Label: GUI
GUI application displays sample address in the Pay To input box. It displays main net address even when running on testnet:
This PR adds sampleAddress to the NetworkStyles - it allows for different address for every network.
What address should I use for testnet and regtest?
Is this important? Why would anyone use that address? I'm not sure the test address should actually work, what if people manage to accidentally send coins to it.
IMO we should remove the/any sample addresses. If someone uses bitcoin-qt he/she should know by then what a bitcoin address is.
General public is using it as a wallet... Sample address is important because they paste real addresses it from e.g. mail and want to see what to paste in. Distinguishing main and testnet is IMO important (we already do menu bar, icon etc.). Sample address is a hint only, can't be entered by hand, can't be pasted from the hint text itself.
@jonasschnelli People download .dmg from our site and run it. They do not know how it is named. They think "It is Bitcoin!". Sample address helps them to understand what to do.
@jonasschnelli I also voted for keeping an example address here the last time that this came up. It has been removed from many other places.
Testnet and mainnet addresses look similar enough to the casual observer though. Just a funny string of numbers and letters. I still don't see the point of this pull.
The PR is better then the current situation. But i thought we not removing the whole sample address thing. IMO it makes no sense because if someone manage to send coins, he has to manage to receive coins and also catch up with the blockchains head (20GB?). By then someone should know what a bitcoin address is. I would recommend to remove the sample address entirely because unless other-sample address like a sample email (john@doo.com), bitcoin-sample addresses are not clearly recognizable in the first view.
Having an example base58 string there helps with pattern matching. Ie "so this funny string should go here". That's the whole reason it's there, no need to overdesign or overcomplicate this.
Complete rework - one liner. Main net address is unchanged. For non-mainnet, the same address with prefix m is used.
Matching on the name of the network is not good! The old solution of putting it on style was the right way to go. Although still don't think this is necessary.
I propose we have an example that counters the common mis-assumption that all addresses begin with 1. Thoughts on using a P2SH address for a null script (eg, 3J98t1WpEZ73CNmQviecrnyiWrnqRhWNLy on mainnet)?
What about completely removing the "(e.g. ... )" part - see the screenshot above? This would solve my problem with this too...
As I said, having a base58 string there helps pattern matching. I don't care which one, but we're keeping it. Going to close this as it's going in circles.