Using Bitcoin Core wallet

[David Dagher]

Hello there,
Please excuse my bad English, my noobity "if that's even a word" and my long topic

I recently managed to edit a Python code which generates random WIF private keys one by one and I made it create more and store them to a text file
It generates up-to 10,000 per second on my i5 laptop
I'm doing this just for fun!
Anyway, I created like 100,000,000 random WIFs and stored them in .txt files 50K each "Because I read somewhere it is the electrum limit to avoid freezing ... etc" ..
Unfortunately, Electrum is extremely slow and this may sound like a joke, but it is moody sometimes  [In best cases it imports like 10K every like 15 minutes!]
So I thought about using Bitcoin Core since it sounds faster to import these WIF as I have read. I wanted to download it but it is like 350 GBs! and also I have to upload like 5 GBs daily and daily updates ... etc! That sounded like a real problem not only for my bundle but also to the space on my hard drive  I mean It's like giving away almost like half of my half drive not to mention the time it will take to be downloaded which is like 24 hours according to my connection speed and the daily consumption of my standard bundle which is only 250 GBs per month
- I would like to know if there is any possible way to import all these private keys without downloading the whole blockchain?
- How long it will take to import let's say like 1M WIF? and how much data does it consume?
- Will importing using Python will make it faster? if yes, please suggest a useful tool for that with an explanation for it.

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[jackg]

What are you actually trying to achieve here?

If you want to use bitcoin core, you're going to have to download the full 350 GB of data. You can use the prune function to reduce the load to between 4-16gb but you'll have to scan the million addresses by the wallet all at once which I imagine will take some time.

In electrums case: it's sending every address it finds to the server who is returning the output. With this many addresses if the load isn't managed right you could crash a server or at least delay it for normal requests. Electrum will be slow by Design for this task.

Core will be faster if you enable prune too. You'd have to do that by going to the config file and adding prune=4000 (number is megabytes but 4000 is the lowest).

[DaveF]

- I would like to know if there is any possible way to import all these private keys without downloading the whole blockchain?
- How long it will take to import let's say like 1M WIF? and how much data does it consume?
- Will importing using Python will make it faster? if yes, please suggest a useful tool for that with an explanation for it.

1) You do not have to download the blockchain to import the private keys. BUT you will not know if the keys have any BTC in them until you do download the whole chain.
2) There are a lot of variables, CPU speed, HD speed, ram, what else is the PC doing. You are actually probably betting importing the keys 1st before starting the download.
3) Don't know about Python. But check here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1344625.msg13709228#msg13709228

Just so you fully understand, the odds of you finding an address with any BTC are so small they might as well be 0.

-Dave

[David Dagher]

What are you actually trying to achieve here?

Nothing, I'm just doing it for the fun of it and maybe getting lucky someday  

If you want to use bitcoin core, you're going to have to download the full 350 GB of data. You can use the prune function to reduce the load to between 4-16gb but you'll have to scan the million addresses by the wallet all at once which I imagine will take some time.

Is there any YouTube video which explains pruning?

In electrums case: it's sending every address it finds to the server who is returning the output. With this many addresses if the load isn't managed right you could crash a server or at least delay it for normal requests. Electrum will be slow by Design for this task.

I see, It was freezing anyway so I stopped using it.

Core will be faster if you enable prune too. You'd have to do that by going to the config file and adding prune=4000 (number is megabytes but 4000 is the lowest).

How fast? how many PKs per second?

[jackg]

Core will be faster if you enable prune too. You'd have to do that by going to the config file and adding prune=4000 (number is megabytes but 4000 is the lowest).

How fast? how many PKs per second?

The most intensive part with core is the syncing. I imagine importing addresses is just a standard write operation, it'll probably still be slow though as it might have to scan those addresses when it gets a new block (unless the chainstate is scanned instead).

On the Youtube tutorial, I can't find one...

[David Dagher]

- I would like to know if there is any possible way to import all these private keys without downloading the whole blockchain?
- How long it will take to import let's say like 1M WIF? and how much data does it consume?
- Will importing using Python will make it faster? if yes, please suggest a useful tool for that with an explanation for it.

1) You do not have to download the blockchain to import the private keys. BUT you will not know if the keys have any BTC in them until you do download the whole chain.

So yeah I still need to download it anyway ..

2) There are a lot of variables, CPU speed, HD speed, ram, what else is the PC doing. You are actually probably betting importing the keys 1st before starting the download.

I have i5 laptop, 4 GB ram and Win7-64, average Joe laptop or even below average lol  

3) Don't know about Python. But check here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1344625.msg13709228#msg13709228

Yeah I have checked it before but trying to find out something to avoid that download

Just so you fully understand, the odds of you finding an address with any BTC are so small they might as well be 0.

