Nostr Vanity Key Generator

Mine Nostr public keys (npubs) with custom vanity prefixes.

Setup

npm install

Usage

Pass your desired prefixes as arguments:

node vanity-generator.js g0lf eagle putt green wedge

Comma-separated works too:

node vanity-generator.js g0lf,eagle,putt,green

Invalid bech32 characters are automatically detected and skipped.

Valid bech32 characters

q p z r y 9 x 8 g f 2 t v d w 0 s 3 j n 5 4 k h c e 6 m u a 7 l

Characters not available: b i o 1

Mining times (approximate)

• 4 characters: minutes
• 5 characters: hours
• 6 characters: days
• 7+ characters: weeks

Controls

• Ctrl+C to stop and save progress
• Resumes from where it left off on next run (loads saved keys)

Keep it running on macOS

caffeinate -i node vanity-generator.js g0lf eagle putt

Encryption

Keys are saved to pow-keys.enc using AES-256-CBC encryption. You should set a password via the ENCRYPTION_KEY environment variable.

Generate a secure password

openssl rand -base64 32

Save the output somewhere safe (password manager, etc). You'll need it to decrypt your keys later.

Mine with encryption (without exposing the password in shell history)

read -s ENCRYPTION_KEY && export ENCRYPTION_KEY

This prompts you to type/paste your password without echoing it to the terminal or saving it in shell history. Then run:

node vanity-generator.js g0lf eagle putt

Read your keys

With the same ENCRYPTION_KEY still exported:

node read-keys.js

Clean up when done

Unset the password from your shell session:

unset ENCRYPTION_KEY

Full workflow

# 1. Generate a password (save this somewhere safe!)
openssl rand -base64 32

# 2. Set password without exposing it
read -s ENCRYPTION_KEY && export ENCRYPTION_KEY
# (paste your password, press enter)

# 3. Mine
node vanity-generator.js g0lf eagle putt green

# 4. Read results
node read-keys.js

# 5. Clean up
unset ENCRYPTION_KEY

Reading keys

node read-keys.js

Displays all found keys with their npub and nsec (private key). Make sure ENCRYPTION_KEY is set to the same password used during mining.

Security notes

• Never share your private keys (nsec)
• Keep secure backups of both your keys file and encryption password
• Use read -s to avoid passwords appearing in shell history
• Don't run this script where others can see the terminal output of read-keys.js