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From: Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@bitpay.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 14:09:13 -0500
Message-ID: <CAJHLa0OTynX4oiQoyanpRKE2tpAuS4L5X-2j20328725J9RrvQ@mail.gmail.com>
To: Richard Brady <rnbrady@gmail.com>
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Cc: Bitcoin <bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net>
Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] BIP70: why Google Protocol Buffers for
	encoding?
Precedence: list

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Text formats such as XML or JSON are far less deterministic, are more
loosely specified, have wide variance in parsing, are not very hash-able,
the list goes on.


On Mon, Jan 19, 2015 at 2:07 PM, Richard Brady <rnbrady@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Gavin, Mike and co
>
> Is there a strong driver behind the choice of Google Protocol Buffers for
> payment request encoding in BIP-0070?
>
> Performance doesn't feel that relevant when you think that:
> 1. Payment requests are not broadcast, this is a request / response flow,
> much more akin to a web request.
> 2. One would be cramming this data into a binary format just so you can
> then attach it to a no-so-binary format such as HTTP.
>
> Some great things about protocols/encodings such as HTTP/JSON/XML are:
> 1. They are human readable on-the-wire. No Wireshark plugin required,
> tcpdump or ngrep will do.
> 2. There are tons of great open source libraries and API for parsing /
> manipulating / generating.
> 3. It's really easy to hand-craft a test message for debugging.
> 4. The standards are much easier to read and write. They don't need to
> contain code like BIP-0070 currently does and they can contain examples,
> which BIP70 does not.
> 5. They are thoroughly specified by independent standards bodies such as
> the IETF. Gotta love a bit of MUST / SHOULD / MAY in a standard.
> 6. They're a family ;-)
>
> Keen to hear your thoughts on this and very keen to watch the payment
> protocol grow regardless of encoding choice! My background is SIP / VoIP
> and I think that could be a fascinating use case for this protocol which
> I'm hoping to do some work on.
>
> Best,
> Richard
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> New Year. New Location. New Benefits. New Data Center in Ashburn, VA.
> GigeNET is offering a free month of service with a new server in Ashburn.
> Choose from 2 high performing configs, both with 100TB of bandwidth.
> Higher redundancy.Lower latency.Increased capacity.Completely compliant.
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/gigenet
> _______________________________________________
> Bitcoin-development mailing list
> Bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development
>
>


-- 
Jeff Garzik
Bitcoin core developer and open source evangelist
BitPay, Inc.      https://bitpay.com/

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<div dir=3D"ltr">Text formats such as XML or JSON are far less deterministi=
c, are more loosely specified, have wide variance in parsing, are not very =
hash-able, the list goes on.<br><br></div><div class=3D"gmail_extra"><br><d=
iv class=3D"gmail_quote">On Mon, Jan 19, 2015 at 2:07 PM, Richard Brady <sp=
an dir=3D"ltr">&lt;<a href=3D"mailto:rnbrady@gmail.com" target=3D"_blank">r=
nbrady@gmail.com</a>&gt;</span> wrote:<br><blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote"=
 style=3D"margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><d=
iv dir=3D"ltr">Hi Gavin, Mike and co<div><br></div><div>Is there a strong d=
river behind the choice of Google Protocol Buffers for payment request enco=
ding in BIP-0070?</div><div><br></div><div>Performance doesn&#39;t feel tha=
t relevant when you think that:</div><div>1. Payment requests are not broad=
cast, this is a request / response flow, much more akin to a web request.</=
div><div>2. One would be cramming this data into a binary format just so yo=
u can then attach it to a no-so-binary format such as HTTP.=C2=A0</div><div=
><br></div><div>Some great things about protocols/encodings such as HTTP/JS=
ON/XML are:</div><div>1. They are human readable on-the-wire. No Wireshark =
plugin required, tcpdump or ngrep will do.</div><div>2. There are tons of g=
reat open source libraries and API for parsing / manipulating / generating.=
</div><div>3. It&#39;s really easy to hand-craft a test message for debuggi=
ng.<br></div><div>4. The standards are much easier to read and write. They =
don&#39;t need to contain code like BIP-0070 currently does and they can co=
ntain examples, which BIP70 does not.=C2=A0</div><div>5. They are thoroughl=
y specified by independent standards bodies such as the IETF. Gotta love a =
bit of MUST / SHOULD / MAY in a standard.</div><div>6. They&#39;re a family=
 ;-)</div><div><br></div><div>Keen to hear your thoughts on this and very k=
een to watch the payment protocol grow regardless of encoding choice! My ba=
ckground is SIP / VoIP and I think that could be a fascinating use case for=
 this protocol which I&#39;m hoping to do some work on.</div><div><br></div=
><div>Best,</div><div>Richard</div><div><br></div></div>
<br>-----------------------------------------------------------------------=
-------<br>
New Year. New Location. New Benefits. New Data Center in Ashburn, VA.<br>
GigeNET is offering a free month of service with a new server in Ashburn.<b=
r>
Choose from 2 high performing configs, both with 100TB of bandwidth.<br>
Higher redundancy.Lower latency.Increased capacity.Completely compliant.<br=
>
<a href=3D"http://p.sf.net/sfu/gigenet" target=3D"_blank">http://p.sf.net/s=
fu/gigenet</a><br>_______________________________________________<br>
Bitcoin-development mailing list<br>
<a href=3D"mailto:Bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net">Bitcoin-develo=
pment@lists.sourceforge.net</a><br>
<a href=3D"https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development=
" target=3D"_blank">https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-de=
velopment</a><br>
<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear=3D"all"><br>-- <br><div class=3D"gmail=
_signature">Jeff Garzik<br>Bitcoin core developer and open source evangelis=
t<br>BitPay, Inc. =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0<a href=3D"https://bitpay.com/" targe=
t=3D"_blank">https://bitpay.com/</a></div>
</div>

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