So, Mircea Popescu argues against Segwit with death bounties.  This is how his followers make their case:


The post which evidently set “Last of the V8s” off his rocker was in a PGP-related thread, wherein I briefly quoted myself from this thread.  An interesting portion of Mr. V8s’ signature is here presented with my addition of red boldface:


Any more questions about M.P., cellard?  Don’t take that the wrong way.  I’ve read Trilema; I know that its author knows how to speak very persuasively.

(Aside, MPEx (Mircea Popescu’s stock Exchange) still demands a 50 BTC registration fee despite that its homepage currently advertises a 30-day total volume of 1.19999520 BTC.  That’s for the entire exchange—while the homepage also advertises, “Providing nucleation in the superheated fluid of Bitcoin.”  Popescu’s forum spokeswoman has been silent since 18 April 2016.  Popescu is evidently not a man who can keep a big-money project going for more than a few years.  Too bad for all the people who paid 50 BTC for that.)

Thank you.  Yes, I want that code!  I will promptly set this as a priority feature; I can’t wait to measure the speedup.  secp256k1 already beat OpenSSL about 7x when I tried them head-to-head in my same code; looking at the description in the code, I am guessing that “astronomically” will mean “orders of magnitude”.

FWIW, the code checked into the tree is copied from Bitcoin Core v0.15.1.  I intended to mention that in my commit log, but forgot.  Of course, I follow the secp256k1 repository; but I know it does not yet have any releases, and I wanted to be just a tiny bit conservative when using software I know is marked experimental.


Excellent.  I see it.  That may call for going back to the drawing board, and performing some daemonology.  I’ll see what ideas I can cook up for a client/server generator.  It may be be a higher priority than full Windows port, if I can work out an easy way for Windows-only users to submit their requests to a “cloud” machine and then do the tweak multiplication on their own machines.


Will ask.  Actually, I think I may have this mentioned somewhere in GH discussions; I didn’t pay attention, because I don’t yet own any machines with AVX2.  Not quite as rich as people think I am. <g>

I myself will not try implementing such things, even the “really easy” ones.  I don’t have the CS background.  After tinkering for years, I learned programming by reading FreeBSD kernel code until I thoroughly understood almost everything except the CS-heavy subsystems (vm, scheduler, etc.).  I think you see that my code reflects the style you’d expect from that experience.  Otherwise, as in all else, I take pride in knowing enough to know the limits of my own knowledge.


Of course.  Avoiding unnecessary checksums is an easy optimization all around, though it will require some refactoring to open up a code path for that.  Also, I want to at least optionally support expressions such as 'qqqqqq$'.  I’ve had fun generating a few neat addresses that way.

Time to go code...

The "Makefile" is for FreeBSD (and probably other BSD); the "GNUmakefile" is for Linux, and should automatically take precedence with gmake.  I assume you are using a GNU toolchain on Windows?  I could try to produce a makefile which makes isolating errors easier; let me add a no-libcrypto build option first.

Edit:  I thought tossing in the hash implementation C files would be a quick fix.  Oops.  This may take a few minutes.

Thanks for your response.

I am under the impression that PCRE has wrappers for POSIX regex functionality (#include <regex.h>); so that should work.  I’ve also found a bunch of different links and discussions (mostly on Stackoverflow) leading me to believe there’s also a mingw regex package without PCRE.  I did not yet sort it all out.

I had forgotten about the OpenSSL libcrypto dependency.  Thanks for reminding me.  It is only used for hash functions, SHA-256 and RIPEMD-160.  If it would help, I could easily copy portable C code from FreeBSD’s libmd, and eliminate the -lcrypto entirely.

The biggest question to me is getting secp256k1’s build system to work with a mingw cross-compile.  The code is portable; it’s part of Bitcoin, which I will take as proof that it runs on Windows.  But the trick is to get it to cross-build the right way.  Have you tried this part on your Windows machine?

As a rule, you always know you hit just the right spot when the vulgarity meter pegs.

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I enjoy being hypercorrected by pretentious morons who neither grasp (not-so-)subtle double entendre, nor even know the definitions of basic English words:


(Aside:  The sense of sexual coupling is actually a euphemism; the denotations of “dealings, communication; interchange of thoughts” are original.  Source:  My own knowledge of etymology.  Go get your own education, you degenerate anti-intellectual.)


