Quote from: [mike] on February 14, 2011, 12:49:47 PM

Why not do a fully blown Facebook integration? Just have a site that lets you pick any of your friends from Facebook, it generates an address for you that you send coins to. Later when that person has downloaded and installed the client, they sign in to the same site and are able to provide an address of their own to receive the coins. That seems a bit simpler than adding import/export features and it'd be very easy to code up using the Facebook API/AppEngine.

This wouldn't help for people who aren't on Facebook of course, but for those who are it's probably an easier and more intuitive experience.

Because it would be harder.

With the private key idea the invitation message would be:

Hey friend! Here is 5 bitcoins: SDF8SFGD56F76DGS987FDGSDF9S76DFSFD7SD0F97FD097SFDGREY65T3TYU6CXB5N623VB

Download the bitcoin client at bitcoin.org to redeem your coins

With your proposed idea the message would be:

Hey friend! Try bitcoin! I've sent you 5 bitcoins on bitcoinfacebook.com. Download bitcoin at bitcoin.org, then go to bitcoinfacebook.com and enter this invitation code: 34JHG25KJ54H

Aka more steps for the person that is just starting with bitcoin.