For a website taking payments with bitcoins, better: IP or bitcoin addresses?

2010 May 9 See all posts
For a website taking payments with bitcoins, better: IP or bitcoin addresses? @ Satoshi Nakamoto
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Satoshi Nakamoto

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Minscj
For a website taking payments with bitcoins, better: IP or bitcoin addresses?
May 09, 2010, 04:44:01 AM

For a website taking payments with bitcoins, which is better: taking payments through IP solely or using tons of bitcoin addresses that you have to reuse and reuse?


dwdollar
May 09, 2010, 05:03:10 PM

Right now, Bitcoin Addresses are the only option if you want automation. If you're only taking donations, or only handling manual transactions, IP Addresses might be better suited. That way they can send you comments or messages about their account info.


dsg
May 09, 2010, 05:09:38 PM

Bitcoin addresses also provide better anonymity. In my opinion they are ideal. Otherwise it's necessary to use tor or the like also to guarantee anonymity.


Xunie
May 14, 2010, 01:16:57 AM

Quote from: dsg on May 09, 2010, 05:09:38 PM

Bitcoin addresses also provide better anonymity. In my opinion they are ideal. Otherwise it's necessary to use tor or the like also to guarantee anonymity.

Isn't that "unsafe"?
Say I am an exit node listening for bitcoin transactions and grab them?
Or is everything public/private key encrypted? (Which is my guess.)


Xunie
May 14, 2010, 09:52:53 PM

Quote from: soultcer on May 14, 2010, 07:58:57 PM

Actually no, transfering coins via IP address isn't encrypted. When you transfer coins to an IP, the recipient creates a new address just for that transaction and tells you to transfer coins to that address. A malicious exit node could sniff all Bitcoin traffic and intercept those transactions easily.

So for everyone: DO NOT USE IP ADDRESSES AS DESTINATIONS, ALWAYS USE BITCOIN ADDRESSES.

I suggest we disable IP transactions while the user uses a Proxy!
Just to be on the safe side.


Satoshi Nakamoto
May 16, 2010, 09:37:36 PM

Quote from: Xunie on May 14, 2010, 09:52:53 PM

I suggest we disable IP transactions while the user uses a Proxy!
Just to be on the safe side.

That's a good idea. At the very least a warning dialog explaining that it'll connect to the IP and send the information cleartext, giving the chance to cancel.