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Showing 6 of 6 results by npudar
Re: It took 10 seconds for the brainwallet "password1" to be taken
I have been wanting to participate in this discussion, and am now happily past the newbie speedbump. 
I like the concept of deterministic wallets, and am thinking of an approach that lets me create deterministic and encrypted paper wallets.
It starts with a brainwallet created at bitaddress.org with a 230+ bit entropy passphrase. I then encrypt the private key at bit2factor.org which implements BIP38 to create an encrypted private key. For this encryption, I use a different 230+ bit entropy passhprase. I then use the encrypted private keys as the successive brainwallet passphrases to create more encrypted private keys in a deterministic manner.
I have read this full post and others like it, and am aware of the need for high entropy passphrases. I can use even higher entropy passphrases than what I am thinking of, and I can reliably re-create the passphrases when I need to. But I am interested in knowing how much entropy bitcoin passphrases can handle.
My questions are:
1) what is the limit for the number of characters a passphrase can have to create a private key at bitaddress.org?
2) what is the limit for the number of characters a passphrase can have to encrypt a private key at bit2factor.org for the BIP38 implementation?
Thanks.
I like the concept of deterministic wallets, and am thinking of an approach that lets me create deterministic and encrypted paper wallets.
It starts with a brainwallet created at bitaddress.org with a 230+ bit entropy passphrase. I then encrypt the private key at bit2factor.org which implements BIP38 to create an encrypted private key. For this encryption, I use a different 230+ bit entropy passhprase. I then use the encrypted private keys as the successive brainwallet passphrases to create more encrypted private keys in a deterministic manner.
I have read this full post and others like it, and am aware of the need for high entropy passphrases. I can use even higher entropy passphrases than what I am thinking of, and I can reliably re-create the passphrases when I need to. But I am interested in knowing how much entropy bitcoin passphrases can handle.
My questions are:
1) what is the limit for the number of characters a passphrase can have to create a private key at bitaddress.org?
2) what is the limit for the number of characters a passphrase can have to encrypt a private key at bit2factor.org for the BIP38 implementation?
Thanks.
Don't. Bad for privacy, usually done wrong and hacked, even if done right people often forget or lose the password...
If you still must create a brainwallet, for the love of $deity_or_lack_thereof please make sure you generate the passphrase genuinely randomly - e.g. an Electrum-esque 12 Diceware words chosen with real dice, written down multiple somewheres (perhaps split up) - and use some kind of KDF that requires a substantial amount of time to slow down brute-forcers anyway.
But, please, just don't even do it in the first place.
If you still must create a brainwallet, for the love of $deity_or_lack_thereof please make sure you generate the passphrase genuinely randomly - e.g. an Electrum-esque 12 Diceware words chosen with real dice, written down multiple somewheres (perhaps split up) - and use some kind of KDF that requires a substantial amount of time to slow down brute-forcers anyway.
But, please, just don't even do it in the first place.
I appreciate the good advise. I still want to know what the limits are to the number of characters in a brainwallet passphrase, as well as the limits for the private key encryption passphrase in BIP38.
The passphrase I am thinking of has 230 bits of entropy, and I can recreate it reliably. I was thinking of using that same brainwallet passphrase for both creating the private key as well as for encrypting it. But I've been thinking of using a different (equally high entropy) passphrase for the second step of the process.
So back to my original questions, soes anyone know what the limits are to the size of the passphrases?
I've seen some comments about the blockchain size getting too big. I've always wondered why a big chunk of the early blocks can't just be truncated and archived. I'm not really sure if this is a long term problem.
Regarding the miners processing transactions in the future when the number of BTC awards draw down to zero. Does the difficulty of the block creation change automatically to maintain a certain block cadence like today? Or will the transactions be allowed to speed up to facilitate micropayments with merchants in real time?
We're all accustomed to very minimal transaction fees when converted to fiat values. In the future, will there be sufficient payback to cover the mining costs? I'm really curious about how this will work.
Regarding the miners processing transactions in the future when the number of BTC awards draw down to zero. Does the difficulty of the block creation change automatically to maintain a certain block cadence like today? Or will the transactions be allowed to speed up to facilitate micropayments with merchants in real time?
We're all accustomed to very minimal transaction fees when converted to fiat values. In the future, will there be sufficient payback to cover the mining costs? I'm really curious about how this will work.
I'm going to treat bitcoins as an investment asset until things are clarified. This means keeping track of the cost basis (BTC purchase price + fees) and subtracting the basis from the net sale (BTC sell price - fees) to calculate the capital gain. The advantage is that capital gains held for 1 year have a lower tax rate than normal income. CoinBase provides a CSV export for its transactions as does the Bitcoin-QT client. If your exchange doesn't provide a paper trail, you'll need to keep your own - be sure to include the transaction identifiers so you can use the blockchain to prove when coins were purchased and sold.
Ron
Ron
I think this is how it is going to play out. The Coinbase transactions have good records of all the transaction fees and the cost basis. It will be pretty straightforward for those of us still investing, but once I begin making purchases, the record keeping will get confusing because it is not clear to me what the cost basis is for the specific BTCs I will be using. If I could be specific, I would want to use those BTC that were the most expensive to minimize the capital gains, or even to generate a loss. Yuck.
Well, after I jumped through all their hoops, I have had no issues with my transactions. I didn't care for the waiting process, and I missed out on the post crash prices in October. And I wish the support was more timely. (Although, all my emails were answered, sometimes with such a delay that I had forgotten I asked the original question.)
They are a startup and they are being careful and learning a lot in the process. I will be patient, since I am confident the serious VC money they have will insist on solid operations.
They are a startup and they are being careful and learning a lot in the process. I will be patient, since I am confident the serious VC money they have will insist on solid operations.
I really wanted to correspond in another really good thread on brainwallets, but alas, I'm a noob.
So, here are my questions:
1) In generating a brainwallet on bitaddress.org, what is the limit for the number of characters in the passphrase?
2) On the site bit2factor.org, in creating an encrypted private key, what is the limit for the number of characters in the passphrase?
Thanks.
So, here are my questions:
1) In generating a brainwallet on bitaddress.org, what is the limit for the number of characters in the passphrase?
2) On the site bit2factor.org, in creating an encrypted private key, what is the limit for the number of characters in the passphrase?
Thanks.