@curiousbitcoin
Creating a world where billions use Bitcoin | Self-custody only⚡
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Recent Notes
Bitcoin/Money Nostr/Social Spaces/Naming
Bitcoin is to Money,what
Nostr is to Social Media, what
Spaces is to Naming
https://youtu.be/K1rmiOI1PWQ
#Bitcoin #Money #Nostr #SocialMedia #Spaces #Naming
Bitcoin is to Money,what
Nostr is to Social Media, what
Spaces is to Naming
https://youtu.be/K1rmiOI1PWQ
#Bitcoin #Money #Nostr #SocialMedia #Spaces #Naming
1
Spaces Protocol Is the Naming System Bitcoin Has Always Needed
Bitcoin solved the problem of digital scarcity and self-custodial money. It didn’t solve the problem of human-readable identity.
For more than fifteen years, Bitcoin users have been forced to share long, unmemorable addresses that look like random strings of characters. One wrong letter and funds are lost forever. At the same time, the broader internet has trained people to use short names for everything else. Email, social media, and websites all rely on simple handles. Bitcoin has lagged behind.
Spaces Protocol changes that.
It brings sovereign, human-readable names directly to Bitcoin without creating a new blockchain, without a separate token, and without requiring any changes to Bitcoin itself.
A name such as alice@bitcoin becomes a permanent pointer that can link to a Bitcoin address, a Lightning offer, a Nostr profile, an X account, a website, and more. Once the name is properly issued and committed, no company, registrar, or government can take it away. The owner holds the keys. The proof lives on Bitcoin.
https://bitbane.com/spaces-protocol-is-the-naming-system-bitcoin-has-always-needed/
#Bitcoin #BitcoinUX #BitcoinUI #SpacesProtocol #Naming #Social
Bitcoin solved the problem of digital scarcity and self-custodial money. It didn’t solve the problem of human-readable identity.
For more than fifteen years, Bitcoin users have been forced to share long, unmemorable addresses that look like random strings of characters. One wrong letter and funds are lost forever. At the same time, the broader internet has trained people to use short names for everything else. Email, social media, and websites all rely on simple handles. Bitcoin has lagged behind.
Spaces Protocol changes that.
It brings sovereign, human-readable names directly to Bitcoin without creating a new blockchain, without a separate token, and without requiring any changes to Bitcoin itself.
A name such as alice@bitcoin becomes a permanent pointer that can link to a Bitcoin address, a Lightning offer, a Nostr profile, an X account, a website, and more. Once the name is properly issued and committed, no company, registrar, or government can take it away. The owner holds the keys. The proof lives on Bitcoin.
https://bitbane.com/spaces-protocol-is-the-naming-system-bitcoin-has-always-needed/
#Bitcoin #BitcoinUX #BitcoinUI #SpacesProtocol #Naming #Social
I Hope You Got Bitcoin: Spaces Protocol Auctions Are Live and Already Burning Value
Bitcoin was trading near 98,000 dollars with fees measured in single-digit sats per virtual byte. In that environment the Spaces Protocol continues to run its daily auctions for top-level names. The short update titled “I HOPE YOU GOT BITCOIN” records one ordinary day of that process: bids on ordinary words, encoded international characters, and a last-block victory that illustrates how the rules actually work.
The numbers remain early. Roughly 659 spaces registered and 780 rollouts completed, with more than one Bitcoin already burned. The activity shows a working, permissionless market for names that settle on Bitcoin rather than on a company server.
Spaces Protocol distributes scarce top-level identifiers through open auctions held on the Bitcoin chain itself.
Roughly ten names become available each day. Participants place bids as ordinary Bitcoin transactions. The highest bids at the close of the auction period win the right to claim the space.
A new bid that arrives before the claim window closes extends the auction. The design deliberately slows pure speed advantages. Unlike first-come-first-served systems or short sniping windows, a participant cannot simply watch the final moments and leap in.
