Reserved Bitcoin address for examples?

Is there a reserved Bitcoin address?

It should not be able to send bitcoins to it. But the address should be syntactically valid.

Such an address could be used for examples/documentation, without advantaging the author. Similar to example.com.

Wikipedia and bitcoin.it use bitcoin:175tWpb8K1S7NmH4Zx6rewF9WQrcZv245W. Is this a reserved address or is it owned by someone? (resp.: could you send bitcoins to this address?)

If there is no reserved address, which should we use? Simply take a valid address and replace the first digit with, say, a "9"? (would this be future-proof?) Or use a testnet address?

address

unor

Posted 2013-05-13T11:21:47.027

Reputation: 316

1What's your use-case? If you are simply going to write a document and put there an address as example, why don't you use your address? You could collect donations, then. – o0'. – 2013-05-13T13:59:21.037

1@Lohoris: I don’t want to use my own (or someone else’s) address to stay neutral. Similar to using example.com as example domain in documentation instead of my own. The use-case could be: "Which Bitcoin address should be used in Wikipedia articles?" (the actual site in question is irrelevant) – unor – 2013-05-13T18:22:42.120

1I'm writing a "bitcoin for dummies" article, and I too would like a neutral example to use – Dan Gayle – 2014-01-09T19:59:32.243

Answers

The address is invalid because the checksum does not match the provided address. For more information see here: https://bitcoin.org/en/developer-reference#address-conversion

Spencer Powell

Posted 2013-05-13T11:21:47.027

Reputation: 41

If they just want an address with an invalid checksum, I wonder why they would choose something so complicated? Why not just 1aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa or something? – Nate Eldredge – 2015-04-02T22:39:55.847

The address provided is invalid;

Sorry this is is not a valid bitcoin address

(as per http://blockchain.info/address/175tWpb8K1S7NmH4Zx6rewF9WQrcZv245W)

Wouter

Posted 2013-05-13T11:21:47.027

Reputation: 21

1This is true, but you should explain why it's invalid. – Nick ODell – 2013-05-13T15:46:58.090

@NickODell why? As long as we know how to check if it is invalid, that's fine. Of course if he would explain why it would be better, but by no means required. – o0'. – 2013-05-14T07:37:30.067

There are no differences among Bitcoin addresses, so in principle you could use any address you want.

However, you should know that sending bitcoins to an address is irreversible, so it will cost you money.

A better solution would be to test everything using testnet. Bitcoin testnet is a completely separate block chain used for testing only. You can get testnet bitcoins for free and use the standard Bitcoin client when you start it with the -testnet flag.

Steven Roose

Posted 2013-05-13T11:21:47.027

Reputation: 10 855