Bitcoin Private Key Scanner

#bitcoin #python #blockchain #webdev

🧠 How I Built a Bitcoin Private Key Scanner with Python

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you could scan the Bitcoin private key space?

Well, I built a tool that does exactly that — for educational and research purposes only.

🔍 What It Does

Generates random private keys within custom bit ranges (e.g. 64 to 131 bits)
Converts them to multiple address formats:
- Legacy (BIP44)
- P2SH-SegWit (BIP49)
- Native SegWit (BIP84)
Checks each generated address against a local SQLite database of known Bitcoin addresses (~50 million entries)
If a match is found, it exports the result in both WIF and Electrum import formats

🛠 Tech Stack

Python
ecdsa, base58, bech32, psutil
Electrum-compatible WIF output
Multi-process support using multiprocessing

🎯 Why I Built It

This tool is meant to demonstrate how private keys relate to address generation, and how wallets like Electrum interpret WIF keys.

It's a great way to visualize the relationship between:

Private keys
Public keys
Address formats
Real-world blockchain history

Some addresses I scanned even showed over 1,500 transactions in Electrum!

📦 GitHub

🔗 View the project on GitHub

⚠️ Disclaimer

This project is strictly for educational purposes.

Do not use it to target wallets or addresses that do not belong to you.

The tool is meant to explore known Bitcoin puzzles and understand blockchain mechanics.