The host of the update notes that this structure has already reduced the hoarding and squatting patterns visible in other naming systems. Single entities cannot lock up large numbers of desirable names in the opening moments and later sell them to the people who actually want them. Competition still exists. When awareness grows, more bidders appear. The host openly describes the mixed feeling of publishing information that will increase competition.
The same update still points out that the system is early and that the rules themselves favor broader participation over capture by the fastest actors.
The concrete activity recorded in the video makes the rules visible. Names such as root, DJ, DNA, Cipher, om, Za, iot, and UK have drawn bids.
Punycode strings that represent non-ASCII characters continue to appear in the auction list and will become claimable within hours.
Yesterday’s rollouts included a numeric string and the short word OMG. The OMG name was secured in the final eligible block before the rollout. A bid confirmed in the same block as the rollout itself would not have counted. The timing demonstrates that participants must understand both the auction clock and Bitcoin’s block cadence. A bid that arrives too late simply does not enter the set of winning offers.
The speaker reviews the size of the winning UTXO and notes the ordinary reality that larger balances can sustain longer bidding. The comparison is not to a closed room of insiders. Anyone who holds Bitcoin can submit a transaction. The chain records the offer and the eventual burn.
https://bitbane.com/i-hope-you-got-bitcoin-spaces-protocol-auctions-are-live-and-already-burning-value/
#Bitcoin #Auctions #Bidding #OMG
Bitcoin was trading near 98,000 dollars with fees measured in single-digit sats per virtual byte. In that environment the Spaces Protocol continues to run its daily auctions for top-level names. The short update titled “I HOPE YOU GOT BITCOIN” records one ordinary day of that process: bids on ordinary words, encoded international characters, and a last-block victory that illustrates how the rules actually work.
The numbers remain early. Roughly 659 spaces registered and 780 rollouts completed, with more than one Bitcoin already burned. The activity shows a working, permissionless market for names that settle on Bitcoin rather than on a company server.
Spaces Protocol distributes scarce top-level identifiers through open auctions held on the Bitcoin chain itself.
Roughly ten names become available each day. Participants place bids as ordinary Bitcoin transactions. The highest bids at the close of the auction period win the right to claim the space.
A new bid that arrives before the claim window closes extends the auction. The design deliberately slows pure speed advantages. Unlike first-come-first-served systems or short sniping windows, a participant cannot simply watch the final moments and leap in.
The host of the update notes that this structure has already reduced the hoarding and squatting patterns visible in other naming systems. Single entities cannot lock up large numbers of desirable names in the opening moments and later sell them to the people who actually want them. Competition still exists. When awareness grows, more bidders appear. The host openly describes the mixed feeling of publishing information that will increase competition.
The same update still points out that the system is early and that the rules themselves favor broader participation over capture by the fastest actors.
The concrete activity recorded in the video makes the rules visible. Names such as root, DJ, DNA, Cipher, om, Za, iot, and UK have drawn bids.
Punycode strings that represent non-ASCII characters continue to appear in the auction list and will become claimable within hours.
Yesterday’s rollouts included a numeric string and the short word OMG. The OMG name was secured in the final eligible block before the rollout. A bid confirmed in the same block as the rollout itself would not have counted. The timing demonstrates that participants must understand both the auction clock and Bitcoin’s block cadence. A bid that arrives too late simply does not enter the set of winning offers.
The speaker reviews the size of the winning UTXO and notes the ordinary reality that larger balances can sustain longer bidding. The comparison is not to a closed room of insiders. Anyone who holds Bitcoin can submit a transaction. The chain records the offer and the eventual burn.
https://bitbane.com/i-hope-you-got-bitcoin-spaces-protocol-auctions-are-live-and-already-burning-value/
#Bitcoin #Auctions #Bidding #OMG
What's Needed with Spaces on Bitcoin?
https://youtu.be/GupkeH6jmy0
#Bitcoin #SpacesOnBitcoin #SpacesProtocol #SpacesWallet
https://youtu.be/GupkeH6jmy0
#Bitcoin #SpacesOnBitcoin #SpacesProtocol #SpacesWallet
Spaces Protocol Community Status: Marketplace, Wallets, and Fabric Are Arriving to Make Bitcoin Names Practical
The first monthly community status update for Spaces Protocol outlines a clear sequence of tools that turn a Bitcoin-anchored naming system into something people can actually use every day. In the video “SPACES PROTOCOL COMMUNITY STATUS | FEBRUARY 25,” the team walks through a marketplace launching within weeks, a graphical wallet designed for ordinary users, Fabric for off-chain records that enable Nostr-style usernames, and the path toward subspaces.
