The Monero project created an easy way to share your Monero public address and OpenAlias allows as easier/shorter address.
If you want to create your OpenAlias address, you must own or control your own domain name.
How to configure your DNS for OpenAlias
If your email address is [email protected] OpenAlias will automatically replace the @ sign with a “.”. this means that the configuration will allow payments to be sent to you at either [email protected] or at name.example.com.
You have to locate the DNS configuration for your domain at the registrar that you purchased it at and add a TXT record for the host [email protected] with the value:
oa1:xmr recipient_address=4JUdGzvrMFDWrUUwY3toJATSeNwjn54LkCnKBPRzDuhzi5vSepHfUckJNxRL2gjkNrSqtCoRUrEDAgRwsQvVCjZbRx8NCvspxJMRJcG69H; recipient_name=name Lastname; tx_description=Donate to my cupcake fund!;
If you are not familiar with DNS, if you will be asked for a TTL value it is fine to leave it as its default value. The TTL specifies the maximum number of seconds that your new DNS will be cached for by people that query it. After you configure your TXT record, it may take a few hours to propagate.
If you want to add a Bitcoin donation address you can do this by adding another almost identical record except that it would start with ‘oa1:btc’ instead of ‘oa1:xmr’, and would obviously contain your Bitcoin public address instead of your Monero address.
What is DNSSEC?
Due to the lack of integrity checking with the DNS system, it’s not recommended to use OpenAlias unless your registrar or the third party nameserver provider supports a standard called DNSSEC. This allows people who request your DNS records to be confident that the DNS records have not been tampered with. DNSSEC is not something that you have to configure by yourself, but instead, your DNS provider will either automatically support it or not.
It’s important to remember that it’s not recommended to share your OpenAlias with people unless your registrar supports DNSSEC.