I now own a name ON btc using @spacesprotocol Not a domain or a username. A name I hold like a coin. Why that matters: Today you pay someone by pasting this:
bc1pknhdaw3jyhvcalyrkulw2hwmqvc5q65ch9gkpnvvhrfajyedjgvqmn3w0c
62 characters. Terrible. Names fix that but the names we have are rented. A registrar keeps the record, and a chain of companies and governments sits above it. They can drop you from it at any time. Spaces puts the name on Bitcoin itself: • @bitsaga is a small Bitcoin coin & only my key can move it.
• rob@bitsaga is a handle I issued myself. One 32-byte fingerprint on Bitcoin covers all handles I might attach.
• It points to a silent payment address, so every payer gets a fresh private address ^^ How does a wallet trust the answer? It does not trust, it checks. A relay hands over a proof (about 3 KB). The wallet verifies it against Bitcoin. The relay can be slow or offline but it cannot lie. I run my own relay at spacesrelay.bitsaga.be, on my own node. I resolved rob@bitsaga through it and checked the answer against my own node. Same address, two names:
- [email protected], found through DNS (BIP 353)
- rob@bitsaga, found through Bitcoin (Spaces) Cost: 6,882 sats in network fees. I renew it once a year. BUT: almost no wallet reads Spaces names yet. It is very early. So I wrote it all down, with the commands to check it yourself on your own node. Full article on the website: