vgen

Bitcoin vanity address generator with regex pattern matching and GPU acceleration.

Warning

This project is experimental. Do not use generated keys for storing real funds without thorough verification. Always prefer hardware wallets or well-established software for production use.

Features

• Generate cryptocurrency addresses matching custom regex patterns
• Multiple address formats: P2PKH (1...), P2WPKH (bc1q...), P2TR (bc1p...), P2SH-P2WPKH (3...), Ethereum (0x...)
• GPU acceleration via wgpu (Vulkan/Metal/DX12/OpenGL backends)
• Parallel CPU scanning with rayon
• Interactive TUI with real-time statistics
• Range scanning for Bitcoin Puzzle challenges
• Data providers for puzzle/bounty integration (boha)
• Output: text, JSON, JSON Lines, CSV, minimal

Installation

From crates.io

cargo install vgen

Arch Linux (AUR)

paru -S vgen

From source

cargo install --path .

Usage

Generate vanity address

# Find address starting with "1Cat"
vgen generate -p "^1Cat"

# Case insensitive matching
vgen generate -p "^1cat" -i

# Bech32 address ending with "dead"
vgen generate -p "dead$" -f p2wpkh

# Taproot address
vgen generate -p "^bc1p.*cat" -f p2tr

# P2SH-P2WPKH (nested SegWit)
vgen generate -p "^3Cat" -f p2sh-p2wpkh

# Ethereum address
vgen generate -p "^0xdead" -f ethereum

# CPU only (GPU is enabled by default)
vgen generate -p "^1Cat" --no-gpu

# Pick a specific GPU backend
vgen generate -p "^1Cat" --backend vulkan

# Find multiple matches
vgen generate -p "^1Cat" -c 5

# Quiet mode
vgen generate -p "^1Cat" -q

Estimate difficulty

vgen estimate -p "^1CatDog"

Scan key range (Bitcoin Puzzles)

# Scan puzzle #66 range
vgen range --puzzle 66 -p "."

# Custom range
vgen range -r "20000000000000000:3FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF"

Data providers

Use external data sources for pattern generation:

# Vanity with puzzle address prefix (6 characters)
vgen generate -p "boha:b1000:66" -l 6
# → Resolves to pattern: ^13zb1h

# Puzzle solving (exact address match + auto key range)
vgen range -p "boha:b1000:66"
# → Range: 2^65..2^66-1
# → Pattern: ^13zb1hQbWVsc2S7ZTZnP2G4undNNpdh5so$

# With prefix matching in range mode
vgen range -p "boha:b1000:66" -l 8

Supported providers:

• boha:collection:id - boha puzzle library (b1000, gsmg, bitaps, etc.)

Verify private key

# From WIF
vgen verify -k "5HueCGU8rMjxEXxiPuD5BDku4MkFqeZyd4dZ1jvhTVqvbTLvyTJ"

# From hex
vgen verify -k "0c28fca386c7a227600b2fe50b7cae11ec86d3bf1fbe471be89827e19d72aa1d"

# Verify against expected address
vgen verify -k "5HueCGU8rMjxEXxiPuD5BDku4MkFqeZyd4dZ1jvhTVqvbTLvyTJ" -a "1GAehh7TsJAHuUAeKZcXf5CnwuGuGgyX2S"

List GPUs

vgen list-gpus

Output formats

# Default text output
vgen generate -p "^1Cat" -o text

# JSON output (pretty-printed)
vgen generate -p "^1Cat" -o json

# JSON Lines (one JSON object per line, for data pipelines)
vgen generate -p "^1Cat" -o jsonl

# CSV (with header, for data catalogs/Iceberg)
vgen generate -p "^1Cat" -o csv

# Minimal (just WIF)
vgen generate -p "^1Cat" -o minimal

# Write to file
vgen generate -p "^1Cat" -o jsonl --file results.jsonl
vgen generate -p "^1Cat" -o csv --file results.csv

TUI

The interactive TUI is enabled by default in terminal sessions. Disable with --no-tui.

Features:

• Real-time hashrate display
• Performance sparkline chart
• Luck indicator
• Found matches list

Performance

GPU acceleration is enabled by default and falls back to CPU if no compatible GPU is found. Use --backend to force a specific backend (vulkan, metal, dx12, gl) or --no-gpu for CPU only.

• CPU: ~50,000-200,000 keys/sec (depends on CPU)
• GPU: ~500,000-2,000,000 keys/sec (depends on GPU)

Pattern syntax

Patterns use Rust regex syntax:

Pattern	Description
^1Cat	Starts with "1Cat"
dead$	Ends with "dead"
^1[Cc]at	Starts with "1Cat" or "1cat"
^1.*dead$	Starts with "1", ends with "dead"

Comparison

Project	Language	GPU	Patterns	Notes
vgen	Rust	wgpu (Vulkan/Metal/DX12)	regex	TUI, range scanning, memory safe
VanitySearch	C++	CUDA	prefix	Fastest (~7 Gkeys/s), NVIDIA only
vanitygen-plusplus	C++	OpenCL	prefix/regex	100+ cryptocurrencies
btc-vanity	Rust	-	prefix/regex	BTC/ETH/SOL, CPU only
nakatoshi	Rust	-	prefix	Simple, prefix only
supervanitygen	C	-	prefix	ASM optimizations (AVX2/SHA-NI)
vanitygen	C	-	prefix/regex	Classic, unmaintained

Why vgen?

• Cross-platform GPU via wgpu (not locked to NVIDIA CUDA)
• Memory safe Rust implementation
• Full regex pattern support
• Interactive TUI with real-time statistics
• Bitcoin Puzzle range scanning built-in

Agent Skills

This project includes agent skills that teach AI coding agents how to use vgen.

Static skills

Curated by the project author:

npx skills add oritwoen/vgen

Skill	Description
vgen	CLI and library API for Bitcoin vanity address generation with GPU acceleration

Dynamic skills

Auto-generated from live docs, issues, and releases using skilld:

npx skilld add oritwoen/vgen

Roadmap

• More cryptocurrencies (Litecoin, Dogecoin, Solana, etc.)
• GPU performance improvements (CUDA backend, shader optimizations)
• More data providers (mempool, blockchair, etc.)

Security

Generated private keys are cryptographically secure random numbers. Always verify the generated key produces the expected address before use.

License

MIT