Why do all private keys generated with bitaddress have the same first character?

[neutrinox]

Hi!

I noticed that all the private keys bitadress.org generates begin with the number 5. Is this normal? Why is the first character not random?

[chriswilmer]

I think it's similar to the way a random number between 1 and 1000 is much (much!) more likely to start with a 0 than a 1.

0000
0001
0002

...

0999
1000

etc.

However, I could be wrong. Maybe this is just related to the special Bitcoin Base58 encoding and there is a version byte or something.

[Gabi]

The last line is on the right way for the answer 

It is explained on the Wallet Details section

Private Key WIF
51 characters base58, starts with a '5'

Private Key WIF Compressed
52 characters base58, starts with a 'K' or 'L'

It just depend on the encoding format used, the key is randomly generated 

[Birdy]

I think it's similar to the way a random number between 1 and 1000 is much (much!) more likely to start with a 0 than a 1.

0000
0001
0002

...

0999
1000

etc.

However, I could be wrong. Maybe this is just related to the special Bitcoin Base58 encoding and there is a version byte or something.

You are wrong, the first character isn't random.
Afaik it shows what kind of adress this is.
All Bitcoin adresses start with 1 and all private keys start with 5 (and there are probably more).

[gweedo]

It has to do with how it is hashed and the verison bytes that are added to the front of the hash. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Technical_background_of_Bitcoin_addresses

[blub]

Use armory, and enter your own private key (the random number soruce on your system could be backdoored)
get good random numbers(dice, geiger counter)

[DeathAndTaxes]

Use armory, and enter your own private key (the random number soruce on your system could be backdoored)
get good random numbers(dice, geiger counter)

[neutrinox]

Hi thanks!

I deleted my message because I realized it's kind of off topic to this discussion. I generated a new topic instead. Sorry!