[Bitcoin-ml] Proposal to deploy cashaddr January, 14

Shammah Chancellor shammah.chancellor at gmail.com
Wed Nov 15 01:06:22 UTC 2017


I support doing this as soon as possible..

This is currently a huge problem, I support fixing this ASAP.  I've talked to quite a few people who have lost funds in one way or another already.  I've personally tried to send people BCH and they end up providing me the wrong address -- so now I have to triple confirm with a screenshot to ensure I'm getting an address that will work.  Transactions need to be both quick from a confirmation perspective, and easy to handle interpersonally.

W/R/T the addresses holding multiple assets, this is still possible as only the textual format is changing, not the actual addresses.

-Shea

> On Nov 14, 2017, at 4:25 PM, Amaury Séchet via bitcoin-ml <bitcoin-ml at lists.linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
> 
> Dear Bitcoin Cash community,
> 
> Bitcoin Cash has been in need for a new address format for quite some time. There is an immediate problem as people mistakenly send BCH to BTC address and vice versa, which is made worse by the fact that segwit on the BTC chain had the brilliant idea to leverage outputs that anyone can spend, which make the recovery of the funds delicate on the Bitcoin Cash chain.
> 
> Because this need is pressing, companies like Bitpay started using incompatible addresses format and this is causing fragmentation in the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem. I do not wish to blame Bitpay, they took action to solve the problem their business faces, this is good business from their part.
> 
> However, while the problem of funds sent on the wrong chain is pressing, there are other reasons we need to update the address format. It is imperative that the chosen standard for Bitcoin Cash address the various issues present with the current address format as we cannot change addresses every other tuesday. The most important one being that current outputs are using 160 bits hashes for multiparty contracts such as multisig, which is really playing with the limit of what can be considered secure. It is also desirable that the format chosen can accommodate new features we wish to deploy, or, in other terms, be extensible.
> 
> As a result, I propose to upgrade to the cashaddr format. This format ( https://github.com/Bitcoin-UAHF/spec/blob/master/cashaddr.md <https://github.com/Bitcoin-UAHF/spec/blob/master/cashaddr.md> ) is based on work from Rusty Russel ( https://rusty.ozlabs.org/?p=578 <https://rusty.ozlabs.org/?p=578> ) and uses BCH codes in order to ensure error detection as suggested by Pieter Wuille for bech32.
> 
> Using a new format will prevent users from mistakenly sending money on the wrong chain. It also accept payloads up to 512 bits which ensures we can deploy more secure way of doing multiparty smart contract in the future. Finally, it uses a version field ensuring we can encode new features in these addresses in the future without having to use a new format.
> 
> In addition of these must have features, cashaddr improve on several aspects of current address format in a way that may not justify in itself to use a new format, but are nevertheless really nice to have.
>  - It uses a very strong checksum which ensure detection of up to 6 errors in an address and 8 in ‘burst’. Larger number of errors have one chance over a thousand billion to lead to a valid address.
>  - It encode more compactly in QR codes as it allows the use of the alphanumeric mode.
>  - It is much faster to encode and decode than the previous format, which is important for system having to handle a large number of addresses.
> 
> In order to reduce confusion for users with the use of different addresses, I think it is important to deploy this shortly and stop the fragmentation of the ecosystem. Deploying such a change on the network will take some time for all wallet, exchanges and merchant to upgrade. Christmas and new year is coming soon and nobody want to do such an upgrade during this time. As a result, I propose we aim for a deployment around Jan, 14 . This leaves 2 month for everybody to get ready which I think is reasonable. Delaying further would push us into the Chinese new year territory, which is also undesirable.
> 
> The next version of Bitcoin ABC will include support for cashaddr, hidden behind a configuration at first, so people can experiment with it. I would like to invite via this message various participants in the ecosystem to do the same.
> 
> Let's do it ?
> 
> Amaury Séchet
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> bitcoin-ml at lists.linuxfoundation.org
> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-ml

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