I'm totally aware of that, as I said I'm doing it for fun, I mean why not? I'm doing this generating process only in my free time.
But I just don't want to spend more time looking for solutions, I still wanna edit that code and make it test addresses and store only if balance existed but maybe later, I'm learning Python anyway so it will be my field test for some parts of the course I'm taking  

[David Dagher]

Core will be faster if you enable prune too. You'd have to do that by going to the config file and adding prune=4000 (number is megabytes but 4000 is the lowest).

How fast? how many PKs per second?

The most intensive part with core is the syncing. I imagine importing addresses is just a standard write operation, it'll probably still be slow though as it might have to scan those addresses when it gets a new block (unless the chainstate is scanned instead).

On the Youtube tutorial, I can't find one...

Ok, thank you for your help and your answers

[pooya87]

Nothing, I'm just doing it for the fun of it and maybe getting lucky someday 

lets not sugar coat it, the reality is that you are trying to steal other people's money and are asking others to help you do that. not that it is even possible but that is what you are trying to do

[HCP]

Anyway, I created like 100,000,000 random WIFs and stored them in .txt files 50K each "Because I read somewhere it is the electrum limit to avoid freezing ... etc" ..

You might want to have a look here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5274539.msg55165383#msg55165383

User had ~151,000,000 keys and it was only 65% done importing after 2 days! (I believe that is with a fully synced instance of Bitcoin Core, so the delay was due to the time it was taking to rescan the blocks for each key added)

- I would like to know if there is any possible way to import all these private keys without downloading the whole blockchain?

Yes, you can absolutely import the keys without downloading the blockchain, Bitcoin Core won't really be able to do anything useful with those keys, but they'll be in a very large wallet.dat

Without the blockdata, there is no way the wallet can determine if there are any transactions and/or balance for the keys. You need the full blockchain.

- How long it will take to import let's say like 1M WIF? and how much data does it consume?

As per the thread linked above, Bitcoin Core was not really designed to handle "millions of keys"... don't expect it to work very well with your use-case.

Note that Bitcoin Core doesn't actually consume any data to import a key and rescan local block files... However, if your node is pruned, the data won't be available and the node will need to redownload the missing blocks every time it needs to rescan. If you're "serious" about attempting this, you will need the entire blockchain downloaded and stored locally on your node.

Although, I would recommend you import all the keys first, then download the blockchain, so it can rescan as it syncs blocks, rather than having to try and rescan for 1 million keys in one hit. It will take hours if not days if you do it like that.

- Will importing using Python will make it faster? if yes, please suggest a useful tool for that with an explanation for it.

No, the delay will be in the scanning of block data looking for transactions relating to your keys. The actual "importing" (ie. the adding of the keys to the wallet.dat) won't take very long at all.

[BlackHatCoiner]

OP is probably a newbie to the bitcoin world. I'm not going to stop you from doing what you think to do, but I'm going to tell you that other people with much more CPU power and disk space than you had tried doing the same thing in the past and failed. Each time a new address is created 256 ones and zeros are added on a row. Then the address is created with some hash functions. Do you really believe that you can find an address with the same row? Have you any idea what are the odds?

Anyway, yes Bitcoin Core needs a lot of space but if I were you, I would prefer downloading the entire blockchain, doing my tests and realising that what I'm trying is impossible, than trying to find a python script. I never understood why electrum is so slow...

(Also consider looking on that page, it's funny enough and no blockchain required: keys.lol)

[David Dagher]

You might want to have a look here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5274539.msg55165383#msg55165383

User had ~151,000,000 keys and it was only 65% done importing after 2 days! (I believe that is with a fully synced instance of Bitcoin Core, so the delay was due to the time it was taking to rescan the blocks for each key added)

I took a look at it, thanks for sharing

Yes, you can absolutely import the keys without downloading the blockchain, Bitcoin Core won't really be able to do anything useful with those keys, but they'll be in a very large wallet.dat

Without the blockdata, there is no way the wallet can determine if there are any transactions and/or balance for the keys. You need the full blockchain.

It is okay if it is going to sync the wifs I give to it .. I wouldn't mind waiting .. but what I realised from what you are saying here is that even if I downloaded the bitcoin core, imported the wifs and made that large wallet.dat file, I still need to download the who blockchain to sync them, correct?

Note that Bitcoin Core doesn't actually consume any data to import a key and rescan local block files... However, if your node is pruned, the data won't be available and the node will need to redownload the missing blocks every time it needs to rescan. If you're "serious" about attempting this, you will need the entire blockchain downloaded and stored locally on your node.

