Comment by giantrobot
2 years ago
The issue there is "veI0city66". Depending on the font that capital "I" might look identical to a lower case "l". A hash with an alphabet that doesn't include homoglyphs would reduce ambiguity.
There's also the "weedlordbonerhitler69" issue. A user name that seemed hilarious at 16 likely seems less hilarious at 26.
If users were identified with a hash derived from an input user name you could type in "weedlordbonerhitler69" and what would be displayed is a hash on the client side. The contact add UI could simply return the UID for the input username. So you could give out the UID or username and another user could still add you.
> The issue there is "veI0city66". Depending on the font that capital "I" might look identical to a lower case "l". A hash with an alphabet that doesn't include homoglyphs would reduce ambiguity.
They're not going to get mixed up typing it in from me verbally telling me the name. They're not going to get confused typing it in. And even then, validate the user after, that's another feature of signal is in person/out of band validation of the ends. So start the convo the verify through a channel you otherwise trust.
> There's also the "weedlordbonerhitler69" issue. A user name that seemed hilarious at 16 likely seems less hilarious at 26.
And with their setup you can change it at any time, so once again not really an issue.