Vanity Bitcoin Address Generator: Personalized Bitcoin Addresses for Branding

[o_e_l_e_o]

Isn't it easier to hack into such addresses containing unique brand names in a public address?

Not if it was generated properly, as ETFbitcoin has pointed out above.

A private key is just a random number between 1 and (almost) 2²⁵⁶. I pick a random number in that range, and it gives me a random looking address. You have a 1 in 2²⁵⁶ chance (i.e. completely impossible) to guess my private key.

Now, let's say I want a vanity address. I take the same private key I just generated above, and I add one to it. I check the address it generates. It doesn't give me my desired vanity address. So I add one again, and check the new address. Still not a match. So I do it again. And again. And again. Adding one each time and checking the new address. Vanity generator software will do this millions of times a second. Eventually we find an address which matches.*

What does an attacker know when they see a vanity address? They know that I started a random private key, and I added an unknown number of 1s until I reached a new private key. So an unknown plus another unknown to reach a third unknown. This obviously tells them nothing useful about my private key, and so provides no additional attack surface over any other private key.

*This is a simplified explanation which does not touch on symmetry and endomorphism, but the premise is the same.

[libert19]

I recently checked my decade old blockchain.info wallet, there my btc addy starts with '1Libert..", I dunno if I generated it using vanity address generator or was just a coincidence.

this will depend on the time your address was generated.... If it was before the vanity address generator existed then it may be a just be the standard btc addy (mind you vanity address generator started existing around 2011). on the other hand the standard btc address is just 34 characters long (no spaces). Also, It's worth noting that Bitcoin addresses are randomly generated, so it is possible to generate an address that appears to have a specific pattern purely by chance.

Thanks for input, I created my blockchain.info wallet in 2014 (welcome email dates 24/5/2014).

[ICYNOTE2023]

Vanity Bitcoin Address can using VGA for processing?? or only using CPU??

[Synchronice]

2. Purpose and Benefits of Vanity Bitcoin Addresses:
2.1 Personalization:
Vanity Bitcoin addresses allow individuals to personalize their transactions by incorporating specific patterns or words that hold personal significance. For example, one could create an address that contains their name, birthdate, or a meaningful word, making it easier to remember and associate with their identity.

And here is the problem, it makes it easier to scam people.
For example, your name here is Sinzu:
PubAddress: 1SinzuYFiFL2Gf1UR4jdnwPJg6pKAN8Ty
Priv (WIF): p2pkh:L3nRvtdjyKkFeitSQQ2Bb3AT5mYYF8cYP5AVYb6BR6xa4pFNA5dV
Priv (HEX): 0xC3DB4DE3280A86C267885786BDACDAEC34F40444B280A6AD5CBF805B7F6F75BE

And just created another address with your prefix in seconds:
PubAddress: 1SinzumcbY1sFNuuEpsg8kTf3Copb1uzi
Priv (WIF): p2pkh:KyRTMC8SQHT4DjLkRZDTsWj11wVmbnPYFQErc57YYTkwi9HxTK9A
Priv (HEX): 0x41B76A047F6AB03D2E82AD69667CF778B68B5117AF5BBEA3C9319EA7E150F77A

1SinzuYFiFL2Gf1UR4jdnwPJg6pKAN8Ty
1SinzumcbY1sFNuuEpsg8kTf3Copb1uzi

Let's assume that first address belongs to you and the 2nd address belongs to scammer. Psychologically, address that starts with 1Sinzu, for me, will be associated with you and if it happens that your account got hacked or someone tries to scam people with your name, scammer will look more legitimate if she creates another vanity bitcoin address that traditionally starts with 1Sinzu.

So, I prefer random address over customized one for safety.

[Sinzu_]

2. Purpose and Benefits of Vanity Bitcoin Addresses:
2.1 Personalization:
Vanity Bitcoin addresses allow individuals to personalize their transactions by incorporating specific patterns or words that hold personal significance. For example, one could create an address that contains their name, birthdate, or a meaningful word, making it easier to remember and associate with their identity.

