Brainwallets: The Bitcoin Wallet You Probably Shouldn’t Use (Unless You Have To)

With 2 bitcoins available to be won, Kryptokit contest tests new blockchain based marketing ideas. TORONTO, CANADA - SEPTEMBER 23, 2014 - Today Kryptokit, the makers of the instant bitcoin wallet RushWallet, launched a video with a twist: embedded in the humorous video is a series of clues that lead viewers to 30 hidden brainwallets filled with bitcoins. Once viewers decipher the clues they are invited to claim the wallets and transfer any bitcoins inside them into their own accounts. There are 2 bitcoins available to be won in a contest that will last 1 month or until all the wallets are....

A white-hat hacker has released a new tool designed to illustrate the ease with which illicit actors can steal bitcoins from brainwallets, a type of bitcoin wallet iteration where passwords are not stored digitally - but in the memory of the user. Originally conceived as a way to keep sensitive wallet data offline and make bitcoin addresses easier to remember, the brainwallet was partly undone due to how it interacts with the bitcoin blockchain. A brainwallet uses a single, long password or phrase, converts it to a private key, a public key and finally an address. Using an offline attack,....

Beware all ye who wonder down these paths where brainwallet.org and other brainwallets may lie. Many a person has stated warning from afar, such as tech wizard Jeff Garzik who shouted "No!" firm warning raised, and such as Robin Hood (of the Digital Age), where our tale lies today. The term 'brainwallet' has been in the Bitcoin space for a while; the first I heard about it was last summer (2013). Being a cautious person myself, and not a coder, I waited patiently whilst others experimented with this new thing, brainwallet.org. Brainwallets are Bitcoin wallets generated uniquely from a....

Whenever a new Bitcoin service comes along, it goes hand in hand with excitement and curiosity. As we have come to learn over the past few years, you should be careful about getting your hopes up for something that sounds too good to be true on paper. My Wallet Ltd. is one of those services you shouldn’t trust so easily with your Bitcoins. Editor’s Note: Bitcoinist.net does not endorse My Wallet Ltd. nor do we claim they are legit or a scam. Use service at your own risk. There is little information to be found about My Wallet Ltd., other than a press release which has hit a lot of the....

Using weak seed phrases means instant loss of funds on the Bitcoin network. The concept of a blockchain "dark forest" has been popularized recently by Ethereum and the existence of front-running bots that will copy any profitable transaction pending for submission.The bots are able to assess if any given transaction that just entered the mempool can be replicated, and they will immediately publish their own copy with a much higher gas fee, which virtually guarantees that they will be the first to claim it. The term "dark forest" is inspired from a sci-fi novel and indicates a place where....