Re:Probability of typing a wrong Bitcoin address
by johnisgood on Friday August 29, 2025 @10:34AM
(#45064676)
People use this against cryptocurrencies. It should be an argument against stupidity instead. You get a confirmation popup as well asking if you are sure about the address in many wallets.
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Re:Probability of typing a wrong Bitcoin address
by BobAliceInATree on Friday August 29, 2025 @11:06AM
(#45065115)
No number of confirmation dialogs going to help anyone in determining that their 27+ digit address is mistyped.
Re:Probability of typing a wrong Bitcoin address
by johnisgood on Friday August 29, 2025 @11:13AM
(#45065217)
Copy paste, and triple check the first and last 4 characters.
Re:Probability of typing a wrong Bitcoin address
by pants2 on Friday August 29, 2025 @12:15PM
(#45065995)
Not good enough, scammers will make copycat look-alike addresses that have the same first ~7 and last ~7 characters.
Re:Probability of typing a wrong Bitcoin address
by johtso on Friday August 29, 2025 @01:07PM
(#45066692)
What about something like VisualHostKey but for the bitcoin address?
Re:Probability of typing a wrong Bitcoin address
by johnisgood on Saturday August 30, 2025 @12:37PM
(#45075954)
I doubt that would help much. People should clear their clipboard, and copy & paste, then double check the whole thing, or at least the first and last few characters.
Re:Probability of typing a wrong Bitcoin address
by johnisgood on Friday August 29, 2025 @02:07PM
(#45067461)
What does this mean in practice though? If you need to be certain, make sure you copy the right address.
Re:Probability of typing a wrong Bitcoin address
by charcircuit on Friday August 29, 2025 @12:22PM
(#45066097)
Bad actors can easily pregenerate adresses that mach those ahead of time.
Re:Probability of typing a wrong Bitcoin address
by nullc on Friday August 29, 2025 @04:11PM
(#45068850)
Bad advice scammers/malware have huge tables of addresses they've generated that agree in the first N and last N characters. If a user is going to compare a subset they should make an effort to make it be an unpredictable subset.
Re:Probability of typing a wrong Bitcoin address
by bigfishrunning on Friday August 29, 2025 @11:02AM
(#45065068)
People are stupid, and there's no way around that. If bitcoin can't protect stupid people against themselves, then that's a pretty major flaw.
Re:Probability of typing a wrong Bitcoin address
by giancarlostoro on Friday August 29, 2025 @11:02AM
(#45065056)
Even when I copy and paste, I triple check the beginning and end of the addresses shown.
Re:Probability of typing a wrong Bitcoin address
by johnisgood on Friday August 29, 2025 @11:11AM
(#45065187)
Same. I triple check the beginning and the end. Just like I am supposed to when handling money. In cases of many cryptocurrencies, you should focus more on the last characters instead of the first. In terms of Bitcoin, it usually begins with "bc1" (yes, depends) and ends with whatever. Triple check either way. Sometimes I would clear my clipboard and copy paste anew.
Re:Probability of typing a wrong Bitcoin address
by mr_mitm on Friday August 29, 2025 @12:10PM
(#45065929)
Generating an evil wallet where the last six characters or so match the original is probably feasible. I heard of this being done to SSH host keys. Someone invented randomart images to make it easier for humans to compare binary strings [1], but I'm not sure how well they fare against similar attacks.
[1] https://bytes.zone/posts/what-is-the-randomart-image-for/
Re:Probability of typing a wrong Bitcoin address
by pants2 on Friday August 29, 2025 @12:16PM
(#45066010)
I have been targeted by scammers who generated wallet addresses with 15 of the same characters.
Re:Probability of typing a wrong Bitcoin address
by johnisgood on Friday August 29, 2025 @02:05PM
(#45067446)
I am sure it is, but oh well. You always have to be careful about money.