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| 1 | +<pre> |
| 2 | + BIP: 179 |
| 3 | + Title: Name for payment recipient identifiers |
| 4 | + Author: Emil Engler < [email protected]> |
| 5 | + |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | + Comments-Summary: No comments yet. |
| 8 | + Comments-URI: https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/wiki/Comments:BIP-0179 |
| 9 | + Status: Draft |
| 10 | + Type: Informational |
| 11 | + Created: 2019-10-17 |
| 12 | + License: CC0-1.0 |
| 13 | +</pre> |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +==Abstract== |
| 16 | +This BIP proposes a new term for 'address' |
| 17 | + |
| 18 | +==Specification== |
| 19 | +The new term is: |
| 20 | +''Bitcoin'' '''Invoice''' ''Address'' |
| 21 | + |
| 22 | +The ''Bitcoin'' and ''Address'' parts are optional. |
| 23 | +The address suffix should only be used as a transitional step. |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | +A ''Bitcoin'' Invoice ''Address'' is a string of characters that can be used to indicate the intended recipient and purpose of a transaction. |
| 26 | + |
| 27 | +==Motivation== |
| 28 | +Bitcoin addresses are intended to be only used '''once''' and you should generate a new one for every new incoming payment. |
| 29 | +The term 'address' however indicates consistency because nearly everything on the internet or the offline world with the term 'address' |
| 30 | +is something that rarely or even never changes (postal address, email address, IP addresses (depends heavily on the provider), etc.) |
| 31 | +The motivation for this BIP is to change the term address to something that indicates that the address is connected to a single transaction. |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +==Rationale== |
| 34 | +The reason why we use ''Bitcoin Invoice Address'' or just ''Invoice'' is to emphasize that it is single-use. |
| 35 | +The terms ''Bitcoin'' and ''Address'' are optional for the following reasons: |
| 36 | +For ''Bitcoin'': |
| 37 | +* Useful for multicoin wallets to indicate that it belongs to Bitcoin |
| 38 | +* Indicates a difference between a lightning and an on-chain invoice |
| 39 | +For ''Address'': |
| 40 | +* To not confuse users with a completely new term |
| 41 | +* To show that it is where you send something to |
| 42 | +* To not break backwards compatibility |
| 43 | +
|
| 44 | +This gives us the four following possibilities: |
| 45 | +* Bitcoin Invoice Address |
| 46 | +* Bitcoin Invoice |
| 47 | +* Invoice Address |
| 48 | +* Invoice |
| 49 | +
|
| 50 | +==Backwards Compatibility== |
| 51 | +To avoid issues, the 'Address' suffix is permitted, but not recommended. |
| 52 | +The suffix 'Address' remains so users should be immediately able to recognize it until the new term is widely known. |
| 53 | + |
| 54 | +==Acknowledgements== |
| 55 | +Thanks to Chris Belcher for the suggestion of the term 'Bitcoin Invoice Address' |
| 56 | + |
| 57 | +==Copyright== |
| 58 | +This BIP is released under CC0-1.0 and therefore Public Domain. |
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