https://github.com/theden/btc-heist
Generate bitcoin public and private keys and check if they match a filelist of existing addresses that have a nonzero balance
https://github.com/theden/btc-heist
bitcoin bitcoin-addresses bitcoin-hacks bitcoin-wallet cryptocurrency
Last synced: about 2 months ago
JSON representation
Generate bitcoin public and private keys and check if they match a filelist of existing addresses that have a nonzero balance
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/theden/btc-heist
- Owner: TheDen
- License: mit
- Created: 2021-12-20T12:48:19.000Z (over 4 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2026-04-17T07:07:20.000Z (about 2 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2026-04-17T08:33:03.279Z (about 2 months ago)
- Topics: bitcoin, bitcoin-addresses, bitcoin-hacks, bitcoin-wallet, cryptocurrency
- Language: Go
- Homepage:
- Size: 941 KB
- Stars: 143
- Watchers: 11
- Forks: 37
- Open Issues: 11
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# btc-heist
[](/LICENSE)
Brute-forces Bitcoin wallets by generating both random BIP39 mnemonics (BIP44 HD wallets) and raw private keys (including pre-HD uncompressed keys), checking all derived addresses against a known set of funded addresses.
## Setup
### Prerequisites
- Go 1.21+
- `curl` and `gunzip` (standard on macOS/Linux)
### Download the address list
The address list is sourced from [loyce.club](http://addresses.loyce.club/) — a regularly updated dataset of all known funded Bitcoin addresses (~50 million entries).
```bash
make fetch
```
This downloads `Bitcoin_addresses_LATEST.txt.gz` from `http://addresses.loyce.club/Bitcoin_addresses_LATEST.txt.gz`, decompresses it, and saves it as `Bitcoin_addresses_LATEST.txt` in the project root. The file is large (~1 GB uncompressed); loading it into the Bloom filter and map at startup takes a few seconds.
### Download a prebuilt binary
Grab the latest release for your platform from
[GitHub Releases](https://github.com/TheDen/btc-heist/releases/latest).
### Or Build
```bash
make build
```
The binary is written to `bin/btc-heist`.
## Running
```bash
./bin/btc-heist
```
By default it uses all available CPU cores and checks 50 derived addresses per mnemonic. Progress is printed every 5 seconds:
```
[5s] 42301 keys/s total: 211505 matched: 0
```
## Options
```
-c int number of CPU cores to use (default: all cores)
-f string file containing BTC addresses (default: Bitcoin_addresses_LATEST.txt)
-n uint addresses to check per mnemonic (default: 50)
-o string output file for found keys (default: found_keys.txt)
```
## Output
Matches are appended to `found_keys.txt`. BIP39 wallet matches are written as:
```
mnemonic= address=
```
Raw private key matches are written as:
```
wif= address=
```