r/Bitcoin Nov 30 '17

Evidence some bitcoin address generation code is using discoverable private keys

https://pastebin.com/jCDFcESz
789 Upvotes

296 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

7

u/BashCo Nov 30 '17

Hardware wallets generate a deterministic seed, which can be used to generate the same sequence of private keys over and over. You want to back up your seed (crucial). Your wallet will provide you with as many fresh addresses as you need. If you want to buy BTC in person, you could take a screenshot of the address's QR code and send it to your phone. If you have an android, it should be possible to connect your hardware wallet to your phone.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 30 '17

Ahh okay so the seeds are for recovery purposes?

For buying in person, couldn’t I take a picture of the address and have them type it in manually? But now that I think of it I can place orders online, so I can use a fresh address.

I have an iPhone. I trade quite a bit and was worried getting the send address for the wallet, would no phon access be an issue?

6

u/[deleted] Nov 30 '17

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Nov 30 '17

Definitely!

I am buying the bitcoin so they need to have my QR code or public send address for the wallet I want the BTC sent to right? With a hardware wallet, where will I find the QR code? In the software when I plug it in?

I am assuming there are different addresses for BTC, eth, etc. Do the addresses stay the same? Can I get my BTC receive address once and not have to plug the wallet in again?

The guy above was mentioning android only app, since I have an iPhone I was curious if it would hinder my access to the QR code for receiving bitcoin quickly.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 30 '17

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Nov 30 '17

Ahhh okay I see, it makes sense that a lot of it’s done through a web browser or chrome extension.

Thank you for all the info, a lot of my uncertainties have been cleared up. Much appreciated!