And here is the problem, it makes it easier to scam people.
For example, your name here is Sinzu:
PubAddress: 1SinzuYFiFL2Gf1UR4jdnwPJg6pKAN8Ty
Priv (WIF): p2pkh:L3nRvtdjyKkFeitSQQ2Bb3AT5mYYF8cYP5AVYb6BR6xa4pFNA5dV
Priv (HEX): 0xC3DB4DE3280A86C267885786BDACDAEC34F40444B280A6AD5CBF805B7F6F75BE

And just created another address with your prefix in seconds:
PubAddress: 1SinzumcbY1sFNuuEpsg8kTf3Copb1uzi
Priv (WIF): p2pkh:KyRTMC8SQHT4DjLkRZDTsWj11wVmbnPYFQErc57YYTkwi9HxTK9A
Priv (HEX): 0x41B76A047F6AB03D2E82AD69667CF778B68B5117AF5BBEA3C9319EA7E150F77A

1SinzuYFiFL2Gf1UR4jdnwPJg6pKAN8Ty
1SinzumcbY1sFNuuEpsg8kTf3Copb1uzi

Let's assume that first address belongs to you and the 2nd address belongs to scammer. Psychologically, address that starts with 1Sinzu, for me, will be associated with you and if it happens that your account got hacked or someone tries to scam people with your name, scammer will look more legitimate if she creates another vanity bitcoin address that traditionally starts with 1Sinzu.

So, I prefer random address over customized one for safety.

You just blew my mind..... I never looked at it from this angle but then again wow

[Sinzu_]

2. Purpose and Benefits of Vanity Bitcoin Addresses:
2.1 Personalization:
Vanity Bitcoin addresses allow individuals to personalize their transactions by incorporating specific patterns or words that hold personal significance. For example, one could create an address that contains their name, birthdate, or a meaningful word, making it easier to remember and associate with their identity.

And here is the problem, it makes it easier to scam people.
For example, your name here is Sinzu:
PubAddress: 1SinzuYFiFL2Gf1UR4jdnwPJg6pKAN8Ty
Priv (WIF): p2pkh:L3nRvtdjyKkFeitSQQ2Bb3AT5mYYF8cYP5AVYb6BR6xa4pFNA5dV
Priv (HEX): 0xC3DB4DE3280A86C267885786BDACDAEC34F40444B280A6AD5CBF805B7F6F75BE

And just created another address with your prefix in seconds:
PubAddress: 1SinzumcbY1sFNuuEpsg8kTf3Copb1uzi
Priv (WIF): p2pkh:KyRTMC8SQHT4DjLkRZDTsWj11wVmbnPYFQErc57YYTkwi9HxTK9A
Priv (HEX): 0x41B76A047F6AB03D2E82AD69667CF778B68B5117AF5BBEA3C9319EA7E150F77A

1SinzuYFiFL2Gf1UR4jdnwPJg6pKAN8Ty
1SinzumcbY1sFNuuEpsg8kTf3Copb1uzi

Let's assume that first address belongs to you and the 2nd address belongs to scammer. Psychologically, address that starts with 1Sinzu, for me, will be associated with you and if it happens that your account got hacked or someone tries to scam people with your name, scammer will look more legitimate if she creates another vanity bitcoin address that traditionally starts with 1Sinzu.

So, I prefer random address over customized one for safety.

You just blew my mind..... I never looked at it from this angle but then again wow

In addition to this people actually get scammed all the time even with the conventional bitcoin addresses. 1 thing i know is no 2 people can have the same address.... Yes mine may start with 1Sinzu but the followup characters will definitely be different.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Yes mine may start with 1Sinzu but the followup characters will definitely be different.

Correct. But with increasingly powerful hardware becoming increasingly cheaper, it is becoming increasing easier for attackers to mimic existing addresses.

