Paymail launches, makes Bitcoin as easy as email

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Increasing Bitcoin adoption means simplifying it for the average user, and putting it into terms that anyone can understand. That’s why Ryan X. Charles, founder of Money Button, has announced Paymail, a new identity protocol for Bitcoin SV (BSV).

Paymail seeks to do for Bitcoin what email did for the internet. Instead of traditional Bitcoin addresses, it introduces “human-readable names that look exactly the same as email addresses.” This is done with the intention that users shouldn’t have to interact with “long, random, unfamiliar character strings like Bitcoin addresses.”

The initiative, developed collaboratively with top BSV developers, including nChain, Money Button, Handcash, Centbee, and Electrum SV, will benefit the entire Bitcoin SV ecosystem. It emerged from a workshop of Bitcoin Association, the leading global organization for Bitcoin business, which supports BSV. The Paymail protocol is open for free use with any application on the BSV blockchain, and is fully compatible with email.   

As it works with addresses that look exactly like email, it’s ready for adoption with existing email domains. Charles wrote in the announcement:

“If Google wishes to add support for Paymail, they will be able to roll out support seamlessly for all Gmail users without interrupting service or changing any of their email infrastructure. Every Gmail user will be able to send and receive Bitcoin, and perform other advanced applications, directly from Gmail, while still being able to use Gmail as an email service (and an identity service) in the same way they do currently.”

If Google were to elect to do that, that opens up potential BSV adoption to 1.5 billion active Gmail users. Even if one of the smaller email providers, like Yahoo (200+ million active users) or Outlook.com (400 million active users,) it would increase the number of potential Bitcoin users by an order of magnitude. As of December 2018, it was estimated that with all altcoins combined, there was only 35 million total verified cryptocurrency users.

This was made possible by creating a new extension called Simplified Payment Protocol, which goes back to the original Bitcoin code for pay-to-ip. By using that original code, it allows a simplified wallet software that skips unnecessary network nodes and is delivered directly to recipients, with miners notified afterward.

Paymail also allows sharing public keys for digital signatures and encryption. This creates a data marketplace, where users can follow creators they appreciate and purchase their material.

With the announcement, Money Button has already fully implemented Paymail and launched the service. Paymail is interoperable with the Electrum SV and HandCash wallets.

To protect against bots sweeping in and grabbing all the best paymail usernames, getting your address will cost $1.00. If you can prove the name you want is undeniably yours with your social media presence, you can get a big discount and buy it for $0.10. At either price, getting your name is a bargain, and the pricing system will help make sure bad actors don’t ruin the system before it can get going.

Bitcoin Association Founding President Jimmy Nguyen commented: “Make it simple and they will come. Money Button and other Bitcoin Association members understand that, and we congratulate them for collaborating to create this outstanding achievement in simplicity. Paymail is another example of how BSV is the Bitcoin ecosystem most focused on global adoption by users and businesses.”

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