Checking the first few bytes of a Bitcoin Address should not be considered
sufficient for ensuring that it is correct as it takes less than a second
to generate a 3 character vanity address that matches the first 3
characters of an address.

On Mon, 30 Oct 2017, 11:44 shiva sitamraju via bitcoin-dev, <
bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> When I copy and paste bitcoin address, I double check the first few bytes,
> to make sure I copied the correct one. This is to make sure some rogue
> software is not changing the address, or I incorrectly pasted the wrong
> address.
>
>
> With Bech32 address, its seems like in this department we are taking as
> step in the backward direction. With the traditional address, I could
> compare first few bytes like 1Ko or 1L3. With bech32, bc1. is all I can see
> and compare which is likely to be same anyway. Note that most users will
> only compare the first few bytes only (since addresses themselves are very
> long and will overflow in a mobile text box).
>
> Is there anyway to make the Bech32 addresses format more visually distinct
> (atleast the first few bytes) ?
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