user1475: Besides sending BitCoins using wallet addresses, there used to be another way, through IP transactions as described in the wiki.
The disadvantages were obvious (man-in-middle attacks etc).
However, were there any benefits (to the individual or to the whole system) in using IP transactions?

user3056: It's not safe, so you should not use it.
But you are asking about a possible applications...
You could, for instance, integrate IP payments with a bit torrent client, so the people who send you the most of the data would get an incentive for the service they provide you with.

user208: IP transactions have been disabled for a long time, and since 0.8 even removed entirely from the source code. The reason was mostly security.
However, there is now work on a payment protocol, which is a much more advanced evolution of IP transactions, with built-in (but optional) authentication support.

user1307: First, it needs mentioning that this functionality has already been removed from the original Bitcoin client.
Here is the GitHub pull request removing this functionality that has been accepted 2 years ago. The wiki page you refer to seems outdated.

The only known use for IP transactions I could find is the one mentioned in the pull request by gmaxwell:

Aww. The removal of this would mean we can't run a lottery for nodes running the most recent version of bitcoin as an incentive to make people upgrade. :)

Another use I can come up with myself would be that you could use the DNS system to create a human-readable address to your IP and use that as your payment address. F.e. I could use bitcoin.stevenroose.be and put the IP address of the computer running my Bitcoin client in the DNS table for that record. I could then tell people to send bitcoins to that address. However, this method would require a PC to be permanently running and connected to the network in order to be able to receive bitcoins.

1475: <p>Besides sending BitCoins using wallet addresses, there used to be another way, through IP transactions <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/IP_Transactions" rel="nofollow">as described in the wiki</a>.</p>

<p>The disadvantages were obvious (man-in-middle attacks etc).</p>

<p>However, were there <em>any</em> benefits (to the individual or to the <em>whole system</em>) in using IP transactions?</p>
 3056: <p>It's not safe, so you should not use it.
But you are asking about a possible applications...
You could, for instance, integrate IP payments with a bit torrent client, so the people who send you the most of the data would get an incentive for the service they provide you with.</p>
 208: <p>IP transactions have been disabled for a long time, and since 0.8 even removed entirely from the source code. The reason was mostly security.</p>

<p>However, there is now work on a <a href="https://gist.github.com/gavinandresen/4120476" rel="nofollow">payment protocol</a>, which is a much more advanced evolution of IP transactions, with built-in (but optional) authentication support.</p>
 1307: <p>First, it needs mentioning that <strong>this functionality has already been removed from the original Bitcoin client</strong>.</p>

<p>Here is the <a href="https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/253">GitHub pull request</a> removing this functionality that has been accepted 2 years ago. The wiki page you refer to seems outdated.</p>

<hr>

<p>The only known use for IP transactions I could find is the one <a href="https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/253#issuecomment-1593259">mentioned</a> in the pull request by <a href="https://github.com/gmaxwell">gmaxwell</a>:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Aww. The removal of this would mean we can't run a lottery for nodes running the most recent version of bitcoin as an incentive to make people upgrade. :)</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Another use I can come up with myself would be that you could use the DNS system to create a human-readable address to your IP and use that as your payment address. F.e. I could use <code>bitcoin.stevenroose.be</code> and put the IP address of the computer running my Bitcoin client in the DNS table for that record. I could then tell people to send bitcoins to that address. However, this method would require a PC to be permanently running and connected to the network in order to be able to receive bitcoins.</p>
