Quote from: leopard2 on January 05, 2018, 10:59:43 PM

No matter what you and Nullius say, the fact remains that in the real world, having a fixed address is an advantage from a usability perspective.

You are mistaken.

It can equally be true to say that "in the real world, having a fixed invoice number is an advantage from a usability perspective".

Sure its true that the customer doesn't need to keep track of which invoice number ot use when they pay you (since they always use the same one), but it doesn't fit it's purpose (identifying a payment) and is therefore a DISADVANTAGE.

Quote from: leopard2 on January 05, 2018, 10:59:43 PM

Examples: donation addresses, used by the thousands on webpages and signatures.

A webpage can easily generate a new address everytime the page refreshes.

Earning money through signatures on a forum is a cancer. it is a perfect example of why you shouldn't be allowed to re-use an address, and why you should refuse to ever engage in any transaction with anyone that ever re-uses an address.

Quote from: leopard2 on January 05, 2018, 10:59:43 PM

Or exchanges, which use address locking as a security measure.

Every well run exchange that I've ever used generates a brand new address for every deposit.

Quote from: leopard2 on January 05, 2018, 10:59:43 PM

Or address books in each and every client, which would be utterly useless and stupid if you were right. Wink

They are utterly useless and stupid. I never use them. I expect them to slowly fade away into the pages of history.

Quote from: leopard2 on January 05, 2018, 10:59:43 PM

I do not condone address re-use,

I don't think that word means what you seem to think it means.

Quote from: leopard2 on January 05, 2018, 10:59:43 PM

but I believe a good crypto should be designed so that security is not compromised when doing it.

It's a bad idea regardless. It reduces privacy, and it is a bad practice.

Quote from: leopard2 on January 05, 2018, 10:59:43 PM

Of course for privacy, address re-use is bad.

It's just a bad idea. It's also bad for privacy, but it shouldn't be done regardless.

Quote from: leopard2 on January 05, 2018, 10:59:43 PM

But sometimes you do not need privacy (e.g. paying your phone bill).

Privacy is always important. Even if you are paying your phone bill. I shouldn't need to announce to the world the total value of bitcoins I have just because you want to pay your phone bill.

Quote from: leopard2 on January 05, 2018, 10:59:43 PM

If you better privacy, use HD wallets which create new addresses automatically.

Correct. New address for every transaction.

Quote from: leopard2 on January 05, 2018, 10:59:43 PM

If you want perfect privacy use Monero, Byteball or Spectrecoin - they offer private and public addresses.

There's no such thing as "perfect privacy". They offer arguably "better" privacy, but not perfect.

Quote from: leopard2 on January 05, 2018, 10:59:43 PM

But the people I know, real people in the real world, would prefer to send their recurring payments (phone, rent etc.) to the same address.

If you are mailing a payment, you are welcome to re-use a mailing address.

If you are transfering USD (or other local currency) then you are welcome to re-use an account number.

Bitcoin addresses are not mailing addresses, and they are not account numbers. They are a way to identify who sent a payment, when they sent it, and wy they sent it. In other words, they are an invoice number.

Quote from: leopard2 on January 05, 2018, 10:59:43 PM

Businesses call such numbers "billing accounts" and they don't change.

Businesses do NOT call invoice numbers "billing accounts" and invoice numbers DO change. You may have MANY invoices all associated with the same account, just like a business may have MANY bitcoin addresses all associated with your account. They account identifier (account number) won't change, but the bitcoin address should (if they are doing it right).

Quote from: leopard2 on January 05, 2018, 10:59:43 PM

I simply oppose the idea of calling address re-use a user fault.

Call it what you want. That doesn't change the fact that they shouldn't do it, and they are at fault if they do.

Quote from: leopard2 on January 05, 2018, 10:59:43 PM

I believe every person has a right to re-use an address or not,

That is currently true. It is possible for users to do a LOT of things that they shouldn't do. They can publish their private keys if they want. They can re-use addresses if they want. They can send their bitcoins to random addresses if they want.

The fact that a user CAN do these things, or that they have the "right" to do these things doesn't make ANY of them a good idea. They should be discouraged from all of these bad concepts.

Quote from: leopard2 on January 05, 2018, 10:59:43 PM

it is not up to developers to decide that for them!

I'd be pretty happy if Bitcoin ever hard-forked to refuse to accept address re-use. It's never going to happen, but I can dream.

Quote from: leopard2 on January 05, 2018, 10:59:43 PM

Flame me all you want, but don't you whine when idiots flock to (ewwww....) XRP or some other crap. Sad

Idiots can go do whatever they like. I'm here to help educate people that want to learn and that want to understand.