Create A (Semi) Custom Bitcoin Address

I woke up today with a bit of a hangover. With some time to kill, I decided to try and create a new bitcoin address that contained part of my name. End result: 1MaxKapqcv8KVHw1mTzZd23uvntnLABvnB and the same hangover.

How I Did It and How You Can Too

The concept of generating a “custom” bitcoin address is known as a “vanity address.” There are many third party sites that will generate one for you, however I do not recommend trusting one as they will be able to directly see your private key. Instead, I built a docker container that allows anyone to generate a vanity address right on their own computer.

1. Download Docker
2. Open up terminal or cmd and run: docker pull kaplanmaxe/vanitygen
3. Run: docker run kaplanmaxe/vanitygen vanitygen 1Test (Note: All addresses must start with 1. Multisig/Segwit addresses are not supported).
4. Depending on the difficulty (the more characters you specify the larger the difficulty), you will eventually see an output similar to this

5. You now have your address and private key! Be very careful with your private key, as anyone who has access to it also has direct access to your funds. Now you can take your private key and import it into a wallet such as Bitcoin Core, Electrum, etc.

Note: Bitcoin is pseudonymous. For obvious reasons, when you create a vanity address, you lose that privilege. Keep that in mind when you are sending or receiving anything your new, fancy address.

Source:
* Docker Hub
* GitHub
* Original Source

Follow me on Twitter: @maxekaplan | BTC Tips Accepted: 1MaxKapqcv8KVHw1mTzZd23uvntnLABvnB