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No expertise to comment about the tech/crypto design, but Satoshi definitely seemed to care about the users. I once skimmed through Satoshi's code while I was

No expertise to comment about the tech/crypto design, but Satoshi definitely seemed to care about the users. I once skimmed through Satoshi's code while I was in college and found this: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/v0.8.2rc3/src/base58.h#L7-L14 https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/v0.8.2rc3/src/base58... I've neither seen any such decision in any other project, nor have I come across any strong advocacy for such things online. FAIW, Satoshi might be a kick-ass UX designer too. In a different tangent, do any of you remember or still see/make such decisions (mostly to build a better UX)?

jonas21 8y ago
These are very similar to the considerations that were discussed in RFC 3548, which documented Base32 and Base64. I assume they were pretty well known at the time the code you linked to was written. https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3548 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3548
jacobolus 8y ago
Seems e.g. Flickr did roughly the same thing for its short URLs at around the same time. https://www.flickr.com/groups/api/discuss/72157616713786392/ https://www.flickr.com/groups/api/discuss/72157616713786392/
oconnor663 8y ago
A downside of base58 as implemented by Bitcoin: leading zeros are optional, so there are multiple possible valid encodings of a single address, and addresses don't have a fixed length.
- jacquesm 8y ago
  That's a lot better than the typical 'pay this invoice with the exact description' you get from municipalities here where the 'exact description' is a string without spaces and a ridiculous number of leading zeros.
dangerface 8y ago
I used to host counter strike games and voice servers, every one else just gives you a random port number like 39281, ugly, difficult to remember, awkward to tell people. I wrote a script that would generate ports that where easy to remember stuff with doubles and triples like 4040 or 44455. I found it super helpful, no customers ever mentioned it, but if you are doing UX right I guess they should never notice it.
orbital-decay 8y ago
Similar features are often found in encryption products, for example openssh which gives you a visually distinct ASCII randomart to easily spot the difference between the keys.
torgoguys 8y ago
Douglas Crockford documented his BASE32 encoding in 2002. It's a very friendly format with many nice characteristics, including those in Satoshi's base58 and more (listed in his "requirements" section here: https://www.crockford.com/wrmg/base32.html https://www.crockford.com/wrmg/base32.html)
- andrewla 8y ago
  I like it, but I think the exclusion of U is unnecessary -- excluding Z2 or 5S similarities seems like it would be preferable.

jonas21 8y ago

These are very similar to the considerations that were discussed in RFC 3548, which documented Base32 and Base64. I assume they were pretty well known at the time the code you linked to was written. https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3548 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3548

jacobolus 8y ago

Seems e.g. Flickr did roughly the same thing for its short URLs at around the same time. https://www.flickr.com/groups/api/discuss/72157616713786392/ https://www.flickr.com/groups/api/discuss/72157616713786392/

oconnor663 8y ago

A downside of base58 as implemented by Bitcoin: leading zeros are optional, so there are multiple possible valid encodings of a single address, and addresses don't have a fixed length.

jacquesm 8y ago
That's a lot better than the typical 'pay this invoice with the exact description' you get from municipalities here where the 'exact description' is a string without spaces and a ridiculous number of leading zeros.

dangerface 8y ago

I used to host counter strike games and voice servers, every one else just gives you a random port number like 39281, ugly, difficult to remember, awkward to tell people. I wrote a script that would generate ports that where easy to remember stuff with doubles and triples like 4040 or 44455. I found it super helpful, no customers ever mentioned it, but if you are doing UX right I guess they should never notice it.

orbital-decay 8y ago

Similar features are often found in encryption products, for example openssh which gives you a visually distinct ASCII randomart to easily spot the difference between the keys.

torgoguys 8y ago

Douglas Crockford documented his BASE32 encoding in 2002. It's a very friendly format with many nice characteristics, including those in Satoshi's base58 and more (listed in his "requirements" section here: https://www.crockford.com/wrmg/base32.html https://www.crockford.com/wrmg/base32.html)

andrewla 8y ago
I like it, but I think the exclusion of U is unnecessary -- excluding Z2 or 5S similarities seems like it would be preferable.