It seems base58 is actually quite terrible for producing nice human-recognizable addresses, even though base58 is specially intended for human usage. We'll just have to deal with it, or completely overhaul it and move to a saner encoding.
Luke's proposal is somewhat more drastic than my original one, since it removes the actual "version" notion from the version bytes, and changes testnet addresses. However, I think it may be worth it. More data classes have been necessary before, and new versions haven't. Furthermore, they are far more recognizable to users, which is something that in particular for OP_EVAL addresses (script hashes) will be a plus. Therefore, I'm in favor of the proposal; the new versions would become: 0: mainnet pubkey hashes ('1', as before) 192: testnet pubnet hashes ('2', instead of 111, 'm' and 'n') 5: mainnet script hashes ('3'; for OP_EVAL) 196: testnet script hashes ('2', same as normal testnet addresses) 12: mainnet private keys ('Q', 'R' or 'S', instead of 128, '5') 204: testnet private keys ('7', instead of 239, '8' and '9') Comments? -- Pieter ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Learn Windows Azure Live! Tuesday, Dec 13, 2011 Microsoft is holding a special Learn Windows Azure training event for developers. It will provide a great way to learn Windows Azure and what it provides. You can attend the event by watching it streamed LIVE online. Learn more at http://p.sf.net/sfu/ms-windowsazure _______________________________________________ Bitcoin-development mailing list Bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development