Rare address hall of fame

[Yankee (BitInstant)]

My Casascius Coins website issued a payment address starting with"1Fake" and the customer did not know if he got a real or a test address. Suspicious, he redid his order and paid the new (non-1Fake) address he was issued, then wrote to tell me about it.  The 1Fake address was a real address and a genuine coincidence.

Can I buy this address off of you?

[bitcoinbear]

My Casascius Coins website issued a payment address starting with"1Fake" and the customer did not know if he got a real or a test address. Suspicious, he redid his order and paid the new (non-1Fake) address he was issued, then wrote to tell me about it.  The 1Fake address was a real address and a genuine coincidence.

Can I buy this address off of you?

Why would you want his Fake address, when you could just use a vanitygen to get your own Fake address?

[BurtW]

Check out all the outputs from this transaction:

http://blockchain.info/tx/28ccf29cfcc9f82d42793db770e7c7894d61ccf3d18299f34bda2e54415da287

They read:

Code:

1But1DontWantToGoAmongMadxxxzDmyW6 0.0001 BTC
1Peop1eA1iceRemarkedxxxxxxxxxuLyKu 0.0001 BTC
12ohYouCantHe1pThatxxxxxxxxxzCjyMs 0.0001 BTC
19SaidTheCatWereA11MadHerexxyTvEir 0.0001 BTC
191mMadYoureMadxxxxxxxxxxxxxvwA4Up 0.0001 BTC
1HowDoYouKnow1mMadSaidA1icexxZA4Nr 0.0001 BTC
12YouMustBeSaidTheCatxxxxxxxz2tFa2 0.0001 BTC
12orYouWou1dntHaveComeHerexxvtHbqq 0.0001 BTC
0.0008 BTC

There is a bunch of cool stuff written here:

http://blockchain.info/address/12zEQoozpKCWLVfwxusiLEKLPVQ7mQNAnZ

And my favorite (one that I created) is:

http://blockchain.info/tx/bf40e4a1c2546747bc800a085e7145d921a9f402aaf4040c155ff5d0df9cc999

Which reads:

Code:

11When1DieBuryMeDeepLayTwoXVEY5jv 0.00000001 BTC
11SpeakersAtMyFeetAPairofXXTyrHor 0.00000001 BTC
11HeadphonesonMyHeadAndXXXXYUSvnd 0.00000001 BTC
11ALwaysPLayTheGratefuLDeadWdq4Xo 0.00000001 BTC
0.00000004 BTC

[dooglus]

My Casascius Coins website issued a payment address starting with"1Fake" and the customer did not know if he got a real or a test address. Suspicious, he redid his order and paid the new (non-1Fake) address he was issued, then wrote to tell me about it.  The 1Fake address was a real address and a genuine coincidence.

Can I buy this address off of you?

Why would you want his Fake address, when you could just use a vanitygen to get your own Fake address?

Maybe his Fake address was the first one, so has a "firstbits" of 1fake?

That's the only reason I could think of.

[mskwik]

Code:

mskwik@mskwik ~ $ ./vanitygen 1Fake
Difficulty: 4476342
Pattern: 1Fake                                                                 
Address: 1FakerW3HiFf8Fz5bYPKApGeguoaY6F1xh
Privkey: 5JxThis1sAReaLPrivateKey111111111111111112zcbiLwEsU

[Phinnaeus Gage]

1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE (real address)

[BurtW]

1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE (real address)

This is a valid address in that the checksum is correct but I would not call it "real" in the sense that those BTC will ever be recovered - they will never be recovered.

[kokojie]

1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE (real address)

This is a valid address in that the checksum is correct but I would not call it "real" in the sense that those BTC will ever be recovered - they will never be recovered.

Incorrect, they are unlikely be recovered, but not never. THERE IS A CHANCE.

[BurtW]

1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE (real address)

This is a valid address in that the checksum is correct but I would not call it "real" in the sense that those BTC will ever be recovered - they will never be recovered.

Incorrect, they are unlikely be recovered, but not never. THERE IS A CHANCE.

No, there is not.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE (real address)

This is a valid address in that the checksum is correct but I would not call it "real" in the sense that those BTC will ever be recovered - they will never be recovered.

Incorrect, they are unlikely be recovered, but not never. THERE IS A CHANCE.

No, there is not.

Didn't I just get done reading that funds can't be sent to a fake address? That's why I stated that it was real. I wasn't trying to spread FUD. What am I missing?

~Bruno K~

[Yuhfhrh]

1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE (real address)

This is a valid address in that the checksum is correct but I would not call it "real" in the sense that those BTC will ever be recovered - they will never be recovered.

Incorrect, they are unlikely be recovered, but not never. THERE IS A CHANCE.

No, there is not.

Didn't I just get done reading that funds can't be sent to a fake address? That's why I stated that it was real. I wasn't trying to spread FUD. What am I missing?

