This episode of FTF features one of the UK's greatest exports, Max Tannahill, who joined the boys to discuss BIP47, PayNyms, and his new project BiP47DB. The conversation explains how BIP47 reusable payment codes have helped Bitcoin users receive payments more privately since 2015, especially by avoiding address reuse for donations and repeat payments. They also cover how Samourai Wallet’s PayNyms system made BIP47 more usable by adding names, avatars, and a directory layer, but also introduced a centralized dependency that became more obvious after Samourai’s infrastructure was disrupted in 2024.
Max explains that BIP47DB is designed to make BIP47 more resilient by publishing batches of payment codes on-chain using compressed inscription-style data. This could allow wallets or directory operators to rebuild PayNyms-style infrastructure, improve recovery of BIP47 connections, and reduce reliance on centralized servers like the original Samourai or current Ashigaru PayNyms directories. The key takeaway is that BIP47DB is not meant as an end-user app, but as a backend building block to help preserve and decentralize important Bitcoin privacy infrastructure.