On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 5:22 PM, Andy Parkins <andyparkins@gmail.com> w= rote:

On 2011 December 13 Tuesda= y, Amir Taaki wrote:

> Maybe I wasn't clear enough in the document, but this is the inten= t with
> the HTTPS proposal.

I don't like the idea of a hard-coded mapping at all. =A0We shoul= dn't be making
choices on behalf of server operators. =A0It's up to them how they arra= nge their
domain names and paths.

I also agree that DNS is not the technology to use. =A0DNS is a nightmare.<= br>

> genjix@foo.org
>
> Contacts https://foo.org/bitcoin-alias/?handle=3Dgenjix and the = system
> responds with a bitcoin address. Whether the system gives you a new > address from a pool of addresses, or contacts the merchant behind the<= br> > scenes is implementation defined.
>
> I'll clarify it later. This is the relevant line:
>
> string strRequestUrl =3D strDomain + "/bitcoin-alias/?handle=3D&q= uot; +
> pszEncodedNick;
>
> Between HTTPS service and server service, I lean slightly towards HTTP= S
> (automatic encrypted connection, CAs + all benefits of DNS). But still=
> interested in arguments in favour of a server service (daemon answerin= g
> queries).

Why bother with an encoding scheme at all? =A0If the address

=A0genjix@foo.org

always maps to

=A0https://foo.org/bitcoin-alias/?handle=3Dgenjix

Then forget the hardcoding of "https" the hardcoding of "bit= coin-alias" and
"?handle=3D" and the original email-looking "genjix@foo.org". =A0Just use the URL.
Then the author of the service can use whatever they want.

=A0"Can I pay you 10 BTC?"
=A0"Sure, send it to 'https://bitcoinalias.foo.org/genjix/'"<= br>
While I might implement my alias server like this:

=A0"Sure, send it to 'https://google.com/bitcoin/?andyparkins'&= quot;
=A0"Sure, send it to 'https://parkins.co.uk/"

... or any other URL they want -- any of which suit might suit me and my webserver better than whatever mapping would otherwise be hard-coded. =A0Th= e
world is already very familiar with URLs so this is no more scary than the<= br> email address. =A0What's more, the email address form looks _too much_ = like an
email address, and will only lead to confusion ... "send it to genjix@foo.org"
"so I use outlook express for that, right?" =A0"erm, no, you= put it in your
bitcoin client".

The URL form could easily be made to detect a browser connecting rather tha= n a
bitcoin client (and this is an area that would benefit from a standards
document -- define the headers and user agent triggers that an alias server=
expects) and give them better instructions.

https can be specified as the default, so =A0"https://" can be op= tional when
they're typing. =A0If, in the future, bitcoin gets a distributed peer-t= o-peer
alias system, then a new URL type can be added easily "bcalias://andyp= arkins"
might automatically find my node in the network and query it for an address=
(or whatever).

All of the above is exactly why OpenID chose to use URLs for ID.

Andy

--
Dr Andy Parkins
andyparkins@gmail.com

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