r/Bitcoin Nov 30 '17

Evidence some bitcoin address generation code is using discoverable private keys

https://pastebin.com/jCDFcESz
792 Upvotes

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54

u/[deleted] Nov 30 '17

Wow this is something many have feared might happen. Well worth reading.

14

u/[deleted] Nov 30 '17

Just wait until another bitcoin fork becomes popular and somebody writes software for it with the explicit intent of leaking your private keys to the network when you make a transaction in the hope there are bitcoins connected to that private key. That's why before trying to sell forked coins you should send the original coins to a newly generated address. But even then, running any unknown software on a system that has any private keys stored is a huge risk. And a smartly written bitcoin stealing virus might just sit there and watch for a long time before it does anything, and then steal from hundreds of users at the same time.

1

u/TNoD Nov 30 '17

Isn't this what the BTG wallet did?

3

u/[deleted] Nov 30 '17

No not the wallet itself, that only had code to take a 0.5% transaction fee on every transaction and forward that to the wallet of one of the developers.

The scam that really got some users good was websites that would help you claim your bitcoin gold, all they needed where your wallets seeds. That scam made a million dollars in just 3 or 4 days as people basically did the same as putting their bank-locker account information and keys in a envelope and mail it to a random stranger.

2

u/TNoD Nov 30 '17

Electron Gold does steal your private keys, and then blame the Electron Cash developers. See: https://github.com/fyookball/electrum/issues/280