These pieces address the two practical barriers that have slowed adoption of any Bitcoin identity project: the difficulty of buying and selling names, and the friction of running software that feels technical. The update shows both barriers are now being lowered while the security model remains unchanged.
Spaces Protocol is a naming system that lives on Bitcoin. Top-level spaces such as @bitcoin are distributed through open auctions held on the chain itself. Bids are burned. The winner receives a UTXO that carries the name under a covenant.
Sub-handles such as alice@bitcoin are issued under a top-level space. Only a 32-byte root is committed to Bitcoin. The holder of a handle receives a certificate and an inclusion proof. Anyone can verify the proof against the confirmed root. The name does not expire. No registrar can refuse renewal or seize the record after the root is on chain. The design keeps the on-chain footprint small while giving every name the same settlement finality as Bitcoin.
The marketplace described in the update is the first piece that makes transfer of these names straightforward. Version 6 of the software already supports command-line buy and sell operations that produce partially signed Bitcoin transactions. A seller creates a listing by generating a JSON object that contains the partially signed transaction. Anyone can paste that object into the marketplace interface. The buyer completes the transaction by adding the payment output and broadcasting it.
Because the signature is only valid when the correct amount reaches the seller, neither party needs to trust the other or an intermediary. The marketplace itself holds no funds and no keys. It is simply a place to publish and discover listings. Initially the market will support top-level spaces. Once subspaces are standardized, the same mechanism will work for sub-handles.
The result is a secondary market that inherits Bitcoin’s security properties instead of introducing new custodial risk.
https://bitbane.com/spaces-protocol-community-status-marketplace-wallets-and-fabric-are-arriving-to-make-bitcoin-names-practical/
#Bitcoin #BitcoinMarketplace #Version6 #BitcoinUpdate #SpacesProtocol
The first monthly community status update for Spaces Protocol outlines a clear sequence of tools that turn a Bitcoin-anchored naming system into something people can actually use every day. In the video “SPACES PROTOCOL COMMUNITY STATUS | FEBRUARY 25,” the team walks through a marketplace launching within weeks, a graphical wallet designed for ordinary users, Fabric for off-chain records that enable Nostr-style usernames, and the path toward subspaces.
These pieces address the two practical barriers that have slowed adoption of any Bitcoin identity project: the difficulty of buying and selling names, and the friction of running software that feels technical. The update shows both barriers are now being lowered while the security model remains unchanged.
Spaces Protocol is a naming system that lives on Bitcoin. Top-level spaces such as @bitcoin are distributed through open auctions held on the chain itself. Bids are burned. The winner receives a UTXO that carries the name under a covenant.
Sub-handles such as alice@bitcoin are issued under a top-level space. Only a 32-byte root is committed to Bitcoin. The holder of a handle receives a certificate and an inclusion proof. Anyone can verify the proof against the confirmed root. The name does not expire. No registrar can refuse renewal or seize the record after the root is on chain. The design keeps the on-chain footprint small while giving every name the same settlement finality as Bitcoin.
The marketplace described in the update is the first piece that makes transfer of these names straightforward. Version 6 of the software already supports command-line buy and sell operations that produce partially signed Bitcoin transactions. A seller creates a listing by generating a JSON object that contains the partially signed transaction. Anyone can paste that object into the marketplace interface. The buyer completes the transaction by adding the payment output and broadcasting it.
Because the signature is only valid when the correct amount reaches the seller, neither party needs to trust the other or an intermediary. The marketplace itself holds no funds and no keys. It is simply a place to publish and discover listings. Initially the market will support top-level spaces. Once subspaces are standardized, the same mechanism will work for sub-handles.
