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Question about Dash Usernames

Nifty

New member
I am a novice who has only just started trying to get to grips with the whole crypto thing.

Out of all of the crypto currencies I've looked at, Dash has really caught my attention, and so I've been binge-watching and reading as much as I can about it. The near-instant payment clearing, focus on ease of use, and the forthcoming capabilities all seem very exciting. Dash could finally make 'arcane' crypto accessible to end users like me (who's primarily looking for a decentralized equivalent to PayPal, rather than investment opportunities).

Seeing as PayPal-style usage is my primary concern, I ended up having questions about Dash usernames (as that will be an vital part of simplifying the payment process and therefore encouraging more widespread adoption of Dash among non-technical users). However, after watching a demo of how usernames would work, I was left with more questions than answers. The Dash username example given was "Allison", which seemed utterly ridiculous even to a novice like me.

So I did some web searching to try to find out more about Dash usernames, and I found the following post (which is what led me to this forum):

"grave-concerns-over-dash-usernames.30569"

The post linked above asked pretty much exactly the same questions that I was looking to get answered (and it did so in a far more precise and detailed way than I ever could).

I note that the post in question is over 2 years old, and yet it still does not have any replies. Can anybody please tell me if the issues that were raised in this post have subsequently been answered or taken into account by Dash developers?

From what I have seen so far, all Dash features seem to have been meticulously and carefully implemented, taking into account potential unintended consequences as well as allowing flexibility for unforeseen issues (so as to mitigate, or completely prevent, major upheavals or total re-implementations in future). But what I saw in the very recent (June 2020) official Dash demo, does not inspire the same confidence.
 
Thank you for the link, AjM. This is exactly the level of detail that I was looking for.

Upon first glance, it regrettably it looks as if the biggest concern (single element names) has not been addressed, which means that Dash username choices will quickly end up becoming obscure and difficult to remember, with random numbers being added in an attempt to secure an unused name once all of the most desirable names have been taken (which surely defeats the whole purpose of implementing usernames instead of addresses in the first place).

This is very disappointing, and it seems like a short-sighted approach to take, especially seeing as this particular issue was first raised years ago.

Nevertheless, I will now go and read through the documentation more thoroughly, to help me better understand exactly what is being implemented.
 
Somewhere there's a demo where a random number is automatically added to all usernames (ie. Allison_654321). Seemed like a good approach, simple and effective but I've not seen it in more recent demos.
 
It was me a couple of years ago when the specs were still up in the air.

The devs originally had the idea of doing Ethereum style usernames but there were concerns over privacy e.g. people seeing how much others were being paid, or seeing a list of other people's contacts. Since then it has been significantly updated.

A username can basically point to anything. For payments it points to a HD wallet which is handled automatically in the background, thus improving privacy. In theory, that HD wallet could also be a bitcoin HD wallet. That is to say, someone could build a wallet to accept bitcoin payments to a dash username!

At the time, I suggested usernames should be at least 6 characters long, this would allow time for DCG to consider what to do with short memorable usernames e.g. perhaps short names could be held on lease, but this was rejected and the minimum username length is now 3 characters, allowing for names like "IRS".

I believe, behind the scenes a dash username is registered to a ".dash" domain. Thus the username "wow", for example, is actually "wow.dash". This is a dash only domain name type system but instead of leasehold, they become your property for life. This is a dash only domain system entirely separate to regular TLDs. I suppose, in the future there could be other dash TLDs / subdomains and maybe they could have different rules.

There is a username registration fee but from the demos they seem quite cheap.. cheap enough that someone like Binance could write a script to register thousands of names from a dictionary.

I guess people will be creative and use multiple words and numbers in a usernames. But it's not as bad as it looks because the way usernames work is that you don't have to keep typing them in. You add a username once only and your contact list follows you around, on different wallets and devices. It's safer than other methods because you won't see impersonators offering a mis-spelt version of a username.
 
GrandMasterDash, thanks for your informative reply. I would have linked to your original post in my previous comment, but as a new forum member, I am prevented from posting any links (even links that point to posts within this very forum).

I wrote out a whole detailed reply, but this stupid forum will not let me post it, despite it containing no links or any other questionable content. I've tried numerous edits over the last hour, but the forum is just not having it, so I give up.
 
GrandMasterDash, thanks for your informative reply. I would have linked to your original post in my previous comment, but as a new forum member, I am prevented from posting any links (even links that point to posts within this very forum).

I wrote out a whole detailed reply, but this stupid forum will not let me post it, despite it containing no links or any other questionable content. I've tried numerous edits over the last hour, but the forum is just not having it, so I give up.

You need 3 approved comments before being able to post links. Anti-Spam measure.

You should be able to post the original post now.
 
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