You'll often see people saying something along the lines of check 3 characters at the start of the address and 3 characters at the end. This is completely insufficient. An attacker can very easily brute force an address which matches this criteria, or even 4 or 5 characters. The only way to be safe is to double check the entire address. It takes <10 seconds to do this, so there really is no excuse for ever falling to such a scam.

[Sinzu_]

Yes mine may start with 1Sinzu but the followup characters will definitely be different.

Correct. But with increasingly powerful hardware becoming increasingly cheaper, it is becoming increasing easier for attackers to mimic existing addresses.

You'll often see people saying something along the lines of check 3 characters at the start of the address and 3 characters at the end. This is completely insufficient. An attacker can very easily brute force an address which matches this criteria, or even 4 or 5 characters. The only way to be safe is to double check the entire address. It takes <10 seconds to do this, so there really is no excuse for ever falling to such a scam.

will you recommend that people stop using vanity Bitcoin kind of addresses?

[o_e_l_e_o]

will you recommend that people stop using vanity Bitcoin kind of addresses?

They are fine to use as long as you appreciate their risks and drawbacks. The two main ones are malicious similar addresses as described above (although an attacker can do that for any address, not just vanity addresses) and the fact they encourage address reuse.

[RickDeckard]

They are fine to use as long as you appreciate their risks and drawbacks. The two main ones are malicious similar addresses as described above (although an attacker can do that for any address, not just vanity addresses) and the fact they encourage address reuse.

To add to this, and being a privacy freak, I can't conceive the idea of having a unique address that could be easily tied to one person/user. I'm fully aware that all addresses that are posted in here are searchable in some forums tools (such as Ninjastic[1]) but having a unique addresses makes things worse.
Also, by using samr7 excellent vanity address generator[2][3], you'll end up with Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash (P2PKH) addresses (starting with "1...") which will incur in higher fees whenever someone (or yourself) interacts with that address regarding miner fees. If one still wants to generate addresses that support P2PKH, P2SH and BECH32 I guess that they could always use Jean_Luc (also excellent) vanity address generator[4][5].
[1]https://ninjastic.space/addresses
[2]https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=25804.0
[3]https://github.com/samr7/vanitygen
[4]https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5112311.0
[5]https://github.com/JeanLucPons/VanitySearch

[o_e_l_e_o]

To add to this, and being a privacy freak, I can't conceive the idea of having a unique address that could be easily tied to one person/user. I'm fully aware that all addresses that are posted in here are searchable in some forums tools (such as Ninjastic[1]) but having a unique addresses makes things worse.

I could always start using bc1qdeckardxs8jqev30gt6m796spdshr23tt552k2 just to confuse things.

[RickDeckard]

To add to this, and being a privacy freak, I can't conceive the idea of having a unique address that could be easily tied to one person/user. I'm fully aware that all addresses that are posted in here are searchable in some forums tools (such as Ninjastic[1]) but having a unique addresses makes things worse.

I could always start using bc1qdeckardxs8jqev30gt6m796spdshr23tt552k2 just to confuse things.

That would be quite a slyest disguise indeed, entropy is always a nice addition to one's privacy. I guess I would have to employ the Voight-Kampff test[1] to prevent replicants .
While I do reckon the "vanity" of having one custom address, you are right - there's nothing preventing anyone in creating an address that looks like tied to a particular user. This could lead people in falling into scams more easily...
[1]https://bladerunner.fandom.com/wiki/Voight-Kampff_test

[PX-Z]

To add to this, and being a privacy freak, I can't conceive the idea of having a unique address that could be easily tied to one person/user. I'm fully aware that all addresses that are posted in here are searchable in some forums tools (such as Ninjastic[1]) but having a unique addresses makes things worse.

There are advantages of using this kind address as well as disadvantages. Say, like me i will only use it for accepting donations on my site, or here i used it on staking address it one of Meta's thread so it's easy to remember and its unique.

But privacy-wise, nah, its just like how bitcoin users use legacy address few years ago when HD wallets are not a thing.