The result is a secondary market that inherits Bitcoin’s security properties instead of introducing new custodial risk.
https://bitbane.com/spaces-protocol-community-status-marketplace-wallets-and-fabric-are-arriving-to-make-bitcoin-names-practical/
#Bitcoin #BitcoinMarketplace #Version6 #BitcoinUpdate #SpacesProtocol
Live Spaces Auctions and Rollouts Show Bitcoin Naming Is Already Moving.
Bitcoin sat near 99,000 dollars with low fees and a quiet mempool. In that same window the Spaces Protocol continues to record real activity.
Bids land on names. Transfers settle. New sets of identifiers roll out on Bitcoin block time.
The short daily update titled “Navigating the World of Bitcoin” captures one of these ordinary days: multiple bids on punycode strings, double-letter names drawing attention, a triple-zero entry advancing, and fresh rollouts that include ordinary words alongside encoded international characters.
The activity is small in absolute terms, yet consistent. It demonstrates that people are already treating Bitcoin as the root for human-readable names rather than waiting for a future release.
Spaces Protocol is a naming system built directly on Bitcoin.
Top-level spaces function as community identifiers. Roughly 3,600 of them can be distributed each year through open auctions. Anyone can bid. The highest bid at the close of the auction wins. The proceeds are burned so no foundation or company receives the money.
Once a space is won, its owner can issue sub-handles such as alice@bitcoin or curious@bitcoin. Most of those handles are created off-chain and grouped into a Merkle tree. Only a 32-byte root is committed to Bitcoin. The holder receives a certificate and an inclusion proof. Anyone can check that proof against the confirmed root. The name does not expire. No registrar can refuse renewal or seize the record after the root is on chain.
https://bitbane.com/live-spaces-auctions-and-rollouts-show-bitcoin-naming-is-already-moving/
#Bitcoin #BitcoinAuctions #BuildOnBitcoin #MerkleTree #InclusionProof #zkTLS #RootOfTrust #SpacesProtocol
Bitcoin sat near 99,000 dollars with low fees and a quiet mempool. In that same window the Spaces Protocol continues to record real activity.
Bids land on names. Transfers settle. New sets of identifiers roll out on Bitcoin block time.
The short daily update titled “Navigating the World of Bitcoin” captures one of these ordinary days: multiple bids on punycode strings, double-letter names drawing attention, a triple-zero entry advancing, and fresh rollouts that include ordinary words alongside encoded international characters.
The activity is small in absolute terms, yet consistent. It demonstrates that people are already treating Bitcoin as the root for human-readable names rather than waiting for a future release.
Spaces Protocol is a naming system built directly on Bitcoin.
Top-level spaces function as community identifiers. Roughly 3,600 of them can be distributed each year through open auctions. Anyone can bid. The highest bid at the close of the auction wins. The proceeds are burned so no foundation or company receives the money.
Once a space is won, its owner can issue sub-handles such as alice@bitcoin or curious@bitcoin. Most of those handles are created off-chain and grouped into a Merkle tree. Only a 32-byte root is committed to Bitcoin. The holder receives a certificate and an inclusion proof. Anyone can check that proof against the confirmed root. The name does not expire. No registrar can refuse renewal or seize the record after the root is on chain.
https://bitbane.com/live-spaces-auctions-and-rollouts-show-bitcoin-naming-is-already-moving/
#Bitcoin #BitcoinAuctions #BuildOnBitcoin #MerkleTree #InclusionProof #zkTLS #RootOfTrust #SpacesProtocol
9❤️1
Naval Ravikant on Bitcoin: Money Is Speech, and Naming Should Be Too.
Naval Ravikant has long argued that Bitcoin equates money and speech. In the short clip titled “naval bitcoin,” he describes Bitcoin as a bank account in the cloud that is completely decentralized. No government, no bank, and not even the NSA can unilaterally seize or shut it down.
The entire market capitalization functions as a bounty. Anyone who breaks the system could claim a fortune, yet the network has held because compromising every participant at once is effectively impossible. China can censor YouTube or Twitter. It can't censor Bitcoin without turning off the internet itself.
