Questions tagged [address-generation]
Collects technical details on the process of creating new addresses.
333
questions
69
votes
5
answers
74k
views
What happens if your bitcoin client generates an address identical to another person's?
Here's a what-if scenario:
Person A has a Bitcoin address with 25BTC.
Person B opens up their Bitcoin client:
which may or may not have the complete blockchain (the latter would
mean no copies of ...
30
votes
5
answers
20k
views
How are public & private keys in an address created?
I understand the high level concept I am more interested specific details. How is a private key generated. How exactly is public key generated, how is address generated from public key.
29
votes
4
answers
15k
views
Is each Bitcoin address unique?
I am wondering whether each bitcoin address is unique. I would assume yes. Then, how is this enforced given the distributed address generation?
As I understand it, each time an address is generated, a ...
25
votes
1
answer
10k
views
Is it possible to convert a taproot address into a native segwit address?
A few days ago I requested a BTC withdrawal on Binance, I used a bc1p address and the request went through as usual without any issue or warning. (my first time using taproot address).
Binance checked ...
21
votes
4
answers
21k
views
How are different addresses generated from the same private key?
I was reading in the "Technical background of version 1 Bitcoin addresses" that addresses are a function of the private key. More or less:
Private Key -> Public Key -> Address
If the ...
20
votes
2
answers
10k
views
Can two private keys generate the same (public) Bitcoin address?
I know that private key is generated randomly by wallet. Is it possible that wallet generate the same address which is used in Bitcoin?
In other words:
Given two private keys ka ≠ kb, is it ...
13
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Is any 256-bit combination a Bitcoin private key?
I've recently been implementing a simple Bitcoin wallet and some libraries seem to disagree with address derivation from the same WIF private key, and thus wouldn't sign transactions. After that, I ...
13
votes
3
answers
1k
views
What's stopping someone from taking over all the bitcoin addresses?
Anyone can generate unlimited bitcoin addresses.
Presumably, there's a limited number of these (even if it's a very very large number).
What's stopping someone from taking over all the bitcoin ...
12
votes
3
answers
4k
views
How can I manually (on paper) calculate a Bitcoin public key from a private key?
I am interested in generating a Bitcoin address by hand for security's sake. After I choose/generate a private key, how do I generate the public key?
From there, how would I double check my work?
...
12
votes
2
answers
23k
views
How do I create a new address in Electrum?
In Electrum, there is no "New Address" button to be found. I tried under the tab Addresses, but nothing there. If I go to Console and try create(), then it returns:
Traceback (most recent call last): ...
9
votes
2
answers
5k
views
Is a bitcoin address collision possible if generating 90 million addresses every 4 hours?
I am running a test to see if I can obtain a successful bitcoin address collision after generating billions of addresses. I am not entirely sure how I would check them yet. Basically I have an extra ...
8
votes
3
answers
29k
views
How to generate a testnet address?
Bitcoin addresses can be generated on this site https://www.bitaddress.org, but the test network needs m or n at the beginning of the address, where can those be generated?
8
votes
2
answers
12k
views
What is the difference between your address and your public keys
I'm beginning to learn about cryptocurrencies, and I'm having a lot of trouble because some terms are used in different contexts. I know that public keys are generated through a private key. So, are ...
8
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Replacing ECDSA (SECP256k1) with Schnorr signatures
On March 23, 2017 the Bitcoin Core team published a technology roadmap, expressing their intent to replace ECDSA (SECP256k1) with Schnorr signatures: https://bitcoincore.org/en/2017/03/23/schnorr-...
8
votes
4
answers
5k
views
HD wallets and address reuse
HD wallets create a series of addresses, and then when one address has received an input it will give you a new address that hasn't received inputs yet
So in the idea of you sending yourself bitcoin ...
7
votes
3
answers
14k
views
More receive addresses with electrum
I cannot find any documentation or an option anywhere in the electrum client to put it into expert mode. I'm not even sure it can be done any longer, and it is important I raise the gap limit. It like ...
7
votes
2
answers
7k
views
python-bitcoinlib | Create Private Keys, Public Keys and Addresses - How to Do It?
