<p>No they do not.</p>

<p>A vanity adress is only trying to pattern match a specific part of an address. The complexity remains the same. </p>

<p>To generate the vanity address it usually takes millions of attempts per second to find a public key which matches your pattern. This is done by cycling through private keys and and checking the corresponding public key.</p>

<p>If an attacked was to do the same thing then they would still need to cycle through every combination of your pattern aswell, which is just as extensive.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-12-10T15:04:11.460Z
2012-12-10T15:53:58.510Z
2012-12-10T15:53:58.510Z
MaxSan
<p>They do if you reuse the address multiple times. When you spend coins sent to an address your public key is exposed to the network. This reduces security slightly.</p>

<p>Address reuse also leads to a loss of privacy. Remember all transactions are public information. By reusing the same address over and over again you are letting the world know how many coins you are receiving and sending!</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-10T14:31:53.113Z
2013-12-10T14:31:53.113Z
Abdussamad
<p>Do vanity addresses somehow decrease the security of my private key?</p>

<security><vanity-address><cryptography><base58><vanitygen>
Do vanity addresses lower the security of my key? (reduced complexity)
makerofthings7
# Do vanity addresses lower the security of my key? (reduced complexity)

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-12-10)

Do vanity addresses somehow decrease the security of my private key?

**Tags:** security, vanity-address, cryptography, base58, vanitygen


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2012-12-10. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

No they do not.

A vanity adress is only trying to pattern match a specific part of an address. The complexity remains the same.

To generate the vanity address it usually takes millions of attempts per second to find a public key which matches your pattern. This is done by cycling through private keys and and checking the corresponding public key.

If an attacked was to do the same thing then they would still need to cycle through every combination of your pattern aswell, which is just as extensive.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2013-12-10. Score: 0

They do if you reuse the address multiple times. When you spend coins sent to an address your public key is exposed to the network. This reduces security slightly.

Address reuse also leads to a loss of privacy. Remember all transactions are public information. By reusing the same address over and over again you are letting the world know how many coins you are receiving and sending!


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