Vanity Pool - vanity address generator pool

[nibor]

Sure will add an additional 2 fields.

Did not realise that both were options.

Do you understand which is "better" for vanity mining?

Edit:
I just did a test and normal running, with -P and with mining binary all went at same speed.

So do not understand why adding or multiplying is a better method than the other.

[cambda]

Sure will add an additional 2 fields.

Did not realise that both were options.

Do you understand which is "better" for vanity mining?

Edit:
I just did a test and normal running, with -P and with mining binary all went at same speed.

So do not understand why adding or multiplying is a better method than the other.

Well, you can read vanitygen thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=25804.0  or ask there.
As I understand, but I may be wrong  :

Addition:
Advantages (is faster)
Disadvantages (you can search one pattern only at a time)

Multiplication:
Advantages (you can search many patterns at a time)
Disadvantages (is slower)

To search 2 patterns at once and take advantage of multiplication method (and thus faster than searching 2x with only bit faster addition method), the public keys must be the same (-P option). Not always possible or desirable for vanitypool

But make your research, I may be wrong.

[ThePiachu]

I think you may have gotten the characteristics assigned to the wrong methods, but I might be wrong.

[cambda]

I think you may have gotten the characteristics assigned to the wrong methods, but I might be wrong.

Your right, when I look at
https://vanitypool.appspot.com/solvedWork

only 1satoshi has addition as a solution type, others have multiplication
and because 1satoshi has the same public key as yet unsolved 1Satoshi then it makes sence addition is used when searching at many patterns at once with the same public key

[ThePiachu]

Actually, multiplication is quite efficient when looking for multiple keys that share the same public key, because you are generating it from the same point on the curve. Addition is beneficial when you are looking for multiple addresses with multiple public keys, as only one keypair generation is performed during an iteration. The results on the site might not be too accurate, as there are only a handful of created addresses.

[Otoh]

I am definitely interested in offering decent bounties for some vanity addresses, when requesting one can't just enter a bitcoin address (that one knows the private key for) so could someone explain in non-geek how does one generate the public key from a bitcoin address & link to a safe generator if that's needed to do it & once the vanity address is created how does one add the 2 private keys together & get a private key for the vanity address that can be imported in to say a blockchain.info wallet, also where does one enter the bounty offered or does that part come after successfully requesting the vanity address?

On looking further I see one needs an ECDSA keypair for the public & private keys, can this format be found in the Import/Export part of blockchain.info wallets or does one need to generate these somehow - if so how & where safely, many thanks, sry if this is very basic but other non tech types like myself will also probably be challenged by how to get this set up & links on the request page would help this, I know the site links to various threads & the answers are probably there but I've found them too long & technical to just get that info so far.

[ThePiachu]

I am definitely interested in offering decent bounties for some vanity addresses, when requesting one can't just enter a bitcoin address (that one knows the private key for) so could someone explain in non-geek how does one generate the public key from a bitcoin address & link to a safe generator if that's needed to do it & once the vanity address is created how does one add the 2 private keys together & get a private key for the vanity address that can be imported in to say a blockchain.info wallet, also where does one enter the bounty offered or does that part come after successfully requesting the vanity address?

Well, if you look at the technical background of Bitcoin addresses:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Technical_background_of_Bitcoin_addresses

You can see that your public key appears only in point 1. After that it is hashed into other values, meaning that the process is irreversible.

In order to generate a keypair to be used for vanity address, you can use those websites:

https://gobittest.appspot.com/VanityMult
http://bitcoinstatus.rowit.co.uk/other/address.html

The first one is owned by me and works only online, while the second one was created by nibor by modifying the code from https://www.bitaddress.org . It is supposed to work offline after you load the page.

Alternatively, you can use blockexplorer to find out a public key of any address that has been used to spend Bitcoins and later extract the corresponding private key from your wallet, but you would need to use one of those mentioned websites to merge them anyway, so it's a bit of a hassle. I think I should start a bounty for some dedicated tool soon.

The bounty address is given after you request the vanity address.

On looking further I see one needs an ECDSA keypair for the public & private keys, can this format be found in the Import/Export part of blockchain.info wallets or does one need to generate these somehow [...]

It's possible, but blockchain.info does not work for me at the moment, so I can't verify that. If you can get the private and public keys of a given Bitcoin address, those should work fine.

[Otoh]

Thank you, that's very helpful, I have used your site to generate an ECDSA keypair & imported the private key to my Blockchain.info wallet & also have seen how to find the public keys for my addresses with Blockchainexplorer which is very useful for this, I have requested a vanity address correctly now - at least I hope so as it didn't confirm when I pressed send but just went back to the main page after, I guess the bounty address is sent by email & does one need to put the leading 1 in the desired pattern box or is it just added automatically when the Network prefix byte box is left at 0?

The first address I'm requesting is a gift for someone & as I will need to use your https://gobittest.appspot.com/VanitySum to retrieve it how safe is this? I guess here one has to trust your site with the private keys. Btw to generate the keypair it's https://gobittest.appspot.com/Address then press random rather than the VanityMult link I believe.

Thanks for this service, looking forward to doing more after this first test one.

[ThePiachu]

Thank you, that's very helpful, I have used your site to generate an ECDSA keypair & imported the private key to my Blockchain.info wallet & also have seen how to find the public keys for my addresses with Blockchainexplorer which is very useful for this, I have requested a vanity address correctly now - at least I hope so as it didn't confirm when I pressed send but just went back to the main page after, I guess the bounty address is sent by email & does one need to put the leading 1 in the desired pattern box or is it just added automatically when the Network prefix byte box is left at 0?

If you generated the address with my site, it should've given you the public key on the same page. You can always input the private key again to see your public key.