I'm trying to use the python-bitcoinlib library but its docs aren't entirely clear to me.
I'm a programmer but quite new to Python, and not very versed in the Bitcoin protocol.
What's the process, ...
7
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is it possible to use a PGP key as a bitcoin address?
Both bitcoin and encrypted emailing are based on public key cryptography. However, they use different implementations, so I assume that a public PGP key cannot be used as a bitcoin address directly.
...
7
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Is there a way to generate a brain wallet from the command line or console?
Is there complete solution for console to generate brain wallet? Something like:
echo "sausage" | xxd -r -p | sha256sum | awk '{print $1}' | rmd160 -x | blablabla
I'm read this article: https://en....
7
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Key Pools and best practices
I'm wondering about what the best practices are around generating and maintaining key pools for a wallet.
What is the maximum number of keys/addresses that can be created for a single wallet? Phrased ...
6
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Why is Bitcoin address encoded in base58?
Why does bitcoin address encoding use base58 instead of, for instance, base64? I don't see it is useful in any way.
6
votes
3
answers
8k
views
Can same private key generate multiple addresses?
Is this possible using some clever bitcoin script? The intention is to get more privacy. I can give different addresses to different people still no one can guess how much I make in total. I can do ...
6
votes
2
answers
14k
views
How to generate addresses in PHP
I need some PHP code to generate bitcoin addresses from a given public key.
I can only find algorithms to generate addresses from the master private key but according to https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/...
6
votes
1
answer
879
views
How many possible addresses per bitcoin private key?
Based on my research every bitcoin private key (compressed or uncompressed) can have 4 different addresses:
P2PKH compressed and starts with 1
P2PKH uncompressed and starts with 1
P2SH and starts ...
6
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Generate paper wallet SegWit address
I am trying to generate SegWit paper wallet address from WIF:
My WIF is L5mHKZsCLS27nSoGM3RdAwuxjvg7XhJdP25LgqdXe6zF11wpWdbT.
I am converting WIF to compressed public key:
Compressed public key: ...
5
votes
3
answers
3k
views
ELI5: What is Base58Check encoding?
I've seen posts on how to do it and I've read the wiki on what it is, however these explanations are too complex. Can someone explain what it is and why it's called Base58Check encoding? Are addresses ...
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How does the Bitcoin protocol deal with address collisions in wallets?
I understand that one can create a Bitcoin wallet as a pair of numbers (public & private key) with the right specifications and this is done quite easily in places like bitaddress.org
I also ...
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How are Electrum addresses connected to my private key?
I've started using Electrum and created my first wallet. I saved the private key seed on a piece of paper.
I also created a new address by going to the Receive tab and clicking "New Address"....
5
votes
1
answer
586
views
Can you detect that the addresses generated by an HD wallet came from a single wallet?
Can someone who is looking at the blockchain detect that 2 or more addresses generated by a single HD wallet are actually generated by that single seed/HD wallet ?
Can someone who does know that 2 or ...
5
votes
1
answer
259
views
How can I protect my funds in the event a quantum computer breaks the ECDLP that Bitcoin relies on?
An interesting question was posted recently, discussing the idea of hashed addresses being (not meaningfully) quantum resistant.
As Andrew's answer on that question points out, paying to a hashed ...
5
votes
1
answer
12k
views
What's the relationship of Bitcoin addresses to public keys?
A Bitcoin wallet can handle multiple private keys. In ECC, you can have 2^256 private keys, and for each key, you can have 2^256 public keys. Assuming that's right (please correct me if I'm wrong), ...
5
votes
6
answers
3k
views
If I were to generate an address and it happens to collide, legally speaking, would a transfer constitute theft?
Let's say that somehow I generate a new address which happens to already be "taken". I realize the chances of address collision are extraordinarily low as per Is it possible to brute force bitcoin ...
5
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Generate addresses without private key: Stealth addresses vs Master Public Key
In my case a store owner has different POS terminals. On none of the terminals should be a private key stored! The owner has one wallet, where he wants to get all transactions aggregated, done on the ...
