Adding namecoin "id/" namespace support into bitmessage

[domob]

I think the basic interfacing code to do RPC calls is (somewhat) reusable. Do you think it would make sense to abstract it even more so that one file can be copied to a new project without any changes? This would basically just mean removing the BM specific configuration routines and putting them into another file.
Do you think it would indeed be a good idea to try integrating that into Electrum? I can try that out - although I've so far not yet used it at all.

It does raise the interesting point to ponder what a generic namecoin-enabler plug-in/add-on might look like ... e.g. I see people are configuring Thunderbird to use BM-protocol http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppk_zzjZRIgso a namecoin id/ enabled Thunderbird or any email client and once you start down that path ... then the possibilities seem to increase considerably for using this technique for authenticated messaging of many kinds

Interesting ideas, indeed! However, I'm not sure if you can really implement a "generic namecoin-enabler". After all, namecoin itself is that kind of generic piece. The code to integrate it into Bitmessage or any other application is not so complicated (just opening a local HTTP connection to perform a JSON-RPC call). If your target application is written in a different language than the "plug in", you need "glue code" anyway - and my code is in fact not much more than this anyway. However, at least of the application is in Python (as Electrum is?) you can just copy the code over and all you need to do is merge it to the UI.

Also for Thunderbird (Mozilla in general), I have similar "glue code" talking to namecoind for my NameID add-on, which could be copied as JavaScript module just the same. I wonder though what would be the point in adding Namecoin identities to Thunderbird? Querying for an email address seems not that useful (but could be done of course) since the email address is already human-readable (usually at least, if you don't register some random letters @ gmail.com over Tor for an anonymous address). What would be more interesting in my opinion is integration with PGP / Enigmail so that you could verify keys as matching to some namecoin identity. Or maybe a plugin for Pidgin that verifies OTR fingerprints.

[phelix]

I think the basic interfacing code to do RPC calls is (somewhat) reusable. Do you think it would make sense to abstract it even more so that one file can be copied to a new project without any changes? This would basically just mean removing the BM specific configuration routines and putting them into another file.
Do you think it would indeed be a good idea to try integrating that into Electrum? I can try that out - although I've so far not yet used it at all.

It does raise the interesting point to ponder what a generic namecoin-enabler plug-in/add-on might look like ... e.g. I see people are configuring Thunderbird to use BM-protocol http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppk_zzjZRIgso a namecoin id/ enabled Thunderbird or any email client and once you start down that path ... then the possibilities seem to increase considerably for using this technique for authenticated messaging of many kinds

Interesting ideas, indeed! However, I'm not sure if you can really implement a "generic namecoin-enabler". After all, namecoin itself is that kind of generic piece. The code to integrate it into Bitmessage or any other application is not so complicated (just opening a local HTTP connection to perform a JSON-RPC call). If your target application is written in a different language than the "plug in", you need "glue code" anyway - and my code is in fact not much more than this anyway. However, at least of the application is in Python (as Electrum is?) you can just copy the code over and all you need to do is merge it to the UI.

Also for Thunderbird (Mozilla in general), I have similar "glue code" talking to namecoind for my NameID add-on, which could be copied as JavaScript module just the same. I wonder though what would be the point in adding Namecoin identities to Thunderbird? Querying for an email address seems not that useful (but could be done of course) since the email address is already human-readable (usually at least, if you don't register some random letters @ gmail.com over Tor for an anonymous address). What would be more interesting in my opinion is integration with PGP / Enigmail so that you could verify keys as matching to some namecoin identity. Or maybe a plugin for Pidgin that verifies OTR fingerprints.

I agree, less files is good for acceptance of plugins.

Electrum is written in Python indeed, that's why I suggested it. I don't know if it is as useful as with Bitmessage as people like to use different Bitcoin addresses.

In the video Moa is referring to, somebody is using Bitmessage via Thunderbird (through bmwrapper). I am not sure what the big advantage of this is.

What would be more interesting in my opinion is integration with PGP / Enigmail so that you could verify keys as matching to some namecoin identity.

This is a good idea, much more useful.

[domob]

Electrum is written in Python indeed, that's why I suggested it. I don't know if it is as useful as with Bitmessage as people like to use different Bitcoin addresses.

I thought about this. Isn't there already a proposal in the id-namespace description for a system to get unique addresses? Like an URL which when queried gives out fresh addresses after each other (or at least from some pool), and to secure the authenticity one can sign the message with the identity private key or the key of some fixed address or so.

Do you think it would be a good idea to develop this further, so that Electrum could perform the query and check the signature instead of "just" returning a fixed address if this was specified in the identity? I could try to implement such a scheme after basic, fixed addresses as with Bitmessage are working. I could also provide code for the server-side part of this, and possibly even add some "hosting" scheme of addresses to NameID for those who don't care about me knowing their addresses and that don't have a server on their own. This would at least be better than using a fixed public address.

Well, as you see, there are lots of ideas and possibilities.... What do you think? I'm willing to give it a try and see how Electrum plugins work. Or do you think it would be better to work on public key checks next (GPG or OTR are interesting)?

[moa]

Well, as you see, there are lots of ideas and possibilities.... What do you think? I'm willing to give it a try and see how Electrum plugins work. Or do you think it would be better to work on public key checks next (GPG or OTR are interesting)?

I think GPG and OTR would be a good place to start for namecoin authenticated messaging applications.

[domob]

Well, as you see, there are lots of ideas and possibilities.... What do you think? I'm willing to give it a try and see how Electrum plugins work. Or do you think it would be better to work on public key checks next (GPG or OTR are interesting)?

I think GPG and OTR would be a good place to start for namecoin authenticated messaging applications.

Discussion moved here: https://dot-bit.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1045

[domob]

And it finally happened, my patch was just merged into mainline Bitmessage. (Although the button seems to be shown only when namecoin is present and configured correctly, so people who don't yet know about it can only find it in the settings dialog.)

[biolizard89]

And it finally happened, my patch was just merged into mainline Bitmessage. (Although the button seems to be shown only when namecoin is present and configured correctly, so people who don't yet know about it can only find it in the settings dialog.)

Awesome!

[virtual_master]

And it finally happened, my patch was just merged into mainline Bitmessage. (Although the button seems to be shown only when namecoin is present and configured correctly, so people who don't yet know about it can only find it in the settings dialog.)

That sounds really fantastic. I have to look on the newest Bitmessage version.

[phelix]

And it finally happened, my patch was just merged into mainline Bitmessage. (Although the button seems to be shown only when namecoin is present and configured correctly, so people who don't yet know about it can only find it in the settings dialog.)

Great! I think that is a good solution.

[moa]

Well done. Just fyi it appears to work fine in main branch also (although haven't tested with nmcontrol yet).