Actually, it is German.  Per the mighty Duden:



The correct spelling is “Nietzsche”.  And what did I say about the vulgarity meter?  It shows that I hit where it hurts:  Directly upon your own sense of jealous inferiority.  The Sklavenmoral does suit you, after all.  No wonder you are such a zealot for empathy.  You need it, and also its incestuous twin:  Pity.

For not only are you anti-intellectual, but you are also a classless boor.  The two qualities (or lacks thereof) do seem so oft coincident.


Beneath reply.  Please try not to lose your cool so badly when bossing your alleged 20 direct reports and 500 indirect peons.  They need for you to keep your job, so that you can continue shoving them around.  But nobody here needs that.

Head meets wall repeatedly with mingw cross-compiling.  This is actually my first time ever attempting such a thing; the last time I needed a Windows binary, a significant number of years ago, I used MSVC on a Windows machine.

I want to help Windows users get spiffy new Segwit addresses; but I think I’ve spent enough time on that for now, whereas I should be writing documentation and improving the code.  If anybody who has a working mingw setup (including a POSIX regex package) on any platform could at least confirm that it compiles that way, I’d appreciate knowing that such a thing is possible without significant code changes before I spend more time trying.

If I can successfully produce a Windows binary myself, I will distribute it on Github PGP-signed using the ECC key identified in my signature.

Last I checked, the “phuctor” page had disappeared and was a redirect to the author’s homepage.  I didn’t bother digging, given that said author is one whom I’ve found to eviscerate his own credibility:


Anyway, this is off-topic on this thread.  If you care to take it up elsewhere, feel free to start a new thread in an appropriate forum and PM me the link.  I’ll reply if (and only if) it’s interesting.

Me, too.

Once upon a time, I seduced a beauteous lady of arts and letters with a running erotic joke about commas, interspersed with intercourse on Byron.  Thence ensued a story more appropriate for /u/GirlsGoneBitcoin than here, wherein she confirmed my reputation as “mad, bad, and dangerous to know”.  Thus, I do understand why you’re jealous of my way with words; you should be.

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And your opinion matters, because...?


Shame on you for cherry-picking a quote, and leveraging that to take a holier-than-thou attitude toward someone who has freely given extraordinary amounts of time to helping newbies, squashing predatory scammers, and fighting spam.  I don’t wonder why your reply picked on that, instead of this:


I am also unsurprised that you argued with one line out of a discussion, whilst conveniently avoiding all I said in my own far more detailed substantive response.


Yours is.  Moreover, the whole notion of “empathy” is disgusting.  It is nothing more than an emotional blank cheque demanded by the weak and incompetent on those who are not so.  It is the distilled essence of the Sklavenmoral.  But as all such things, it is a poison which acts only against those who choose to drink it.  Repudiate the concept, and it is as powerless as its preachers.


Nice boast, as a setup for an air of superiority.  But you must be new to the Internet, if you presume that others will do other than take that a grain of salt.  Maybe you’re telling the truth; maybe you’re not.  I don’t care, either way.  You will never know who I am.  In either case, publicly visible actions hold more weight than mere stories.

Now, you’ve popped up in this thread with rude pretension, unjustifiable contempt, and imperious demands unmatched by your ability to argue a point, much less enforce yours on anybody.  What it boils down to is more whining:  So, you’re “actually hating that this thread is still going”.  That’s amusing enough, but also mildly irritating.  Shoo.  If you so hate this, then I think we can agree (or at least concur) that you shouldn’t stick around here.

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I owe others a reply upthread (including squatter’s well-thought response; fancy that, a desire for quantitative data with a sample size greater than one).  Have not forgotten.  TODO.  Meanwhile, I intend to fulfill my promises to anybody who brought popcorn.

Thanks for noticing that.  My PGP key fingerprints are:

• Ed25519, preferred: 0xC2E91CD74A4C57A105F6C21B5A00591B2F307E0C
• (RSA: 0xA232750664CC39D61CE5D61536EBB4AB699A10EE)

Ed25519 (and also, Curve25519 encryption) can be used with GnuPG 2.1+, based on a draft standard and just using a number which bureaucracy has not assigned.  It is supported by some others (including Keybase—n.b. that my profile there is way out of date, since their interface is horrible if you don’t give them your keys).  I am not alone in wishing for Ed448-Goldilocks.  Too bad.  As a pseudonymous personality, my Ed25519 fingerprint is me.