~Bruno K~

So wait, does this mean this address has the possibility be generated, even though it isn't as long as a bitcoin address should be? 1111111111111111111114oLvT2 (It has received funds)

[Raoul Duke]

My Casascius Coins website issued a payment address starting with"1Fake" and the customer did not know if he got a real or a test address. Suspicious, he redid his order and paid the new (non-1Fake) address he was issued, then wrote to tell me about it.  The 1Fake address was a real address and a genuine coincidence.

Can I buy this address off of you?

Why would you want his Fake address, when you could just use a vanitygen to get your own Fake address?

Maybe his Fake address was the first one, so has a "firstbits" of 1fake?

That's the only reason I could think of.

It doesn't have the firstbits if it wasn't used...

The 1fake firstbits, at least according to blockchain.info, is http://blockchain.info/address/1FAkERLT43VNTSX4XYfrSdW547VzjJ8Q3a

[BurtW]

Didn't I just get done reading that funds can't be sent to a fake address? That's why I stated that it was real. I wasn't trying to spread FUD. What am I missing?

~Bruno K~

There are two ways to create a valid Bitcoin address, that is, an address that will be accepted by the client and allow you to send BTC to it.

The first way creates a valid address and since the private and public keys are known, the BTC can be recovered and spent:

    1) Create a random private key
    2) Calculate the corresponding public key from the random private key
    3) Calculate the valid corresponding Bitcoin address from the public key

The second way creates a valid address but since the private and public keys not known (and for all practical purposes will never be known in the lifetime of this universe), the BTC can not be recovered and spent:

    1) Create a random bunch of crap, for example: 1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSend
    2) Calculate the correct checksum for the address and put the two together:  1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE

Wala!  You have a valid Bitcoin address but any coins sent to it can never be spent and are forever lost because the address was not created from a valid key pair.

Now, in fact, there are many private/public keypairs that will produce the address 1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE

But your chances of guessing any one of them is so remote that for all practical purposes it is impossible.
    

[BurtW]

So wait, does this mean this address has the possibility be generated, even though it isn't as long as a bitcoin address should be? 1111111111111111111114oLvT2 (It has received funds)

If BTC have been sent to it then this is a valid Bitcoin address.  This is a special case, the hash of the public key is 0.  I would have to check, or someone may know, is this a valid hash of a public key?  If not then there are no keypairs that hash to this address.  If it is a valid hash output then there are many key pairs that will hash to this address.

[helloworld]

1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE (real address)

This is a valid address in that the checksum is correct but I would not call it "real" in the sense that those BTC will ever be recovered - they will never be recovered.

Incorrect, they are unlikely be recovered, but not never. THERE IS A CHANCE.

No, there is not.

Yes, there is.

You just said so yourself in the above posts!

[mskwik]

So wait, does this mean this address has the possibility be generated, even though it isn't as long as a bitcoin address should be? 1111111111111111111114oLvT2 (It has received funds)

If BTC have been sent to it then this is a valid Bitcoin address.  This is a special case, the hash of the public key is 0.  I would have to check, or someone may know, is this a valid hash of a public key?  If not then there are no keypairs that hash to this address.  If it is a valid hash output then there are many key pairs that will hash to this address.

Like the other data+checksum addresses it is theoretically possible but very unlikely to find a valid private/public keypair that matches it.  One of those small transactions is mine from a bug in subvertx that apparently messed up the output address, wouldn't surprise me if at least some of the others came about the same way.

[BurtW]

Yes, there is.
You just said so yourself in the above posts!

Homework: 

How many public/private key pairs will hash to a given Bitcoin address?

How many possible public/private key pairs are there?

What is the probability of finding any one of the keypairs for a given Bitcoin address by random chance?

My point is that the chance is so small it is not worth mentioning.  For all practical purposes it is impossible. 

Of course, if you wish, you can hold on to the small possibility that you may find one of the key pairs for an address.  I suggest you look for keypairs to the Bitcoin addresses on this list, to make it worth your time:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=92423.0;topicseen

[Yuhfhrh]

Yes, there is.
You just said so yourself in the above posts!

Homework:  

How many public/private key pairs will hash to a given Bitcoin address?

How many possible public/private key pairs are there?

What is the probability of finding any one of the keypairs for a given Bitcoin address by random chance?

My point is that the chance is so small it is not worth mentioning.  For all practical purposes it is impossible.  

Of course, if you wish, you can hold on to the small possibility that you may find one of the key pairs for an address.  I suggest you look for keypairs to the Bitcoin addresses on this list, to make it worth your time:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=92423.0;topicseen

You're not suggesting we try to steal right?  

[J-Norm]

You can create any arbitrary address by just putting the right checksum on the end. You will of course not know the private key so anything sent there is unlikely to ever be retrieved.

[BurtW]

You're not suggesting we try to steal right?  

Yes, I am.  The entire premise of Bitcoin is that you cannot do it so it is OK to test that premise.  If you do manage to do it then I would suggest giving the BTC back to the rightful owner.