{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","author_name":"npub1f2nvlx49er5c7sqa43src6ssyp6snd4qwvtkwm5avc2l84cs84esecrwet","author_url":"https://nostr.ae/npub1f2nvlx49er5c7sqa43src6ssyp6snd4qwvtkwm5avc2l84cs84esecrwet","provider_name":"njump","provider_url":"https://nostr.ae","html":"📅 Original date posted:2015-03-11\n📝 Original message:On Wed, Mar 11, 2015 at 11:50 PM, devrandom \u003cc1.sf-bitcoin at niftybox.net\u003e wrote:\n\u003e That said, I do agree that mnemonic phrases should be portable, and find\n\u003e it unfortunate that the ecosystem is failing to standardize on phrase\n\u003e handling.\n\nThe fact remains that there are several apparently unresolvable\nwell-principled perspectives on this subject.\n\n(And I can speak to this personally: There are several BIPs in this\nspace that I'd rather not see in product with my name on it.)\n\nUnless two wallets have exactly the same feature set, cross importing\nkeys is going to confuse or break something. Even if you're trying to\nbe fairly generic the testing overhead for all possible strategies and\nstructures is large. Expecting compatibility here would be like\nexpecting two large commercial accounting packages to support the same\ninternal file formats. Compatibility is only straight forward when the\nfeature set is as limited as possible.\n\nThe space for weird behavior to harm users is pretty large... e.g. you\ncould load a key into two wallets, such that one can see all the funds\nby the other, but not vice versa and and up losing funds by\nincorrectly assuming you had no coins; or inadvertently rip of your\nbusiness partners by accounting for things incorrectly.\n\nEven ignoring compatibility, most demanded use cases here are ones\nthat create concurrent read/write use of single wallet without some\ncoordinating service is inherently somewhat broken because you can\ndouble spend yourself, and end up with stalled and stuck transactions\nand causing people to think you tried ripping them off.\n\nI certainly recognize the desirable aspects of just being able to load\na common wallet, and that inexperienced users expect it to just work.\nBut I don't think that expectation is currently very realistic except\nwithin limited domains. It may be more realistic in the future when\nthe role of wallets is better established. I don't see any _harm_ in\ntrying to standardize what can be, I just don't expect to see a lot of\nsuccess.\n\nUltimately, the most fundamental compatibility is guaranteed:  you can\nalways send your funds to another wallet. This always works and\nguarantees that you are never locked in to a single wallet. It is well\ntested and cannot drive any software in to weird or confused states."}