Vanitygen: Vanity bitcoin address generator/miner [v0.22]

[TheRealSteve]

It's working on Windows 8.1? I can not launch

Detail exactly what you're trying to launch, how you're trying to launch it, and what error(s) - if any - you get

my preferred way to launch (ocl)vanitygen.exe is by opening a command line window (start > run > "cmd", or through metro, start typing "command prompt" (en version, localize if using different language), make sure I'm in the vanitygen folder using the 'cd' command (e.g. 'cd d:\bitcoin\vanitygen'), and then running vanitygen (e.g. 'vanitygen.exe 1pattern').  That way the working dir is set up right, and any errors vanitygen itself gives are readable on the screen.

[MaoChao]

It's working on Windows 8.1? I can not launch

Detail exactly what you're trying to launch, how you're trying to launch it, and what error(s) - if any - you get

my preferred way to launch (ocl)vanitygen.exe is by opening a command line window (start > run > "cmd", or through metro, start typing "command prompt" (en version, localize if using different language), make sure I'm in the vanitygen folder using the 'cd' command (e.g. 'cd d:\bitcoin\vanitygen'), and then running vanitygen (e.g. 'vanitygen.exe 1pattern').  That way the working dir is set up right, and any errors vanitygen itself gives are readable on the screen.

My way to run is same, but a black window appears for a split-second and disappears.
https://i.imgur.com/ih3ZbVh.png

[TheRealSteve]

You seem to be running

Code:

start vanitygen.exe

try just

Code:

vanitygen.exe

.  The 'start' command will cause windows to open a new command console with the application in it, which closes as soon as the application exits; in this case, right after vanitygen displays its help

[MaoChao]

You seem to be running

Code:

start vanitygen.exe

try just

Code:

vanitygen.exe

.  The 'start' command will cause windows to open a new command console with the application in it, which closes as soon as the application exits; in this case, right after vanitygen displays its help

I tried, but it still opens a new window and disappears.

[Vortex20000]

You seem to be running

Code:

start vanitygen.exe

try just

Code:

vanitygen.exe

.  The 'start' command will cause windows to open a new command console with the application in it, which closes as soon as the application exits; in this case, right after vanitygen displays its help

I tried, but it still opens a new window and disappears.

It is not a GUI program, you must run it with the appropriate arguments.

[TheRealSteve]

It is not a GUI program, you must run it with the appropriate arguments.

As long as it's done in a command line window, it shouldn't be opening a new window, and in the existing window it would just spit out its help, e.g.:


MaoChao: Try making a batch file (say, "vanitygen.bat"), containing these lines:

Code:

vanitygen.exe
pause

Save that (As "vanitygen.bat", make sure it doesn't end up as "vanitygen.bat.txt" or something like that) in the same folder as vanitygen.exe, then try running the batch file (can do so from explorer or other file manager), see what happens.

[MaoChao]

Nothing
https://i.imgur.com/FbysAqQ.png
https://i.imgur.com/jOXZba8.png (it's mean - Press any key to continue)

[TheRealSteve]

Nothing
https://i.imgur.com/FbysAqQ.png
https://i.imgur.com/jOXZba8.png (it's mean - Press any key to continue)

Weird.  Some old thread on the interwebs suggests running the command console as administrator fixes it, but I can't really recommend that.

At least it should actually be running.. albeit in a different window.  So follow Vortex20000's advice, change the .bat file to:

Code:

vanitygen64.exe 1test
pause

See if the second window that opens then stays open and shows vanitygen trying to find the '1test' prefix.

[MaoChao]

Yeah! I start cmd.exe as administrator and now all works (oclvanitygen too)!
Big thanks TheRealSteve!


38 Mkey/s it's normal for GTX 970?

[Itskok]

Tnx everyone for the help,
update:
The -o is working,(windows 7)it should look like this to be done c:\vanitygen folder\oclvanitygen   -o c:\abc.txt -k 1bitcointallk
By the way what you guys think about those "special" addresses? you think its have some extra added value in some way? perhaps in the future people will use it in some interesting way ? even though it hurts anonymity I'm pretty sure it's possible to combine it with interesting features like coinjoin/mix and stealth addresses to create some safe&secure wallet or payment service with anonymity...

[TheRealSteve]

38 Mkey/s it's normal for GTX 970?

Possibly.  Unfortunately not enough people use (ocl)vanitygen to get a good idea of what performance for various hardware is.  I've been asking cryptomining-blog.com to include vanitygen tests in benchmarks for new cards they test, to no avail as of yet.

There's some old measures in https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Vanitygen_keysearch_rate , which should probably be merged into https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Vanitygen which also has some measures.

By the way what you guys think about those "special" addresses? you think its have some extra added value in some way? perhaps in the future people will use it in some interesting way ? even though it hurts anonymity I'm pretty sure it's possible to combine it with interesting features like coinjoin/mix and stealth addresses to create some safe&secure wallet or payment service with anonymity...

