and cross-device sync, which of > course wallets suffer from too! > Bitcoin users are normaly already paying some effort to securise and backup their wallets / keys. So it's just about leveraging that. I would myself pick a crypto locker, because I'm the kind of guy who Facebook connects and I follow the easiest path, even if it has long term costs :) Eric