Received: from sog-mx-2.v43.ch3.sourceforge.com ([172.29.43.192] helo=mx.sourceforge.net) by sfs-ml-4.v29.ch3.sourceforge.com with esmtp (Exim 4.76) (envelope-from ) id 1UmOMP-0002Lq-U4 for bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net; Tue, 11 Jun 2013 13:11:41 +0000 Received-SPF: pass (sog-mx-2.v43.ch3.sourceforge.com: domain of gmail.com designates 209.85.217.177 as permitted sender) client-ip=209.85.217.177; envelope-from=melvincarvalho@gmail.com; helo=mail-lb0-f177.google.com; Received: from mail-lb0-f177.google.com ([209.85.217.177]) by sog-mx-2.v43.ch3.sourceforge.com with esmtps (TLSv1:RC4-SHA:128) (Exim 4.76) id 1UmOMO-0007pb-KH for bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net; Tue, 11 Jun 2013 13:11:41 +0000 Received: by mail-lb0-f177.google.com with SMTP id 10so7007287lbf.36 for ; Tue, 11 Jun 2013 06:11:33 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Received: by 10.152.120.133 with SMTP id lc5mr7414013lab.76.1370956293802; Tue, 11 Jun 2013 06:11:33 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.112.2.8 with HTTP; Tue, 11 Jun 2013 06:11:33 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:11:33 +0200 Message-ID: From: Melvin Carvalho To: Bitcoin Dev Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=089e01176919e50f4504dee0a249 X-Spam-Score: -0.6 (/) X-Spam-Report: Spam Filtering performed by mx.sourceforge.net. See http://spamassassin.org/tag/ for more details. -1.5 SPF_CHECK_PASS SPF reports sender host as permitted sender for sender-domain 0.0 FREEMAIL_FROM Sender email is commonly abused enduser mail provider (melvincarvalho[at]gmail.com) -0.0 SPF_PASS SPF: sender matches SPF record 1.0 HTML_MESSAGE BODY: HTML included in message -0.1 DKIM_VALID_AU Message has a valid DKIM or DK signature from author's domain 0.1 DKIM_SIGNED Message has a DKIM or DK signature, not necessarily valid -0.1 DKIM_VALID Message has at least one valid DKIM or DK signature X-Headers-End: 1UmOMO-0007pb-KH Subject: [Bitcoin-development] Bitcoin addresses -- opaque or not X-BeenThere: bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9 Precedence: list List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 13:11:42 -0000 --089e01176919e50f4504dee0a249 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 There was some confusion on IRC as to whether bitcoin addresses are opaque or not. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Address For the sake of argument let's say that opaque means that you can tell nothing about the address by examining the characters. My understanding was that they are NOT opaque, and that if that has changed, it will invalidate much at least some wiki page, for examples at least some of the following would now be false: -------- "A Bitcoin address, or simply address, is an identifier of 27-34 alphanumeric characters" -- FALSE "with the number 1 or 3" -- FALSE "you can send bitcoins to a person by sending bitcoins to one of their addresses" -- FALSE "Addresses are created simply by generating random numbers and then performing mathematical operations to derive matching pairs of "public" and "private" keys" -- FALSE "The probability that a mistyped address is accepted as being valid is 1 in 232, that is, approximately 1 in 4.29 billion" -- FALSE "If you would like to validate a Bitcoin address in an application, it is advisable to use a method from this thread rather than to just check for string length, allowed characters, or that the address starts with a 1 or 3." -- FALSE "For most properly-generated Bitcoin addresses, there is at least one secret number known as a private key" -- FALSE "They consist of random digits and uppercase and lowercase letters, with the exception that the uppercase letter "O", uppercase letter "I", lowercase letter "l", and the number "0" are never used to prevent visual ambiguity" -- FALSE "Some Bitcoin addresses can be shorter than 34 characters (as few as 27)" -- FALSE "Several of the characters inside a Bitcoin address are used as a checksum so that typographical errors can be automatically found and rejected" -- FALSE "The checksum also allows Bitcoin software to confirm that a 33-character (or shorter) address is in fact valid and isn't simply an address with a missing character" -- FALSE -------- I also here that there is a LIKELY change from the base58 encoding ... when was this established? There's either been some bit changes to the fundamentals of bitcoin here or there's been some misunderstandings. It would be good to clear things up as to what exactly an address is now beleived to be, and reflect that in the wiki. --089e01176919e50f4504dee0a249 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
There was some confusion on IRC as to = whether bitcoin addresses are opaque or not.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Address

For the sake of argument let's say that opaque means that you can tell = nothing about the address by examining the characters.

My unde= rstanding was that they are NOT opaque, and that if that has changed, it wi= ll invalidate much at least some wiki page, for examples at least some of t= he following would now be false:

--------
"A Bitcoin address, or simply address, is an identifie= r of 27-34 alphanumeric characters" -- FALSE

"with the num= ber 1 or 3" -- FALSE

"you can send bitcoins to a person by= sending bitcoins to one of their addresses" -- FALSE

"Addresses are created simply by generating random numbers and the= n performing mathematical operations to derive matching pairs of "publ= ic" and "private" keys" -- FALSE

"The proba= bility that a mistyped address is accepted as being valid is 1 in 232, that= is, approximately 1 in 4.29 billion" -- FALSE

"If you would like to validate a Bitcoin address in an application= , it is advisable to use a method from this thread rather than to just chec= k for string length, allowed characters, or that the address starts with a = 1 or 3." -- FALSE

"For most properly-generated Bitcoin addresses, there is at least = one secret number known as a private key" -- FALSE

"They c= onsist of random digits and uppercase and lowercase letters, with the excep= tion that the uppercase letter "O", uppercase letter "I"= ;, lowercase letter "l", and the number "0" are never u= sed to prevent visual ambiguity" -- FALSE

"Some Bitcoin addresses can be shorter than 34 characters (as few = as 27)" -- FALSE

"Several of the characters inside a Bitco= in address are used as a checksum so that typographical errors can be autom= atically found and rejected" -- FALSE

"The checksum also allows Bitcoin software to confirm that a 33-ch= aracter (or shorter) address is in fact valid and isn't simply an addre= ss with a missing character" -- FALSE
--------

I also = here that there is a LIKELY change from the base58 encoding ... when was th= is established?=A0

There's either been some bit changes to the fundamentals of bitcoin= here or there's been some misunderstandings.=A0 It would be good to cl= ear things up as to what exactly an address is now beleived to be, and refl= ect that in the wiki.


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