That framing is powerful for money. It is equally powerful for identity.
A name is a form of speech. It is how people refer to each other, how payments are addressed, how social graphs form, and how applications recognize users.
When a name lives on a platform or a registrar, it can be frozen, reassigned, or deleted. When a name is anchored to Bitcoin the same way Naval describes money, it inherits the same properties: no single party can take it away, and turning it off requires the same extreme action as turning off the internet.
Spaces Protocol applies exactly this principle to naming. It is a Bitcoin-native system for sovereign handles.
Top-level spaces such as @bitcoin are distributed through open auctions held on the Bitcoin blockchain. Bids are burned. No foundation collects the proceeds.
Sub-handles such as alice@bitcoin or curious@bitcoin are issued under those spaces. Only a 32-byte root is committed to Bitcoin. Anyone can verify ownership with a certificate and inclusion proof checked against the chain.
The result is a short, human-readable name that is as hard to seize as the Bitcoin it is anchored to.
https://bitbane.com/naval-ravikant-on-bitcoin-money-is-speech-and-naming-should-be-too/
#Bitcoin #Naval #Spaces #TopLevel
Naval Ravikant has long argued that Bitcoin equates money and speech. In the short clip titled “naval bitcoin,” he describes Bitcoin as a bank account in the cloud that is completely decentralized. No government, no bank, and not even the NSA can unilaterally seize or shut it down.
The entire market capitalization functions as a bounty. Anyone who breaks the system could claim a fortune, yet the network has held because compromising every participant at once is effectively impossible. China can censor YouTube or Twitter. It can't censor Bitcoin without turning off the internet itself.
That framing is powerful for money. It is equally powerful for identity.
A name is a form of speech. It is how people refer to each other, how payments are addressed, how social graphs form, and how applications recognize users.
When a name lives on a platform or a registrar, it can be frozen, reassigned, or deleted. When a name is anchored to Bitcoin the same way Naval describes money, it inherits the same properties: no single party can take it away, and turning it off requires the same extreme action as turning off the internet.
Spaces Protocol applies exactly this principle to naming. It is a Bitcoin-native system for sovereign handles.
Top-level spaces such as @bitcoin are distributed through open auctions held on the Bitcoin blockchain. Bids are burned. No foundation collects the proceeds.
Sub-handles such as alice@bitcoin or curious@bitcoin are issued under those spaces. Only a 32-byte root is committed to Bitcoin. Anyone can verify ownership with a certificate and inclusion proof checked against the chain.
The result is a short, human-readable name that is as hard to seize as the Bitcoin it is anchored to.
https://bitbane.com/naval-ravikant-on-bitcoin-money-is-speech-and-naming-should-be-too/
#Bitcoin #Naval #Spaces #TopLevel
TABConf 8 Recap: Bitcoin Names, Seed Phrase Entropy, and AI vs Bitcoin
Inside Bitcoin Spaces | The Jason and Andrew Show – TABConf 8, Wells Fargo Bitcoin Deal, Seed Phrase Entropy, AI vs Bitcoin, Spaces Protocol Adoption, and Self-Sovereignty
Jason and Andrew break down the final TABConf 8, Wells Fargo’s new Bitcoin push through its parent-company deal with Kraken, how to properly create a Bitcoin seed phrase (entropy, randomness, and why picking words yourself can weaken security), and why Bitcoin remains the scarce asset while AI keeps getting cheaper. They also cover practical steps for growing Spaces Protocol adoption and the importance of Bitcoin, Spaces, Nostr, and nsite after the German in Venice YouTube channel was terminated.
