Vanity addresses
Explaining what vanity addresses are and how you can set up your own address
When accessing or setting up your own Bitcoin wallet, you may notice that it just ends up being a bunch of numbers and letters that have no relevance to you or anything involved with you. What if you had the ability, though, to personalize that Bitcoin address so that it wasn’t just another random string of numbers and letter? Well, that’s exactly what vanity addresses are used for, giving you the opportunity to create a Bitcoin wallet which contains certain starting letters that spell out words like your name or brand. Let’s discuss these vanity addresses some more and learn how you can make your own personalized address.
This is not financial investment advice.
This article will explain what vanity addresses are and how you can make your own.
In this article
Terminology
Bitcoin Wallet: A Bitcoin wallet is a software program where Bitcoins are stored. To be technically accurate, Bitcoins are not stored anywhere; there is a private key (secret number) for every Bitcoin address that is saved in the Bitcoin wallet of the person who owns the balance. Bitcoin wallets facilitate sending and receiving Bitcoins and gives ownership of the Bitcoin balance to the user.
Wallet Address: A Bitcoin wallet address is similar to a bank account number. It’s a unique 26–35 digit combination of letters and numbers and it looks something like this: 1ExAmpLe0FaBiTco1NADr3sSV5tsGaMF6hd
You can share your Bitcoin wallet address with others. With this, they will be able to send you Bitcoin.
Public Key: A cryptographic code that allows a user to receive cryptocurrencies into his or her account. The public key coupled with the private key are significant tools required to ensure the security of the crypto economy.
Familiarize yourself with these key terms in order to better understand how vanity addresses work.
What’s A Vanity Address?
To put simply, a vanity address is a Bitcoin address with certain starting letters that spell out words such as your name or your brand. This can make your own wallet stand out when receiving or sending Bitcoin, as it can tie in your name or any other word you might want as part of your Bitcoin wallet address. Think of your wallet address as your bank number which you give or show to people so that they can send you cryptocurrencies.
Currently, most — if not all — Bitcoin addresses are just made up of random numbers and letters. Getting a vanity address will definitely make you stand out and give your wallet a unique aspect. Here’s an example of what a basic vanity address would look like:
1googLemzFVj8ALj6mfBsbifRoD4miY36v
A vanity address is essentially a personalized bitcoin address. Most — if not all — Bitcoin wallet addresses are just a string of random letters and numbers, so getting a vanity address gives your wallet a unique aspect.
How Can I Make My Own?
There are two methods to create your own vanity address. The first way is to do it yourself, which is probably the most secure way as nobody can see the private key and public key pair. This does involve knowing a little bit of computing and downloading the correct software. You can then choose how much of your processing power you wish to dedicate to the process, but be aware that dedicating a large proportion of your CPU can make the program crash.
The other method — which might not be as secure — is to go onto a pool such as bitcoinvanitygen.com where you can outsource the work to Bitcoin vanity address miners. These miners dedicate their CPU & GPU power to finding the address you want and send it to you either via email or in the post (if you are paying for it). Although this is a quick process, there is the risk that miners could hold onto the private key that generated the address and use it at some point in the future to hack your funds and steal the millions your vanity address has stored in it.
To get a vanity address you can either make you own, which is the most secure way, or outsource it to vanity address miners.
Conclusion
When the world of cryptocurrency begins to get a bit boring, vanity addresses introduce a unique and even creative aspect to the process of sending and receiving cryptocurrencies. If you ever want to spice things up or make your address stand out, you can always get a vanity address to do so. Although it does take a significant amount of computing power, generating these addresses can make your overall experience much more personalized and allow you to stand out among other wallets.
Have you made a vanity address before?
Let us know why in the comments!