The website should provide you with the Bitcoin address for the reward. The pattern should contain the leading 1. If it didn't generate the address, it should display some reason why that was - in this case that the pattern wouldn't match the net prefix.

You can always try setting up the bounty again, there is no limit to how much you can create. If you are still having a problem, just tell me;).

The first address I'm requesting is a gift for someone & as I will need to use your https://gobittest.appspot.com/VanitySum to retrieve it how safe is this? I guess here one has to trust your site with the private keys. Btw to generate the keypair it's https://gobittest.appspot.com/Address then press random rather than the VanityMult link I believe.

Thanks for this service, looking forward to doing more after this first test one.

There are two ways to generate a split-key vanity address - the addition method and the multiplication method. Once your work is finished you will see what type of operation you need to perform in order to accomplish this. You can have a look at some sample solutions here:

https://vanitypool.appspot.com/solvedWork

The website should be secure - it uses https, I don't think my account is compromised, but again - it runs on the Internet, so there is always that problem. I will look into setting up some bounty for an offline tool to be used for split-key vanity address operations.

By the way, if you want to experiment with how the website works without risking your Bitcoins, you can use my test website:

https://vanitypooltest.appspot.com/

[Otoh]

Thanks again, yep I did see the generated public key on your site - I just imported the private key to my wallet for safe keeping. I have now successfully requested a vanity address & had confirmation, I offered 0.5 BTC for 6 letters after the 1, if this turns out to not be sufficient or if I just wish to add more then can I send the extra to the same bounty address & it will be automatically added & updated? I also now understand the 2 methods of retrieving the vanity address & I would like to contribute 1 BTC when you set up a bounty for an offline tool to be used for split-key vanity address operations, please to send me an address when you set the bounty up & I expect others may wish to contribute also as it then guarantees that the whole process from start to finish is secure.

Edit: Also when requesting other VAs can one use the same public key or is it best to use a different one each time? As my first one is a gift I shall use a different PUB next time anyway but if there are a few just for me then is that OK to re-use?

[Otoh]

Wow that got solved in just a very few minutes, many thanks to the solver & I like the random rest of the address too, just getting it in to the blockchain now...

Great concept & service!

[ThePiachu]

Thanks again, yep I did see the generated public key on your site - I just imported the private key to my wallet for safe keeping. I have now successfully requested a vanity address & had confirmation, I offered 0.5 BTC for 6 letters after the 1, if this turns out to not be sufficient or if I just wish to add more then can I send the extra to the same bounty address & it will be automatically added & updated?

Yes, the balance should be updated if you decide to increase your bounty. The system checks for changes every few minutes.

I also now understand the 2 methods of retrieving the vanity address & I would like to contribute 1 BTC when you set up a bounty for an offline tool to be used for split-key vanity address operations, please to send me an address when you set the bounty up & I expect others may wish to contribute also as it then guarantees that the whole process from start to finish is secure.

Thank you, I will contact you with the details of the bounty once I set it up.

Edit: Also when requesting other VAs can one use the same public key or is it best to use a different one each time? As my first one is a gift I shall use a different PUB next time anyway but if there are a few just for me then is that OK to re-use?

It is not only okay to re-use them, it is even encouraged to use the same key if you are generating multiple addresses in a batch. Generally, the vanity miners group addresses having the same public key to mine them together. On average this would mean that the time to solve any number of addresses should be roughly the time to solve the longest pattern. I also heard that the main vanity miner solution prioritises the mining based on the total bounty for a given public key, so that's another advantage for mining many addresses together.

You shouldn't, however, mine the same pattern with the same public key, as one could submit the same solution for both and claim both of the bounties with the same solution - not an ideal outcome. You can, however, extend the pattern with some additional character to vary them around.

[ThePiachu]

There is a new bounty up for split-key vanity address management software:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=117050.0

[cambda]

There is a new bounty up for split-key vanity address management software:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=117050.0

The modified bitaddress.org with new vanity pool tab is not enought?

http://bitcoinstatus.rowit.co.uk/other/address.html

There should be added two things though:
- option for printing generated public & private key (public will be used for vanity pool and private for calculating vanity address/private key)
- calculating vanity address + private key with BOTH addition and multiplication method and user will see what method generates his desired vanity address pattern and must have option to print the calculated vanity address + private key


I believe it is the most secure solution (much better than executables), I using bitaddress myselves for generating secure offline wallets (in offline mode with ubuntu live CD)

[ThePiachu]

Well, I am also aiming for features like automatic solution checking, private key management and the like. Also, the same software could be later expanded for more business-like solutions - more automation in address requesting and the like. While it might not be completely needed, it is nice to have more options.

[pointbiz]

Subscribing

[ThePiachu]

Wow, someone really decided to use the Pool. About 20 Bitcoins worth of bounties are now available in the pool!

https://vanitypool.appspot.com/availableWork

[samr7]

Wow, someone really decided to use the Pool. About 20 Bitcoins worth of bounties are now available in the pool!

All these bounties have exposed a few bugs in oclvanityminer.  There were a handful of issues with the bounty list parser, and those have been fixed in git.  Another issue that also came up, the solve URL for vanity pool doesn't appear to accept POST requests.  It sends me back an error when I post something.  I changed oclvanityminer to use GET instead of POST for submitting solutions, and it seems to work.  I will post new binaries soon.

Edit: Pick up vanitygen 0.22

[Tittiez]

People don't really make it profitable for the work do they? No reason to do any on the list, unless your relying on pure luck to get the payout.. which in that case I'd just go solo mining for bitcoins.

[LockoutNex]

I got paid out .64 last night. Lucky me :p