This episode covers why Bitcoin’s energy cost acts as a natural filter against low-value projects and endless cheap funding, how sovereign naming and social layers protect against platform censorship, and what builders and users should focus on next.
https://youtu.be/1JKntuStgSc
#Bitcoin #Youtube #German #Venice #SpacesProtocol #Tabconf #Kraken #AI #Nostr #Adoption #TechnologyoftheFuture #Entropy
Inside Bitcoin Spaces | The Jason and Andrew Show – TABConf 8, Wells Fargo Bitcoin Deal, Seed Phrase Entropy, AI vs Bitcoin, Spaces Protocol Adoption, and Self-Sovereignty
Jason and Andrew break down the final TABConf 8, Wells Fargo’s new Bitcoin push through its parent-company deal with Kraken, how to properly create a Bitcoin seed phrase (entropy, randomness, and why picking words yourself can weaken security), and why Bitcoin remains the scarce asset while AI keeps getting cheaper. They also cover practical steps for growing Spaces Protocol adoption and the importance of Bitcoin, Spaces, Nostr, and nsite after the German in Venice YouTube channel was terminated.
This episode covers why Bitcoin’s energy cost acts as a natural filter against low-value projects and endless cheap funding, how sovereign naming and social layers protect against platform censorship, and what builders and users should focus on next.
https://youtu.be/1JKntuStgSc
#Bitcoin #Youtube #German #Venice #SpacesProtocol #Tabconf #Kraken #AI #Nostr #Adoption #TechnologyoftheFuture #Entropy
1
Brian Armstrong Wants Human-Readable Crypto Names. Bitcoin Already Has the Answer.
Brian Armstrong highlighted a problem almost everyone in crypto still feels every day: Bitcoin and cryptocurrency addresses look like random strings of numbers and letters.
At the World Economic Forum he pointed to the Ethereum Name System (ENS) as one way to fix that friction, arguing that ordinary people should be able to send money the same way they flip a light switch. They should not need to understand private keys or hex addresses.
The goal, in his view, is that most users will eventually use crypto applications without even knowing it is crypto underneath.
That diagnosis is correct. Random addresses are a real barrier. A 34-character string is easy to mistype, hard to remember, and impossible to share verbally. Human-readable names remove that friction for payments, Lightning invoices, Nostr identities, and everyday coordination. The electricity analogy is useful up to a point. Most people do not need to know how a power plant works to turn on a lamp. They do, however, need confidence that the switch cannot be flipped by someone else.
This is where Armstrong’s framing and Bitcoin’s actual design diverge.
The private key is not an unfortunate complication to be hidden. It is the feature that makes Bitcoin different from every other payment system. When you control the key, no bank, exchange, or application can freeze, reverse, or confiscate the funds. Removing that control in the name of simplicity simply recreates the custodial model Bitcoin was built to escape. Any naming system that requires users to hand keys to a third party, or that can be revoked by a company, undermines the reason people use Bitcoin in the first place.
Bitcoin therefore needs its own naming layer.
The most secure, decentralized monetary network should not depend on a naming system that lives on a different chain, requires a separate token, requires ongoing renewal fees, or can be censored by a registrar.
That is the gap Spaces Protocol fills.
Spaces Protocol gives Bitcoin human-readable names that stay sovereign.
A top-level Space such as @bitcoin functions like a community identifier, comparable to a top-level domain on the traditional web. Inside that Space, individuals receive handles such as bob@bitcoin. The handle is bound to a cryptographic key the owner controls.
Once issued, it cannot be taken away by an operator, a company, or a committee. Ownership is proven against Bitcoin itself through an inclusion proof and certificate. Extra records (a Lightning address, a Nostr npub, a website, a silent payment address) can be attached and updated off-chain so the blockchain does not fill with large or frequently changing data.
https://bitbane.com/brian-armstrong-wants-human-readable-crypto-names-bitcoin-already-has-the-answer/
#Bitcoin #BrianArmstrong #WEF #WorldEconomicForum #SpacesProtocol #ENS #Spaces #Nostr #DNS #Keys #Sovereign
Brian Armstrong highlighted a problem almost everyone in crypto still feels every day: Bitcoin and cryptocurrency addresses look like random strings of numbers and letters.
At the World Economic Forum he pointed to the Ethereum Name System (ENS) as one way to fix that friction, arguing that ordinary people should be able to send money the same way they flip a light switch. They should not need to understand private keys or hex addresses.