5
votes
1
answer
855
views
Coin address generation for all coins
We are developing UI for coin trading. We have a plan to use all the coins present in coinmarketcap. I am greatly confused how to generate coin address for all coins. I knew that from cryptsy.com, it ...
5
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Is it possible to discover the set of bitcoin addresses from a public key?
I'm trying to find the set of bitcoin addresses from a public key associated with a user just to analyse this user transaction. Is there any way to derive/find all the addresses that have been ...
4
votes
3
answers
803
views
Is the SHA256 value in the bitcoin address wiki accurate?
From the wiki page https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Technical_background_of_version_1_Bitcoin_addresses the example of "How to Create Bitcoin Address" shows the SHA256 of:
...
4
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Unknown Address Format Parsing Bitcoin Addresses from Blockchair Data
I've obtained a list of all current Bitcoin addresses with balances from Blockchair, which is downloadable from their data repository located here. I have downloaded the Bitcoin / Addresses TSV ...
4
votes
3
answers
12k
views
How does one create a brain wallet from a seed using SHA256?
How does one create a brain wallet from a seed using SHA256? Is this possible?
Could you please explain using the example seed "coinbase is awesome" (no apostrophes)? What is the resulting address?
4
votes
3
answers
9k
views
Generate address (for receiving) on GNU/Linux without Bitcoin client?
If I understand it correctly, I could generate a valid Bitcoin address (key pair) following this algorithm.
With an address generated in such a way I would be able to receive Bitcoin without ever ...
4
votes
2
answers
289
views
How many addresses can be generated from a ranged descriptor?
I'm trying to wrap my head around ranged descriptors. The docs in the bitcoin/bitcoin-repo says that a ranged descriptor can generate keys/address "in a configurable range (0-1000 by default)&...
4
votes
2
answers
6k
views
How to get the derived public key from xpub?
Here I'd like to generate the other address use xpub.
Is there any library (python) could help to derive the new address from extended key?
such as:
gen_new_pub(xpub, new_path) to get the derived ...
4
votes
1
answer
4k
views
How to generate a native Segwit address and P2SH Segwit address from a standard WIF?
Can I have the steps to generate a native Segwit address from a standard WIF? And the steps to generate a P2SH Segwit address from the same WIF?
How do these two formats differ and why are there two?...
4
votes
1
answer
4k
views
How to generate a zcash vanity address?
Is the main network address version for zcash already known? Is it possible to generate a mainnet address already?
This could allow miners to start from minute 0 to mine on a anonymous pool. The ...
4
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Using Python: create a private key of my choosing, then generate public key and address
I'm looking for a simple, easy to use Bitcoin library for Python.
What I want to do is verify I can enter a hex private key that I want, and get the expected pubkey in compressed format, and the 1Btc....
4
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Generating private keys in Java
I'm looking for a way to generate private keys in Java. I'd like to make this a standalone program, so I'd rather not use a library like bitcoinj. From my research I've only seen people recommend ...
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Generate addresses from Trezor's xPub using Python
I am trying to generate BIP32 HD addresses from my Trezors xPub key.
I keep getting errors with most of the libs our there. What am I missing?
pywallet:
from pywallet import wallet
xpub = '...
4
votes
4
answers
5k
views
How can I generate a bitcoin address?
Is there any way to generate bitcoin addresses other than the Blockchain API? (given the fact that it is not public)
3
votes
2
answers
943
views
How do blockchain explorers know if the address is really generated?
I am studying how the Bitcoin addresses generation works.
As far as I learned, a Bitcoin address appears in the blockchain only after it has been involved in its first transaction. If an address has ...
3
votes
2
answers
4k
views
How to sweep a segwit bech32 private key?
I'm testing segwit bech32 addresses and generated the following using bitcoinjs:
address: bc1qc7u5njf4nf2rj3zys642mfc7nct6kdven8j4e9
private key: 5Kkzs8XrJNAmf9VQDFeGBfaRvSByAvPK6DbDXw5BVqswWaXSG2Y
...
3
votes
1
answer
5k
views
What is the maximum of receive addresses the default wallet can handle?
I guess there is no limit. But on tests, what is the maximum before the bitcoind start to slow down in a specific machine?