Believe me I'm not concerned about how much data it well consume while importing .. I'm more concerned about the 350 GBs part 

Although, I would recommend you import all the keys first, then download the blockchain, so it can rescan as it syncs blocks, rather than having to try and rescan for 1 million keys in one hit. It will take hours if not days if you do it like that.

So your suggestion is the following:
- I import all the WIFs to my wallet [Locally, using Bitcoin core]
- Then downloading Blockchain itself and sync the wallet using Bitcoin Core [Online]
am I missing something here or that's exactly what you are trying to say?
============

OP is probably a newbie to the bitcoin world. I'm not going to stop you from doing what you think to do, but I'm going to tell you that other people with much more CPU power and disk space than you had tried doing the same thing in the past and failed. Each time a new address is created 256 ones and zeros are added on a row. Then the address is created with some hash functions. Do you really believe that you can find an address with the same row? Have you any idea what are the odds?

Anyway, yes Bitcoin Core needs a lot of space but if I were you, I would prefer downloading the entire blockchain, doing my tests and realising that what I'm trying is impossible, than trying to find a python script. I never understood why electrum is so slow...

(Also consider looking on that page, it's funny enough and no blockchain required: keys.lol)

I know the odds .. I'm doing it for fun and maybe getting lucky  also, I'm learning Python nowadays so it is kind of fun practice for me ..

[LoyceV]

lets not sugar coat it, the reality is that you are trying to steal other people's money and are asking others to help you do that. not that it is even possible but that is what you are trying to do

Many people are trying to do that, and that's the beauty of Bitcoin: let them! It's not possible to brute-force a properly generated (read: random) private key, but by design anyone can try.

It generates up-to 10,000 per second on my i5 laptop

That's a very low number, With vanitygen, you'll get ~100 times better performance on CPU.

I created like 100,000,000 random WIFs

So basically you're trying to prove for yourself how secure Bitcoin is, by convincing yourself you can't possibly create a random private key that is funded already. Great!
To check this many addresses, you should forget about wallets. Wallets aren't designed for this. What you can do, is get a list of funded addresses and compare the addresses you found. You can use something like bitcoin-tool (I don't recommend running any unknown software on your real system, that's why I don't provide a link) to create Bitcoin addresses for all private keys, then search for addresses that appear in both lists.

I think you'll like these topics:
List of all Bitcoin addresses with a balance
List of all Bitcoin addresses ever used

[pooya87]

lets not sugar coat it, the reality is that you are trying to steal other people's money and are asking others to help you do that. not that it is even possible but that is what you are trying to do

Many people are trying to do that, and that's the beauty of Bitcoin: let them! It's not possible to brute-force a properly generated (read: random) private key, but by design anyone can try.

yeah, that's true!

It generates up-to 10,000 per second on my i5 laptop

That's a very low number, With vanitygen, you'll get ~100 times better performance on CPU.

they are not comparable because they are two entirely different algorithms.
OP is generating random key (RNG call bottleneck) then converts that to public key (multiplication by G bottleneck) then 2 hashes + address encoding.
vanitygen on the other hand calls RNG once and multiplies by G once and then keeps adding G (point addition bottleneck) then 2 hashes + address encoding.

point mult is the slowest here which i assume OP is repeating. there is room for optimization but even if it were optimized it will never be as fast as a single point addition.

[David Dagher]

lets not sugar coat it, the reality is that you are trying to steal other people's money and are asking others to help you do that. not that it is even possible but that is what you are trying to do

Many people are trying to do that, and that's the beauty of Bitcoin: let them! It's not possible to brute-force a properly generated (read: random) private key, but by design anyone can try.

Exactly .. if you are assuming it is secure .. why would you say such thing about those who try to prove it is not  

It generates up-to 10,000 per second on my i5 laptop

That's a very low number, With vanitygen, you'll get ~100 times better performance on CPU.

It is in C but it would be really appreciated if there is a video that explains it .. Because I know like nothing to zero about C .. Also, does it generates only addresses? because that's what I have read .. If it creates only addresses or it is one per time thing .. it will be no work for me .. You know I'm looking for quantity not quality here  

I created like 100,000,000 random WIFs

So basically you're trying to prove for yourself how secure Bitcoin is, by convincing yourself you can't possibly create a random private key that is funded already. Great!

Yeah as I have said .. I'm doing it for the fun of it .. I'm sugar coting my suffering with codes' stupid errors by doing this   I know it is impossible but it was one of the first codes I managed to edit and worked easily, so it may be useful someday  

To check this many addresses, you should forget about wallets. Wallets aren't designed for this. What you can do, is get a list of funded addresses and compare the addresses you found. You can use something like bitcoin-tool (I don't recommend running any unknown software on your real system, that's why I don't provide a link) to create Bitcoin addresses for all private keys, then search for addresses that appear in both lists.

