Not a good idea.I could go into technical stuff but let's save it for another day.The idea has been discussed before,not exactly this but much smaller range of integers like maximum 5 digits.That was a turn down too.In your case,it's equally difficult to remember.Until and unless we associate bitcoin addresses with something that is far easier to remember,example,human brains forget the text but pictorial memories live for longer time in brain.Maybe if we can associate a bitcoin address to a picture and human has to just remember the picture.
Joel,
sorry but I can't see your point. I have never intended this format to be "remembered".
It is however a format that can be typed relatively easily and doesn't (IMHO) scare an user the way a traditional bitcoin address does.
I am not sure this forum is the best place to appreciate this. We are technical people and are comfortable with hashes, Base64 encoding, hex representations...
For a normal person, an address like
19xuKwgfphk3mMaN7TEYYYULLou671KxfC is scary.
Just compare it with
BTC.443860.3.0.8803362The way I see it, using this way to transfer (a decent amount of) money has the following benefits:
a) Way less scary
b) Compact (15 decimal digits in the example vs 34 case sensitive alphanumeric positions)
c) Possible to be dictated and typed easily (only needs the numerical keypad)
d) Secure (mostly but not only, because of the checksum)
e) Familiar; very similar to what regular people use to transfer money
f) Doesn't need any external database or service, it just makes use of the blockchain
g) The implementation in a wallet is ridiculously easy
h) Doesn't require major testing, since it doesn't change the bitcoin protocol in any way
i) It is completely optional. You can use if you need it and when you need it.
g) You can even use it without a software implementation (Just use the blockchain.info website)
h) Could be a good match for LN payments (not absolutely sure of this, however, see my previous post)
It has also the following challenges:
a) Not implemented anywhere. Just an idea (yet)
b) Not valid for every transaction (it doesn't intend to, anyway)
c) It could have some security risks I am not capable of seeing (that's the top reason I posted this, btw)
d) Needs a standard (Anyone would like to help me writing a BIP for it?)
Bitcoin will have to become much more user friendly to achieve the kind of reach we all expect it to.
Bitcoin is clearly a ginormous technical achievement. However, money is not just a technology but also a social construct. Most of the people I know, couldn't care less about the trustless consensus nature of bitcoin, its mathematical properties, ...
When they hear about 'Miners' and 'Exchanges' instead of banks, 'Wallets' and 'Addresses' instead of bank accounts, 'Digital signatures', 'Elliptical curves',... they really get confused and scared. (And there are really many reasons to be scared. I would be terrified if I were the person responsible to make this
194,993 BTC transaction). I believe we would be fooling ourselves if we think the bitcoin user interface (addresses, units of measure, confusion in the name of the network, the protocol, etc.) doesn't need a
radical overhaul.
If we neglect the social aspects of bitcoin, by not improving also its non-technical deficits, it won't succeed as a payment platform. Maybe what we have is enough for it to succeed as a settlement network for an investor to be happy, but I think we can do much better.
Note: For the less technical people reading this -> let me repeat again that I am not proposing any change at all in the bitcoin protocol. This would only be an additional feature for a wallet that would not prevent you from using QRs or whatever method you are more comfortable with. Also, it doesn't need any kind of soft fork, hard fork, or fish fork