Author: Walter Stanish 2011-12-16 04:32:17
Published on: 2011-12-16T04:32:17+00:00
Bitcoin users want to use alternate representations of bitcoin addresses, but the blockchain is the only way of distributed consensus within the network. However, blockchain bloat is already an issue. Leaving out the blockchain, there are still ways to implement aliasing. The core problem for an extra-blockchain aliasing system is usability and security. Usability is important because people want aliases to make it easier to type or remember addresses. Security is essential because a user of the aliasing system is going to trust it to translate a particular alias to a bitcoin address without any chance of getting it back if sent somewhere wrong by accident. Three qualities are meaningful for such an alias system: First, arbitrary aliases are not in use, meaning memory-based mnemonics are not subject to predictable squatting-style attacks. Second, checksum systems detect transposition errors. Third, conventional financial systems typically require recipient name and sometimes address or business tax numbers in some countries' domestic schemes as part of the transaction.Finally, an increasing number of countries use an aliasing scheme (IBAN) that is familiar to users. Doing so for digital currencies like Bitcoin increases usability, which was one of the original goals. It is best to keep the code as simple as possible, to 'do one thing' and 'do it well.' For bitcoind, that something is achieving a distributed internet-based financial system free from legacy centralized currencies. It is not worrying about making it look pretty or easy to use, which can be achieved by layering external systems by translating various alternate representations ('aliases') to the well-defined bitcoin addressing scheme.
Updated on: 2023-06-04T21:56:52.480624+00:00