Thanks to all for the response.

I was just curious on behalf of those that don't trust wallet software and wanted to be hardcore about it.

What are the chances of generating a valid seed phrase (or 24 mnemonic words) from the BIP39 wordlist of 2048 words?

I know the last word is a checksum generated from the first 23 words, but there's got to some % chance you correctly guess a valid working seed phrase just from manually randomly picking out 24 words...

The entirety of this piece will attempt to outline some broad methodologies to use in forming certain benchmarks of crypto wallets and its targeted users by certain characteristics. This is by no means exhaustive or exclusive, but rather a working exercise on examining certain unrealized characteristics to one of the more altruistic and overlooked, but important areas of the bitcoin/crypto space. There are tons of mathematical models that attempt to formulate tokenomics of different networks and measure network activity, but there aren’t any models to form some type of benchmark in the crypto wallet segment.

Perhaps this could be a starting point.

In this piece you'll read about:

- Categorizing crypto users by wallet usage behavior
- A proposed 3-axis categorization (Pillars) of a crypto wallet
- Quantifying a wallet’s elasticity from the eyes of its user

Welcoming feedback!

https://medium.com/tuoyuanresearch/examining-the-three-pillars-of-a-crypto-wallet-and-its-widening-usage-spectrum-d3924af0ea4a

"Your propensity to self-custody your private keys and hoard loads of hardware wallets might be an obsession, but that’s ok, because we know you wouldn’t want it any other way."

In time for Valentine's Day, enjoy this tongue-in-cheek Bitcoin piece I wrote about one's love for self-custody and the heart breaking scenario if you don't.

https://medium.com/tuoyuanresearch/256-xs-o-s-fef9a32b0791

Thanks for the feedback, I'll look into that.

Thanks all for the explanations

This is a good idea. I could add this to my list of future improvements. And testnet transactions would also make people feel safer inputting their private key.

And in general for those who were wondering, I null out the private key value after having it sign the transaction. Again, there might be other security mechanisms that I am unaware of.

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Agreed. I think I could've also added in a bit more explanatory pop-up windows that guide the user through every step live.

Thanks for bookmarking!

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Noted. Perhaps I should go for a more modern, minimalist look next time.

In regards to burn addresses, are burn addresses the same as normal addresses in terms of format and creation? All I know of burn addresses is that they are used to "burn" bitcoins because noone has the private keys associated to that burn address.

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

I patched together a fun application tool that serves as an educational tool for users and newcomers to understand some of the mechanics behind a bitcoin transaction. These days, bitcoin transactions are sent via a simple click of a ‘send’ button in a wallet software app. To “build” one’s own transaction, one can go a layer down from merely clicking a “send” button.

Access the Build It Yourself Bitcoin Transaction application below:

https://build-it-yourself-bitcoin.herokuapp.com/

*If you are viewing the application on a small screen, it is suggested to zoom out in the browser for better viewing experience. This responsive design is part of the future improvement considerations listed below.

The application guides a user through some simple steps on building and broadcasting out a transaction.

It’s meant to be educational, informative, simple, and fun.

Some notes to point out before starting:

1.A proper security audit has not been ran on this application, therefore it is highly advised you use a private/public key pair that you do not intend to use in the future.
2.Due to the above’s recommendation for a private/public key one-time-use, this application will only accept 1 TXIN and 1 TXOUT output transaction. In other words, 1 UTXO in and 1 UTXO out. No change address option is provided.
3.This will only support P2PKH and P2WPKH transactions.
4.If you would like to create some private/public key pairs to use during the process, you can create your own at www.rawbitcoinkeys.com (this is another educational tool that teaches how a basic legacy (P2PKH) bitcoin address is made from a private key).

If you would like to improve this tool, feel free to add a pull request to the repository here:

https://github.com/jiamijiang/build-it-yourself-bitcoin

To view some screenshots of the application, check out this link below:

https://medium.com/tuoyuanresearch/build-your-own-bitcoin-transaction-8eb6f0117d2a

Hopefully this application can help you learn some of the nuts and bolts behind a bitcoin transaction. Because you never know, one of these days, you might need to send out bitcoin transactions the raw way.

thank u

From my understanding, BIP39/32/44 all use the secp256k1 elliptic curve standard from Bitcoin. But I noticed that cryptos such as Polkadot and Cardano have their own registered coin type path for BIP44, but those two cryptos use Ed25519 as their public key elliptic curve standard, so how is this possible?

Isn't those BIP39 mnemonic words all stemming from 256 bits originally? And Ed25519 uses a different private key size than 256 bits?

I am actually unfamiliar with how Ed25519 works exactly so much appreciated if someone can explain it in a high level overview, and then explain how it's compatible with BIP32/44/39. Thank you.

If you mask your node behind Tor for privacy purposes, does that mean you are not allowing your node to be discoverable, which inadvertently means you are not allowing others to retrieve network information from your node?

So in a way this is actually not really supporting the network right?

what about Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias by Peter Ludlow?

Can anyone suggest the best books related to topics such as crypto anarchy, cypherpunks, and digital currencies?

What are the positives and negatives of leaving a lightning payment channel open? How am I contributing to the lightning network and what are the risks if any?

nevermind, it finally works now....but am not sure why it wasn't working before

Hello,

I am able to receive lightning payments from a buddy but i fail when i try to send lightning payments back to that same buddy. The error would say "Payment Failed, No Path Found". Any advice?

it works, thanks!

I am starting to use the lightning network feature in the electrum wallet for the first time. I've already funded and have opened a channel. great. but it only shows that I 'Can Send' at the moment. My 'Can Receive' is showing 0....why is that

I'm seeing this particular topic on twitter today and it's got me a bit stumped. So I would like to ask my hero bitcoiners here for their advice:

If bitcoin's price and market cap continue to increase, and if a 2nd layer or off-network protocol allows people to subdivide their satoshis into smaller and smaller units, does the whole 21 million BTC supply cap even matter anymore?

it worked smoothly. thank you.