They're still just vanity addresses.  You can generate 1itskok... but so can I.  You can generate 1itskokandthensome and it'd take me forever to generate another one, but given enough hardware and/or time, I still could.. so you still couldn't rely on it for exact identification purposes.

A special case of 'vanity' addresses, FirstBits, had some value and utility a long time ago but has largely gone out of vogue (which is a shame, as it's a solid concept that only needs a little bit of expansion for greater utility).  FirstBits basically trawled through the blockchain looking for the very first occurrence of 1something..., and returned the matching address.  So if you wanted to send Bitcoin to the owner of that very first occurrence of 1something..., you could just enter '1something' and call it a day ( presuming you'd trust the service to be coded right )

This is different from online databases that work like url shorteners as there's no centralized authority on who owns the first occurrence of '1something'.  Recently another decentralized blockchain identity service - BitAlias - was introduced which might be promising, but is completely unrelated to vanity addresses; it's also rather more generic and could be used for a whole host of other things - but that's for a different thread [reddit.com search].

All of the above is ignoring the issues with address re-use, etc.

tl;dr: No, I don't really see them having any value beyond exactly what they are: a vanity

[Itskok]

Well thats interesting tnx,
I am asking that question because i am trying to develop my own "identity" solution on blockchain 
Riders.io

[josephno1]

If you are having issues opening vanitygen, try running it from a command prompt

[TheRealSteve]

1. Probably shouldn't be using that fork, check out Kangaderoo's fork instead - unless Wyse's fork has something unique in it.
2. vanitygen is also not really intended for generating non-vanity addresses (which is what you're doing if you only specify the leading '1' as the prefix).  There's better ways to generate a bunch of keys
3. Still, out of curiosity, what are the claimed matching public keys according to the output?

[TheRealSteve]

There are 225 forks of samr7's original version, which you can see here: https://github.com/samr7/vanitygen/network . Kangaderoo's version isn't a real fork in github's view and it has 0 people following it. So how is his version more trustworthy? Also, his version doesn't even compile on OS X.

I wouldn't say 'more trustworthy' - just more recent, includes various other fixes.  You can check if the basic generation code is still the same

Such as? The only other methods I know of are messing with the keypool from bitcoin core and using the bulk option from bitaddress.org, neither method lends itself to programmatic usage.

The bulk option from bitaddress.org is still just basic javascript - a fairly decent path for programmatic usage at least if the language is javascript.  Bitcoin-core should also be accessible via json-rpc.
There was a discussion on mass-generation of keys/addresses earlier, but I don't think that really led to a specific utility conclusion (organofcorti was on the verge of getting bored enough to write one, though).

• 1DJp7wV976KGYKYsAmXSq1ySq7V66MTgJg
• 1PoqAxmFjokxYxSmAb9bXyYCxtkeBYhob7

Weird.  I'm not even sure how it came up with those even from the invalid input WIF keys.  Some tools come up with 167LRjJf1r6VAV8FmyXsgUnLWnS9FUE13C for the first one because they're probably not verifying the input correctly.  It's supposed to check the first byte, the last 4 bytes (checksum), and take the remainder.  Instead they seem to be checking the first/last four just fine, but then additionally trim the remainder to 33 bytes.

[josephno1]

Yeah! I start cmd.exe as administrator and now all works (oclvanitygen too)!
Big thanks TheRealSteve!


38 Mkey/s it's normal for GTX 970?

I am getting around 4 Mkey/s on a r7 240 so that seems to be about right for a 970

[organofcorti]

Such as? The only other methods I know of are messing with the keypool from bitcoin core and using the bulk option from bitaddress.org, neither method lends itself to programmatic usage.

The bulk option from bitaddress.org is still just basic javascript - a fairly decent path for programmatic usage at least if the language is javascript.  Bitcoin-core should also be accessible via json-rpc.
There was a discussion on mass-generation of keys/addresses earlier, but I don't think that really led to a specific utility conclusion (organofcorti was on the verge of getting bored enough to write one, though).

God, I had no idea you knew me and my inadequate attention span so well.

I ended up just using a script to run vanitygen with the "1" prefix, save everything and regex every n addresses and save the results to a file. I left it a few weeks before I looked through the results.

[sorryforthat]

Yeah! I start cmd.exe as administrator and now all works (oclvanitygen too)!
Big thanks TheRealSteve!


38 Mkey/s it's normal for GTX 970?

I am getting around 4 Mkey/s on a r7 240 so that seems to be about right for a 970

Ill add to this

GTX 680M pulling around 14-16 Mkey/s

[TheRealSteve]

Thanks for the figures - I've added them to the wiki entry for vanitygen; https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Vanitygen#Expected_keysearch_rate

Might trawl through thread to look for some more, but generally more recent hardware tends to be more interesting.  If you'd like to add to the wiki directly, go ahead and register and either pay the editing rights fee or request editing rights manually:
A. in this forum thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1025908.0
B. IRC, freenode, #bitcoin-wiki

[AtomSea]

I've looked back many pages but I couldn't find anything.
Has anyone created and compiled a Windows 7 version of Vanitygen that works with AMD 290's?
You'll be my hero if you point me in the right direction