[bitcoin-dev] Bravo Charlie One: Branding Bech32

[nullius via bitcoin-dev]

I here record for the devs a thought I had a few days ago on the Bitcoin
Forum about BIP 173 Bech32 addresses. I’ve heard Greg Maxwell say that
“Bech32 is designed for human use and basically nothing else”; so I hope
I be not untoward in considering the following human-friendliness
enhancement to entwine with the technical ambit of this list. This MAY
be suitable for mention in an informative specification, or informative
section thereof.

To help gain user familiarity with and acceptance of the
error-correcting, case-insensitive Bitcoin addresses of the future, I
propose a need for what I think marketers call “branding”. The best
branding is that which derives naturally from some intrinsic quality of
a thing; wherefore I look to what may perhaps be a bit of serendipity in
the specification.

I expect that in practical use, one of the great advantages of Bech32
addresses will be the relative ease of communicating them
aloud—especially over the phone. In similar circumstances, when trying
to convey unusual names or pseudorandom strings, I’ve found radio
alphabets to work well at their intended purpose. And when reading
Bech32 Bitcoin addresses in the most popular radio alphabet, they will
always start with a catchy phrase: “Bravo Charlie One”.

That’s memorable, $SEARCH-able, and yet also one of those unique,
otherwise meaningless phrases which gets marketers excited. Keeping to
a word triplet, I hereby submit for consideration as the official
nickname for Bech32 Bitcoin use: “Bravo Charlie Addresses”. These are
the Bitcoin addresses with the magic words, suitable for a motto:
“Bravo Charlie One means money.” Add a logo à la Segwit’s, and raise
user awareness of this exciting new technology!

Beyond the branding issue, recommendations for Bitcoin spelling-alphabet
use in English and other languages may perhaps be a suitable matter for
such standardization as would facilitate coherent user documentation. I
invite discussion.

Of course, this branding only applies directly to Bitcoin Bech32
addresses. The BIP 173 authors were gracious to make the standard
generally adaptable; and it has already seen some uptake amongst
altcoins. I myself am now contemplating how Bech32 would be a superior
human-facing format for key fingerprints for PGP, SSH, and even TLS,
with HRPs of “pgp”, “ssh”, “tls”, etc. and some appropriate means of
embedding the key type just as “bc” embeds the witness version. There
is an urgent general need for a specification which reduces the inherent
pain of wetware in handling pseudorandom strings; and I do think that
anything which familiarizes users with Bech32 in a specific use will be
beneficial to Bech32 adoption generally.

To celebrate, as seen in my sig, I created for myself a new Bravo
Charlie Address which expresses that I am pleased: Now, I have an
error-correcting, case-insensitive address which can receive only
genuine Bitcoin cash money. Because “Bravo Charlie One means money.”

Here’s to the Bitcoin address format of the future!