The goal, in his view, is that most users will eventually use crypto applications without even knowing it is crypto underneath.
That diagnosis is correct. Random addresses are a real barrier. A 34-character string is easy to mistype, hard to remember, and impossible to share verbally. Human-readable names remove that friction for payments, Lightning invoices, Nostr identities, and everyday coordination. The electricity analogy is useful up to a point. Most people do not need to know how a power plant works to turn on a lamp. They do, however, need confidence that the switch cannot be flipped by someone else.
This is where Armstrong’s framing and Bitcoin’s actual design diverge.
The private key is not an unfortunate complication to be hidden. It is the feature that makes Bitcoin different from every other payment system. When you control the key, no bank, exchange, or application can freeze, reverse, or confiscate the funds. Removing that control in the name of simplicity simply recreates the custodial model Bitcoin was built to escape. Any naming system that requires users to hand keys to a third party, or that can be revoked by a company, undermines the reason people use Bitcoin in the first place.
Bitcoin therefore needs its own naming layer.
The most secure, decentralized monetary network should not depend on a naming system that lives on a different chain, requires a separate token, requires ongoing renewal fees, or can be censored by a registrar.
That is the gap Spaces Protocol fills.
Spaces Protocol gives Bitcoin human-readable names that stay sovereign.
A top-level Space such as @bitcoin functions like a community identifier, comparable to a top-level domain on the traditional web. Inside that Space, individuals receive handles such as bob@bitcoin. The handle is bound to a cryptographic key the owner controls.
Once issued, it cannot be taken away by an operator, a company, or a committee. Ownership is proven against Bitcoin itself through an inclusion proof and certificate. Extra records (a Lightning address, a Nostr npub, a website, a silent payment address) can be attached and updated off-chain so the blockchain does not fill with large or frequently changing data.
https://bitbane.com/brian-armstrong-wants-human-readable-crypto-names-bitcoin-already-has-the-answer/
#Bitcoin #BrianArmstrong #WEF #WorldEconomicForum #SpacesProtocol #ENS #Spaces #Nostr #DNS #Keys #Sovereign
Why Spaces Burns Bitcoin (On Purpose)
https://youtu.be/2VcjElp-5uQ
#BurnedBitcoin #SpacesProtocol #Bitcoin #Nostr
https://youtu.be/2VcjElp-5uQ
#BurnedBitcoin #SpacesProtocol #Bitcoin #Nostr
Bitcoin’s Block Space Is More Than Money: How Spaces Protocol Builds Sovereign Naming on the Most Secure Ledger
Robin Seyr and Mike Carson explore what the Bitcoin network’s block space can do beyond transferring value.
Carson, drawing on years in the traditional domain industry, points out that the thing people overlook is the ledger. Bitcoin’s block space is a decentralized, highly secure record that anyone can verify. That same property makes it the right place to anchor names.
The video, titled Bitcoin Naming System, walks through why current internet naming fails and how Spaces Protocol turns Bitcoin’s existing security into human-readable, censorship-resistant identities without a new chain, a new token, or a foundation.
Traditional domain names look convenient until they are not. Carson notes the familiar problems from his earlier work: renewal fees that never end, registrars that can refuse service, and higher authorities that can intervene. He cites the .cat top-level domain, which Spanish authorities ordered taken down during a political dispute.
He also references security incidents such as the Squarespace compromise that affected crypto-related sites. In each case the name itself was never fully owned by the person who paid for it. The system depends on a chain of trusted parties, from ICANN down through registrars and certificate authorities.
When any link fails or decides against the user, the name can be altered, seized, or simply allowed to expire. Carson and Seyr frame this as the opposite of the cypherpunk ideal that Bitcoin already demonstrated for money.
Spaces Protocol addresses this problem by treating names as Bitcoin UTXOs.
A top-level Space, written in the form @bitcoin or any other label, is acquired through a permissionless auction that runs on Bitcoin’s existing scripting.
Winning bids are burned, so no entity extracts a profit from the initial distribution.
