Author: Chris Priest 2017-09-27 19:35:33
Published on: 2017-09-27T19:35:33+00:00
The re-use of old Bitcoin addresses is a major problem. To address this issue, Peter Todd suggested adding a UI-level expiration time to the new BIP173 address format. Wallets would consider addresses as invalid as a destination for funds after the expiration time is reached. An even better solution is to set up an "address expiration service". When a wallet is deleted, an "expiration notice" is sent off saying "I am about to delete this address, here is my new address". When someone tries to send to that address, they consult the address expiration service, which will either tell them "this address is not expired, proceed", or "this address has been expired, please send to this other address instead...". This could be thought of as a 301 redirect, but for addresses. Hour resolution or month resolution could be used for the expiration time. The former is short enough that UI's can simply display an "exact" time, while the latter is long enough that rounding off to the nearest day in the local timezone is fine.
Updated on: 2023-06-12T19:06:08.384550+00:00