@ -870,13 +870,13 @@ We will explore how to create transactions that spend funds from P2SH (and multi
((("addresses, bitcoin","vanity", id="ix_ch04-asciidoc26", range="startofrange")))((("vanity addresses", id="ix_ch04-asciidoc27", range="startofrange")))Vanity addresses are valid bitcoin addresses that contain human-readable messages. For example, +1LoveBPzzD72PUXLzCkYAtGFYmK5vYNR33+ is a valid address that contains the letters forming the word "Love" as the first four Base-58 letters. Vanity addresses require generating and testing billions of candidate private keys, until one derives a bitcoin address with the desired pattern. Although there are some optimizations in the vanity generation algorithm, the process essentially involves picking a private key at random, deriving the public key, deriving the bitcoin address, and checking to see if it matches the desired vanity pattern, repeating billions of times until a match is found.
Once a vanity address matching the desired pattern is found, the private key from which it was derived can be used by the owner to spend bitcoins in exactly the same way as any other address. Vanity addresses are no less or more secure than any other address. They depend on the same Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) and Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) as any other address. You can no easier find the private key of an address starting with a vanity pattern than you can any other address.
Once a vanity address matching the desired pattern is found, the private key from which it was derived can be used by the owner to spend bitcoins in exactly the same way as any other address. Vanity addresses are no less or more secure than any other address. They depend on the same Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) and Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) as any other address. You can no more easily find the private key of an address starting with a vanity pattern than you can any other address.
In <<ch01_intro_what_is_bitcoin>>, we introduced Eugenia, a children's charity director operating in the Philippines. Let's say that Eugenia is organizing a bitcoin fundraising drive and wants to use a vanity bitcoin address to publicize the fundraising. Eugenia will create a vanity address that starts with "1Kids" to promote the children's charity fundraiser. Let's see how this vanity address will be created and what it means for the security of Eugenia's charity.
===== Generating vanity addresses
((("vanity addresses","generating", id="ix_ch04-asciidoc28", range="startofrange")))It's important to realize that a bitcoin address is simply a number represented by symbols in the Base58 alphabet. The search for a pattern like "1Kids" can be seen as searching for an address in the range from "1Kids11111111111111111111111111111" to "1Kidszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz". There are approximately 58^29^ (approximately 1.4 * 10^51^) addresses in that range, all starting with "1Kids". <<table_4-11>> shows the range of addresses that have the prefix 1Kids.
((("vanity addresses","generating", id="ix_ch04-asciidoc28", range="startofrange")))It's important to realize that a bitcoin address is simply a number represented by symbols in the Base58 alphabet. The search for a pattern like "1Kids" can be seen as searching for an address in the range from +1Kids11111111111111111111111111111+ to +1Kidszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz+. There are approximately 58^29^ (approximately 1.4 * 10^51^) addresses in that range, all starting with "1Kids". <<table_4-11>> shows the range of addresses that have the prefix 1Kids.
[[table_4-11]]
.The range of vanity addresses starting with "1Kids"
myarbrough@oreilly.com
10 years ago