The protocol limits rollout to roughly ten Spaces per day, or about 3,600 community identifiers per year. This cap prevents the land-grab dynamics that plagued early domain markets while still leaving room for real demand to set prices.
Once registered, the Space is a Bitcoin output controlled by the holder’s key. It can serve as a community identifier in the same way .com or .org functions on the traditional web, except the root of trust is Bitcoin’s proof of work rather than a corporation or multi-stakeholder body.
Under each Space, users create subspaces, also called handles. These are the individual identities people actually share: alice@bitcoin, bob@nostr, or mike@x.
Handles operate primarily off-chain. The operator of the Space maintains a Merkle tree of issued handles and periodically commits a compact 32-byte root on-chain.
Ownership of a handle is proven with certificates that include zero-knowledge proofs of inclusion and of non-existence in prior roots. This design lets millions of names exist under a single Space with almost no additional block-space cost.
The holder of the handle receives a certificate that remains valid even if the operator later disappears.
The handle can also be bound to an on-chain UTXO when interactive features are needed, so users who want full on-chain control are not forced to trust the off-chain layer forever.
https://bitbane.com/bitcoins-block-space-is-more-than-money-how-spaces-protocol-builds-sovereign-naming-on-the-most-secure-ledger/
#Bitcoin #MikeCarson #RobinSeyr #SpacesProtocol
Robin Seyr and Mike Carson explore what the Bitcoin network’s block space can do beyond transferring value.
Carson, drawing on years in the traditional domain industry, points out that the thing people overlook is the ledger. Bitcoin’s block space is a decentralized, highly secure record that anyone can verify. That same property makes it the right place to anchor names.
The video, titled Bitcoin Naming System, walks through why current internet naming fails and how Spaces Protocol turns Bitcoin’s existing security into human-readable, censorship-resistant identities without a new chain, a new token, or a foundation.
Traditional domain names look convenient until they are not. Carson notes the familiar problems from his earlier work: renewal fees that never end, registrars that can refuse service, and higher authorities that can intervene. He cites the .cat top-level domain, which Spanish authorities ordered taken down during a political dispute.
He also references security incidents such as the Squarespace compromise that affected crypto-related sites. In each case the name itself was never fully owned by the person who paid for it. The system depends on a chain of trusted parties, from ICANN down through registrars and certificate authorities.
When any link fails or decides against the user, the name can be altered, seized, or simply allowed to expire. Carson and Seyr frame this as the opposite of the cypherpunk ideal that Bitcoin already demonstrated for money.
Spaces Protocol addresses this problem by treating names as Bitcoin UTXOs.
A top-level Space, written in the form @bitcoin or any other label, is acquired through a permissionless auction that runs on Bitcoin’s existing scripting.
Winning bids are burned, so no entity extracts a profit from the initial distribution.
The protocol limits rollout to roughly ten Spaces per day, or about 3,600 community identifiers per year. This cap prevents the land-grab dynamics that plagued early domain markets while still leaving room for real demand to set prices.
Once registered, the Space is a Bitcoin output controlled by the holder’s key. It can serve as a community identifier in the same way .com or .org functions on the traditional web, except the root of trust is Bitcoin’s proof of work rather than a corporation or multi-stakeholder body.
Under each Space, users create subspaces, also called handles. These are the individual identities people actually share: alice@bitcoin, bob@nostr, or mike@x.
Handles operate primarily off-chain. The operator of the Space maintains a Merkle tree of issued handles and periodically commits a compact 32-byte root on-chain.
Ownership of a handle is proven with certificates that include zero-knowledge proofs of inclusion and of non-existence in prior roots. This design lets millions of names exist under a single Space with almost no additional block-space cost.
The holder of the handle receives a certificate that remains valid even if the operator later disappears.
The handle can also be bound to an on-chain UTXO when interactive features are needed, so users who want full on-chain control are not forced to trust the off-chain layer forever.
https://bitbane.com/bitcoins-block-space-is-more-than-money-how-spaces-protocol-builds-sovereign-naming-on-the-most-secure-ledger/
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