Due to spotty support otherwise, I have been maintaining an RSA key (4096 bits, of course).  It feels like the 90s, when Usenet signature sported fingerprints for PGP 2.x/5.x keys.

I will not be pasting the keys themselves into a message here.  That’s not the right way to do things, if the tedium I’ve spent trying to gather keys is any indicator!  Fingerprints will suffice.  PGP fingerprints have a 2¹⁶⁰ security level, and will not go out of date as subkeys and userids change.

My aforestated fingerprints are for certification-only primary keys which were generated on an airgap machine, have never been exposed to a net-connected machine, and never expire.  (`man gpg` and search for --export-secret-subkeys.  Lazyweb also has blog guides for how to do this.)  I use those to add, revoke, and/or extend the expiry of subkeys, as well as changing userids as needed.  Some of my subkeys expire next month—no big deal; I’ll either extend their expiration dates (yes, you can do that!), or issue replacements if I want to.  People can then refresh my keys from keyservers, relying on the fingerprint and primary key they already have.

I have (much) more to say about PGP keys.  Since I found this thread, I’ve been trying to gather and organize keys; I am contemplating a project to make a Bitcoin Forum PGP Keyring.  I will post again later, or start a new thread if warranted.  Promoting PGP usage on the forum is a special interest of mine:

Thanks for reminding me, plus giving me all the more reason to tag both of the #1061902 “HALLASTERA” and #1257862 “kinki32” accounts:


Now, I will not risk forgetting and accidentally doing business with this individual.

I see that he has been following my sarcastic advice all too literally:

[2018-03-11 edit:  Struck out/modified some of my suggestions; issued correction, q.v.]

@theymos

Has the potential been considered of allowing paid accounts to have avatars at low rank, via Copper Membership or otherwise?

It seems reasonable to expect that this would substantially enhance the draw of paid membership; I think it perhaps could even justify a moderate huge bump in price.  I speak from experience:  When I was a Newbie Copper Member, I myself would have paid extra to sport an avatar—say, the equivalent of $10 more.  (Now, I wouldn’t; I’m only about a month away from Full Member.)  Avatars are fairly basic forum self-styling functionality, and not really a good indicator of rank:  As it stands, you only need to be active for a bit over four months to get an avatar; and there are no further enhancements to avatars at higher ranks.

I did enjoy Copper Membership’s allowance of links in my signature (as it did at the time).  I used that to link to my PGP keys on keyservers, to my Bitcoin tip addresses, and later (as Jr. Member) to some open-source Bitcoin utilities I’ve written.  Of course, most important to me was the principal practical feature of Copper Membership:  The ability to post images, which improved the quality of many of my early posts.

I dislike the idea of possibly inviting more visual assaults from advertising, especially annoying ad APNGs.  On the other hand, who would pay enough for rented avatar space to make it worthwhile to risk buying paid membership for a spammy account?  I am not familiar with ad rates, but I do know:  An avatar is much smaller than a signature, and most importantly, it’s not clickable.  The avatar of a widely-respected Hero or Legendary might be worth something at market, if only for “branding”; but I doubt a newbie farmed/spammer account holder would find it worthwhile to pay a significant fee just for the avatar.

Apologies if this has already been discussed.

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I’ve actually been bitten by that.  Actually.

My qualifications for whining humorously nitpicking:  “You have reported 257 posts with 100% accuracy” (within a total amount of forum time which currently gives me an 84 activity level).

I tend to batch things methodically.  If I find a clump of spam posts (as so oft occurs), I will open each one in a new tab, write my report texts in a text editor, then repeatedly iterate through the tabs clicking “Report to moderator”, copypasting, double-checking, and then sending the reports.  Call it the reporting machine-gun method.  By such means, it has occasionally happened that I tried to submit more than one report within 4 seconds.

