Namecoin Forum

Because of the Consensus Bug old v0.3.80 clients will soon be degraded to SPV security. It would be nice to offer a GUI solution with Namecore.

There was a previous discussion here which did not really go anywhere.

The two solutions at hand as I see them:

1.) Port the "Manage Names Tab" from the old client to Namecore.
Note the name management tab and underlying logic is more complicated than one might expect (e.g. name_firstupdate saving the name_update fee).
Moa offered a (so far unspecified) bounty for porting.

Advantages:

• Wallet integration gives best user experience

Disadvantages:

• Maintenance
  Somebody will have to maintain updates. Last time I heard Domob does not want to do this for various good reasons so I suggest a fork off namecore-master.

2.) Use a Python RPC frontend for name operations.
Currently in alpha state: nameGUI

Advantages

• Easy of implementation and maintenance
  Being written in Python and being independent from Bitcoin/Namecore makes handling easier.
• Synergy
  Code can be shared with NMControl and other Namecoin software (API Server, Applications).
• Extensibility
  Adding new features is easy. For example name lookups or atomic name trading within the GUI (nametrade/ANTPY).

Disadvantages

• Separate GUI
  Name Operations will have to be done in a separate GUI

NMDF could pitch in a bit for both projects.

Before I put more work into nameGUI I would like to hear some opinions and that there is a chance of it having a future as an official Namecoin software.

I think, for simplicity, it's better that namecore just follows bitcoin core and that all the name-functions be integrated somehow in a package.

That way, people looking into .bit domains are able to register and browse .bit domains downloading just one additional piece of software.

Being able to launch it from a click on nmcontrol systray icon would be ideal.

To reiterate my opinion on this:

Having a separate application for name-related wallet functions as compared to currency-related wallet functions is bad for usability. It also makes some features much harder to implement, such as coin control for names (which is very important). I think that we should be basing our wallet-related applications on existing Bitcoin wallets, such as Bitcoin Core, Armory, Multibit, etc. It therefore makes sense to add name management to Namecoin Core. The code for this is close to working; I think moa estimated it would be a couple days of work to port it from 0.3.80 to Namecoin Core.

I do wish that Bitcoin Core had some better abstraction between wallet and GUI, although from what Michael Gronager told me it actually is pretty good these days. Armory also has pretty good abstraction. I'm not sure about Multibit, but since it's based on BitcoinJ I'm guessing its abstraction is good too.

So -- tl;dr I support adding name management to Namecoin Core. If NMDF funds a bounty, FSM is able to reimburse until FSM's funds are exhausted.

Elaborating a bit more.

New features for name management could also be implemented in Python using a web interface. In particular, I've been working on a JSON generator (the one in Namecoin-Qt is really bad), by having it be part of NMControl's web interface and embedding that with Qt's WebKit widget. (This is not yet finished.) This allows the implementation to be in Python and HTML/Javascript, but it can be embedded in both C++ and Python applications (meaning it should be usable in Namecoin-Qt, Armory, and Electrum). It might be possible to do something similar for atomic name trades. Note that such an implementation would have to be resistant to CSRF attacks.

johnc wrote:I think, for simplicity, it's better that namecore just follows bitcoin core and that all the name-functions be integrated somehow in a package.

That way, people looking into .bit domains are able to register and browse .bit domains downloading just one additional piece of software.

yeah, we should create an official bundle.

Being able to launch it from a click on nmcontrol systray icon would be ideal.

That is a good idea. Core client (and nameGUI) could be started that way.

biolizard89 wrote: So -- tl;dr I support adding name management to Namecoin Core. If NMDF funds a bounty, FSM is able to reimburse until FSM's funds are exhausted.

Reimbursing is good