[bitcoin-dev] Human readable checksum (verification code) to avoid errors on BTC public addresses

ts ts at cronosurf.com
Sat Aug 21 04:52:16 UTC 2021


Good day Christopher,

Thanks for your comment! LifeHash looks indeed quite interesting. I can imagine some examples 
where it would be very useful, and I guess it could be used as a visual verification for the 
address in a wallet as well.

However, for my proposal (Human readable checksum (verification code) to avoid errors) it 
could have the following disadvantages:

1. It would be only one standard instead of one standard per crypto network (it should be 
different on each of them as described in the proposal). This could be solved with the 
inclusion of a network identifier somehow, but would increase the complexity of the 
implementation.

2. For this special use case, a simple 3 to 4 digit code is easier to implement than a 
graphic, and easier to include in an existing app, with minimal layout changes. The simpler it 
is, the more likely it will be for developers to actually implement it.

3. A graphic cannot be communicated by voice (in some situations this could be an easier way 
to communicate the verification code)

Greetings,
TS



Christopher Allen wrote on 8/19/21 12:37 PM:
> As an alternative, you might want to consider LifeHash, which includes a visual indicator as 
> well as a readable fingerprint value.
> 
> LifeHash is an open source visual hashing algorithm that we use for all our projects. Lifehash 
> has a number of desirable qualities, including high complexity, good aesthetics, a 
> printer-friendly (CMYK) color gamut and robustness when transformed to grayscale.
> 
> * [LifeHask Overview and links to reference 
> code](https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/lifehash 
> <https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/lifehash>)
> 
> * [LifeHash Explainer on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu0K__KLxKo 
> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu0K__KLxKo>)
> 
> * [Our LifeHash UX best practices - The Object Identity 
> Block](https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/Research/blob/master/papers/bcr-2021-002-digest.md#object-identity-block 
> <https://github.com/BlockchainCommons/Research/blob/master/papers/bcr-2021-002-digest.md#object-identity-block>)
> 
> -- Christopher Allen
>     Principal Architect, Blockchain Commons
> 
> 


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