The tool itself can be modified to generate the address of that private key .. but unfortunately, it is fast generating only WIFs but when it comes to WIFs and addresses .. I created like only 600K of them .. in like 10 hours .. which sounds extremely slow .. that's like ~17 results per second!

I think you'll like these topics:
List of all Bitcoin addresses with a balance
List of all Bitcoin addresses ever used

Yeah I take a look at them .. and I would like to ask about something, regarding List of all Bitcoin addresses with a balance, are the addresses daily updated? and can be easily downloaded by normal downloaders? because I want to download a whole list to my computer and compare them to my results like weekly or monthly .. but the download will be done for once only .. Even if the private key is used .. I don't care .. I love seeing these double spend results in Electrum from time to time   I have a record take a look here: https://imgur.com/IGV1I3d

[LoyceV]

The tool itself can be modified to generate the address of that private key .. but unfortunately, it is fast generating only WIFs but when it comes to WIFs and addresses .. I created like only 600K of them .. in like 10 hours .. which sounds extremely slow .. that's like ~17 results per second!

That's why I mentioned bitcoin-tool, it's very fast to turn large numbers of private keys into addresses.

I would like to ask about something, regarding List of all Bitcoin addresses with a balance, are the addresses daily updated?

Yes, just read the links

and can be easily downloaded by normal downloaders?

Of course

[David Dagher]

That's why I mentioned bitcoin-tool, it's very fast to turn large numbers of private keys into addresses.

Is there any video that explain how to run it? I'm sorry for bothering you with all these questions ..

and can be easily downloaded by normal downloaders?

Of course

I read someone was complaining about the limits he said something about getting stuck at 99% downloading or something like that ..
Anyway, thanks for the topic it will be much easier using your addresses ..
Leave an address for a tip when I hit something if you would like to  but remember you are counting on my luck if exists it is not that good but I'm counting on me being a beginner that may get me some luck 

[bob123]

Is there any video that explain how to run it? I'm sorry for bothering you with all these questions ..

If you are continuously asking for youtube videos to explain things a 3 minute read can achieve, you are doing something wrong.
Since you somehow got to that mindset of finding an used address with funds on it, which you can steal, by simply continuously generating private keys, you are very prone to getting scammed.

I can almost guarantee you, that the next "youtube tutorial" you'll find on how to crack private keys or whatsoever will contain a download link to some malware.

[...] you are counting on my luck if exists it is not that good but I'm counting on me being a beginner that may get me some luck 

Don't worry. Nobody is counting on you or your "luck".
It is practically impossible to find an already used private key / address. You are wasting your time and resources. 

[HCP]

So your suggestion is the following:
- I import all the WIFs to my wallet [Locally, using Bitcoin core]
- Then downloading Blockchain itself and sync the wallet using Bitcoin Core [Online]
am I missing something here or that's exactly what you are trying to say?

That sums it up pretty much... If you want Bitcoin Core to list any transactions/balances correctly, you cannot get away from the 350Gig download. Also, realise that if you put a "very large number" of keys in a wallet.dat (like 10s of thousands), the performance of Bitcoin Core is likely to suffer. It's just not really designed for that number of private keys.

Indeed, no wallet application is really suited to handling that number of private keys. You'd indeed be better off following LoyceV's advice and creating an index of all keys you generate, and comparing it to a list of all known "used" addresses etc.

Even if the private key is used .. I don't care .. I love seeing these double spend results in Electrum from time to time  I have a record take a look here: https://imgur.com/IGV1I3d

Are you claiming that you have already found "used" addresses/private keys by randomly generating keys/addresses and importing them to Electrum?

[David Dagher]

That sums it up pretty much... If you want Bitcoin Core to list any transactions/balances correctly, you cannot get away from the 350Gig download. Also, realise that if you put a "very large number" of keys in a wallet.dat (like 10s of thousands), the performance of Bitcoin Core is likely to suffer. It's just not really designed for that number of private keys.

Indeed, no wallet application is really suited to handling that number of private keys. You'd indeed be better off following LoyceV's advice and creating an index of all keys you generate, and comparing it to a list of all known "used" addresses etc.

Yes I think I will follow LoyceV's advice for now .. I just hope that bitcoin-tool will be faster than the python code I made ..

Are you claiming that you have already found "used" addresses/private keys by randomly generating keys/addresses and importing them to Electrum? 

Yeah .. of course I didn't do all of them it would've frozen, so I copied randomly, I was trying to figure out the Electrum limits .. It happened couple of times when I was trying to do it using Electrum .. That's why I wanted to look for a solution to ease it for me .. is it a thing or what?