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

[Muhammed Zakir]

Hi,
This is great address generator, can anyone confirm that this wallet address generator is secure ?

EDIT: expecially the windows edition

thanks

It is secure as long as you download from verified sources such as Samr7's and Lifeboat's.

   ~~MZ~~

[franckuestein]

I've been trying the generator with 2 GPU cards and I received an ERROR on my rig after the following command on terminal:

Code:

oclvanitygen.exe -D 0:0 -D 0:1 -D 0:2 -k 1test

(3 GPU's working)

ERROR:

The instruction at "0xXXXXXXXX" referenced memory at "0xXXXXXXXX", The memory could not be "written". Click on OK to terminate that program.

I'm using a 4GB RAM memory rig, the problem could be that I have too many GPU's for the RAM that's available?
I've tried the same process in other computer that I have with R9 280x (12.X drivers) and if I do the same command but with -S (secure), everything is working fine

Code:

oclvanitygen.exe -D 0:0 -D 0:1 -D 0:2 -S -k 1test

but if i do it without the -S command they appear lots of DELTA Errors.

Code:

oclvanitygen.exe -D 0:0 -D 0:1 -D 0:2 -k 1test

Anyone know what's happening or solved the problem? I thought that was because of 13.X drivers so I've downloaded to 12.X but now I have to generate it with -S (too low) and It's just working in one of my rigs…

Hope that anyone knows what's happening 

[noobtrader]

 It is very secure.  If your computer is not secure however, then the addresses you generate will not be secure.
Also, if you export the private keys to an online wallet, you are potentially compromising the security of those addresses.
So the program is fine but the security issues arise when dealing with the key pairs you generate.

It is secure as long as you download from verified sources such as Samr7's and Lifeboat's.

   ~~MZ~~

thanks, btw if we change date and time of our offline laptop before we generate address would that make our address more secure ?

[Muhammed Zakir]

thanks, btw if we change date and time of our offline laptop before we generate address would that make our address more secure ?

If you are using offline computer, then no problem/worries but changing date and time do nothing AFAIK. Just be careful when importing.

   ~~MZ~~

[Kangaderoo]

thanks, btw if we change date and time of our offline laptop before we generate address would that make our address more secure ?

There are mulitple types of security here.

First, do you trust the source where you downloaded the software.... ?
I build from the source-code itself to be sure my executable doesn't do anything unexplained.

The second type of security has to do with the ECSDA key generation.
This is linked to your SSL library.
Since it uses entropy to make key generation unique, it would even be hard for your computer to regenerate the same result.
Modern entropy uses time, (cpu) temperature readings, harddisk head locations etc etc to make it unique.

Then there is the security of you home network.

Etc etc.

As you can see if you play with the program is that for each extra character you add the time to get the address is multiplied by 60.
Even if you generate an address with the first 9 char in a preferred state, in order to get access to this address anyone else will have
to generate all 35 chars.

[noobtrader]

thanks, btw if we change date and time of our offline laptop before we generate address would that make our address more secure ?

There are mulitple types of security here.

First, do you trust the source where you downloaded the software.... ?
I build from the source-code itself to be sure my executable doesn't do anything unexplained.

The second type of security has to do with the ECSDA key generation.
This is linked to your SSL library.
Since it uses entropy to make key generation unique, it would even be hard for your computer to regenerate the same result.
Modern entropy uses time, (cpu) temperature readings, harddisk head locations etc etc to make it unique.

Then there is the security of you home network.

Etc etc.

As you can see if you play with the program is that for each extra character you add the time to get the address is multiplied by 60.
Even if you generate an address with the first 9 char in a preferred state, in order to get access to this address anyone else will have
to generate all 35 chars.

too bad im too noob and have to  trust other senior member here.
btw im making 7 wallet and then use the generated key to seed brain wallet... thats my noob way of generating secure wallet  LOL  

not bad eh...

[K1773R]

thanks, btw if we change date and time of our offline laptop before we generate address would that make our address more secure ?

There are mulitple types of security here.

First, do you trust the source where you downloaded the software.... ?
I build from the source-code itself to be sure my executable doesn't do anything unexplained.

The second type of security has to do with the ECSDA key generation.
This is linked to your SSL library.
Since it uses entropy to make key generation unique, it would even be hard for your computer to regenerate the same result.
Modern entropy uses time, (cpu) temperature readings, harddisk head locations etc etc to make it unique.

Then there is the security of you home network.

Etc etc.

As you can see if you play with the program is that for each extra character you add the time to get the address is multiplied by 60.
Even if you generate an address with the first 9 char in a preferred state, in order to get access to this address anyone else will have
to generate all 35 chars.

too bad im too noob and have to  trust other senior member here.
btw im making 7 wallet and then use the generated key to seed brain wallet... thats my noob way of generating secure wallet  LOL  

not bad eh...

thats actually bad!
if you want to seed a brainwallet. get some "random" input (aka entropy) and seed the brainwallet with that.

