Android apps

[domob]

I'm interested what others think about writing some Android app for namecoin (because I've already done some Android stuff and it is fun). Are there any ideas for what would be useful to have? I'm not sure a real "wallet" (like the mobile bitcoin wallets) would make sense ... after all, namecoin's main function is not to be a payment system IMHO (and I also don't see much use to registering names on-the-go). More interesting from my point of view is a tool that lets you query the namecoin database so that other applications can be built on top of that - like .bit browsing plus TLS verification for instance, but also file or fingerprint verification could be useful. Of course, I'm personally also interested in providing some sort of support for namecoin identity logins (maybe one could even work out a system where your mobile app can be used as real 2FA for that).

Any other ideas? I suppose the best way to get the data on the phone would be to use a static database file that could be created with a small tool from namecoind on your desktop, or (if you prefer and trust) downloaded from the project's server where it could be refreshed regularly. Would it make sense to work on a "real" client on Android? I'm not sure - SPV for namecoin would not reduce the resource limits so much as it does for bitcoin because the client would still have to process all the name operations. (And of course it would be a lot of effort to re-implement namecoin on Android or at least adapt BitcoinJ for namecoin I suppose.)

[moa]

Do you mean like an nmcontrol for Android?

That could pull in the names database from a pool of trusted namecoin servers and then serve up .bit browsing, TLS, etc capabilities maybe?

[domob]

Do you mean like an nmcontrol for Android?

That could pull in the names database from a pool of trusted namecoin servers and then serve up .bit browsing, TLS, etc capabilities maybe?

Yes exactly. Maybe the basic app would just allow you to browse through registered names and display their raw content for those interested, with its main functionality to provice "name lookup" (or even higher-level functions just like nmcontrol) as a service for other apps that can be built on top of it to provide specific functionality (like .bit browsing, TLS or for instance Namecoin login). It could also support an equivalent of the "verifymessage" command so that Namecoin based file verification can be implemented by an app.

[phelix]

two factor auth sounds like a cool idea for NameID


What about a Namecoin DNS server that includes the block header and relevant merkle tree parts for the requested name so that there is a difficult hash backing it's answer? Not a proof but a good hint that the answer was part of a high difficulty block at some time. It should not take more than a handful kb of data (500 bytes block header, 1000bytes tx, merkle tree parts ??).

[FrictionlessCoin]

This would be possible once we get bitcoinj ported to namecoin.

See:

http://dot-bit.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1450