(To be clear, I do not actually see this limit as a problem.)

segvan only produces compressed keys.  It does have an option I added at the last minute for old-style “1” addresses.  However, its primary function is to produce Segwit addresses (both Bech32 and “3”-nested), which require compressed keys.  You should be using Segwit, anyway; it will save you significantly on fees.

It didn’t take so long to get it onto Github.  Unfortunately, I’ve been spending too much time posting on the forum. <g>

It’s not perfect—far from it.  (Nothing which is missing documentation could be “perfect”!)  But core functionality is solid.  I tried building and running it on Linux before pushing it onto Github.  It should do fine for you there; and even a slow machine can produce addresses such as you now see in my signature, if you leave it crunching away for a few weeks.  I will try to cook up a Windows version.

Please direct follow-ups to the segvan thread.

Please see and followup-to:  segvan: Segwit vanity address & bulk address generator

Github: https://github.com/nym-zone/segvan


More recent gems, my new tip addresses:

bc1qnullnymefa273hgss63kvtvr0q7377kjza0607

35segwitgLKnDi2kn7unNdETrZzHD2c5xh

Please see:  segvan: Segwit vanity address & bulk address generator

Github: https://github.com/nym-zone/segvan

(Reserved.)

Note:  This is under active development, currently on an experimental branch offering 5x speedup.  I will post further updates when appropriate.

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By popular demand:

Github: https://github.com/nym-zone/segvan

The code for this is reasonably solid, notwithstanding some inelegance in main() which will be refactored.  On FreeBSD, it’s been my dogfood for over six weeks; I have also built it and tried basic functionality on Linux.  But it needs error, warning, and usage messages—plus the manpage!

When there is significant news (such as major features or a Windows version), I will severely edit this post and bump the thread.

Two recent products (tips would be encouraging):


Those were done together, on one run with each key being searched for a Bech32 pattern and a nested “3” address pattern.  They took 500–600 CPU hours on an ultra-slow airgap laptop; for comparison, the same machine requires about 8 hours for a FreeBSD buildworld (!).  But I got lucky:  I hit a ^bc1qnullnym match after covering only about 25% of a 35-bit bruteforce search.  The other took a bit longer; but wasn’t so hard, because I permitted a potential extra digit: ^3[0-9]?segwit (case-insensitive matching).

Roadmap/TODO, in no particular order:

• Add threading.  I always simply run one instance per core.  That doesn’t waste anything, because it is a probabilistic search:  There is no concept of “progress”, no need to keep instances synchronized in any way.  Threads would make it more convenient.  However, before I add a simple pthreads implementation, I want to investigate the impact on the next item.
• Microsoft Windows version, likely via mingw.  This is in popular demand.  I can’t promise a binary on a platform I myself don’t even have in my house; but I will try to get a Windows binary made for folks who need it.
• Change/adjust the output format.  The current output format is intended for piping to shell scripts, especially for bulk generation mode.  If you need to generate ten thousand address/key pairs and pipe those into a `while read` loop, then the current format is ideal.
• Add warning/error/usage messages.  This started as an afternoon project for my own use.  The code is solid, despite some inelegance in main() which will also be refactored.  It’s solid, because I need it that way; however, unlike some of my other published software, this was not originally written with other people in mind.
• Finish the manpage!

R U STUPED SIR THE EVIDENCES IS VERY CONCLUSEVE :


GUILTY!

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STOP SPAMMING TEH FORUM VOD SIR . LOOK BELOW ,. UR SIG IS A BILLBORED!!

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THATS IMPOSSABLE THE POWER OF HUMIN STUPEDETY IS INFINATE!!!

THERES NOTHIGN MORE RELIEBAL! SIR  U SHULD GIVE STUPADITY GREEN TRUST , IT NEVAR FAILZ!!!

Merit sources are confidential; thus, the most we’ll ever know about how it turns out is when the application has been “Processed”.  Apparently, this has not yet occurred.

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Thanks.  In the time since you wrote that, I handily blew past “deeperx”.  Also past “RichDaniel”, the “Hero” Member so incredibly meritorious that he got +283 in the span of an hour (then got red-tagged for his trouble).  Unfortunately, within the past 24 hours, I’ve fallen behind “pitipawn”, a Full Member who seems to be running Turkish threads soliciting merit in some fashion.  I’d better work harder!