[bitcreditscc]

anyone got a script i can use to extract just the private keys from a output file?

[gadman2]

anyone got a script i can use to extract just the private keys from a output file?

Use notepad++ and a few params to delete anything that doesn't start with the right word or something else.

http://superuser.com/questions/290247/how-to-delete-all-line-except-lines-containing-a-word-i-need

[bitcreditscc]

anyone got a script i can use to extract just the private keys from a output file?

Use notepad++ and a few params to delete anything that doesn't start with the right word or something else.

http://superuser.com/questions/290247/how-to-delete-all-line-except-lines-containing-a-word-i-need

great thanks!!

[DonQuijote]

Someone could make it work in the pimp distribution? (based on debian)

[David-M]

Shouldn't it be possible to use a master public key to use to generate the vanity key from?
This way, the private key is never exposed.

[Kangaderoo]

Shouldn't it be possible to use a master public key to use to generate the vanity key from?
This way, the private key is never exposed.

That would only be needed if you don't generate the address yourself.
You will need the private key to get access to your wallet.

The software has switches for this. A master public key that only you have the private key for can be used in
the generation process. The result private key (wif format) and your private key (also wif) can be combined
using the keyconv utility. This private key is now only known to you.

There is even a pool for this @ vanitypool(dot)appspot(dot)com

[David-M]

I was thinking you could generate a private key on electrum, then offload the vanity address to someone else to generate then that has better processing power- or pay to have it done.

If you use vanity pool, you are risking the exposure of the private key?

[Kangaderoo]

I was thinking you could generate a private key on electrum, then offload the vanity address to someone else to generate then that has better processing power- or pay to have it done.

yep that is what this pool does.

If you use vanity pool, you are risking the exposure of the private key?

this is a three stage operation.
1- your create a key palr (priv key, publc key) that also yields a non vanity bitcoin address, for example on electrum, preferably more secure on your own system.
2- upload the request for a vanity address and the public key to this pool or another service that has the processing power.
3- retreive the priv key from this pool. The actual address generation routine only uses public keys.

combine this priv key(unsecure) with your priv key(secure) to generate a new priv key(secure).
(an online utitlity to do this is here gobittest(dot)appspot(dot)com/VanityAll
but since it is on the internet it is less secure than running the keyconv util)
this new priv key gives you the vanity address.

[crazyearner]

Would be nice if van would get updated to support asic equipment or to use GPU. I have had Van working with gpu in the past but it never presented any results and seems only can use CPu currently. Anyone actually made to supprt x280 gpus or to allow asics.?

[TheRealSteve]

Would be nice if van would get updated to support asic equipment or to use GPU.

I haven't had any issues getting it to work with the GPUs I've got - but it wouldn't be too surprising if the OpenCL code needs adjustments for some hardware (as it has in the past for AMD cards).

But as far as ASICs go - not going to work.  ASIC mining equipment performs a very specific task, and that task is not part of address generation.  You'd have to develop an ASIC for vanity mining, which is not cost-effective at all.  You *might* be able to get somewhere with FPGAs, but I suspect it's still not cost-effective compared to an off-the-shelf GPU.

[crazyearner]

Would be nice if van would get updated to support asic equipment or to use GPU.

I haven't had any issues getting it to work with the GPUs I've got - but it wouldn't be too surprising if the OpenCL code needs adjustments for some hardware (as it has in the past for AMD cards).

But as far as ASICs go - not going to work.  ASIC mining equipment performs a very specific task, and that task is not part of address generation.  You'd have to develop an ASIC for vanity mining, which is not cost-effective at all.  You *might* be able to get somewhere with FPGAs, but I suspect it's still not cost-effective compared to an off-the-shelf GPU.

How did you get it working with GPU. What GPU are you running it on mabye it does not like the 280x series and maybe too new to use with vanity gen.

[TheRealSteve]

How did you get it working with GPU. What GPU are you running it on mabye it does not like the 280x series and maybe too new to use with vanity gen.

I've never had to jump through hoops to get things working - lucky that way, I suppose; I know there's plenty of people with issues getting it working, having to mess with drivers, etc.
As you now mention 280x (as opposed to x280 - I wish they wouldn't both use similar model numbers ), check out the lifeboat version and start reading at this post:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=301068.msg3898427#msg3898427

Might also read around in that thread (and this one) in general.  Pretty sure there's other musings about getting things running on the 280x

[Muhammed Zakir]

How did you get it working with GPU. What GPU are you running it on mabye it does not like the 280x series and maybe too new to use with vanity gen.

I've never had to jump through hoops to get things working - lucky that way, I suppose; I know there's plenty of people with issues getting it working, having to mess with drivers, etc.
As you now mention 280x (as opposed to x280 - I wish they wouldn't both use similar model numbers ), check out the lifeboat version and start reading at this post:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=301068.msg3898427#msg3898427

Might also read around in that thread (and this one) in general.  Pretty sure there's other musings about getting things running on the 280x

And, you will have to run oclvanitygen to use GPU(s).

   ~~MZ~~