How to resolve the algorithm Bitcoin/address validation step by step in the PureBasic programming language

Published on 12 May 2024 09:40 PM

How to resolve the algorithm Bitcoin/address validation step by step in the PureBasic programming language

Table of Contents

Problem Statement

Write a program that takes a bitcoin address as argument, and checks whether or not this address is valid. A bitcoin address uses a base58 encoding, which uses an alphabet of the characters 0 .. 9, A ..Z, a .. z, but without the four characters:

With this encoding, a bitcoin address encodes 25 bytes:

To check the bitcoin address, you must read the first twenty-one bytes, compute the checksum, and check that it corresponds to the last four bytes. The program can either return a boolean value or throw an exception when not valid. You can use a digest library for SHA-256.

It doesn't belong to anyone and is part of the test suite of the bitcoin software.
You can change a few characters in this string and check that it'll fail the test.

Let's start with the solution:

Step by Step solution about How to resolve the algorithm Bitcoin/address validation step by step in the PureBasic programming language

Source code in the purebasic programming language

; using PureBasic 5.50 (x64)
EnableExplicit

Macro IsValid(expression)
  If expression
    PrintN("Valid")
  Else
    PrintN("Invalid")
  EndIf
EndMacro

Procedure.i DecodeBase58(Address$, Array result.a(1)) 
  Protected i, j, p
  Protected charSet$ = "123456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz"
  Protected c$
  
  For i = 1 To Len(Address$)
    c$ = Mid(Address$, i, 1)
    p = FindString(charSet$, c$) - 1
    If p = -1 : ProcedureReturn #False : EndIf; Address contains invalid Base58 character
    For j = 24 To 1 Step -1
      p + 58 * result(j)
      result(j) = p % 256
      p  / 256
    Next j
    If p <> 0 : ProcedureReturn #False : EndIf ; Address is too long
  Next i
  ProcedureReturn #True
EndProcedure

Procedure HexToBytes(hex$, Array result.a(1))
  Protected i
  For i = 1 To Len(hex$) - 1 Step 2
    result(i/2) = Val("$" + Mid(hex$, i, 2))
  Next
EndProcedure

Procedure.i IsBitcoinAddressValid(Address$)
  Protected format$, digest$
  Protected i, isValid
  Protected Dim result.a(24)
  Protected Dim result2.a(31)
  Protected result$, result2$
   ; Address length must be between 26 and 35 - see 'https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Address'
  If Len(Address$) < 26 Or Len(Address$) > 35 : ProcedureReturn #False : EndIf
  ; and begin with either 1 or 3 which is the format number
  format$ = Left(Address$, 1)
  If format$ <> "1" And format$ <> "3" : ProcedureReturn #False : EndIf
  isValid = DecodeBase58(Address$, result())  
  If Not isValid : ProcedureReturn #False : EndIf
  UseSHA2Fingerprint(); Using functions from PB's built-in Cipher library
  digest$ = Fingerprint(@result(), 21, #PB_Cipher_SHA2, 256); apply SHA2-256 to first 21 bytes
  HexToBytes(digest$, result2()); change hex string to ascii array 
  digest$ = Fingerprint(@result2(), 32,  #PB_Cipher_SHA2, 256); apply SHA2-256 again to all 32 bytes
  HexToBytes(digest$, result2())
  result$ = PeekS(@result() + 21, 4, #PB_Ascii); last 4 bytes
  result2$ = PeekS(@result2(), 4, #PB_Ascii); first 4 bytes
  If result$ <> result2$ : ProcedureReturn #False : EndIf
  ProcedureReturn #True  
EndProcedure

If OpenConsole()
  Define address$ = "1AGNa15ZQXAZUgFiqJ2i7Z2DPU2J6hW62i"
  Define address2$ = "1BGNa15ZQXAZUgFiqJ2i7Z2DPU2J6hW62i"
  Define address3$ = "1AGNa15ZQXAZUgFiqJ2i7Z2DPU2J6hW62I"
  Print(address$ + " -> ") 
  IsValid(IsBitcoinAddressValid(address$))
  Print(address2$ + " -> ") 
  IsValid(IsBitcoinAddressValid(address2$))
  Print(address3$ + " -> ") 
  IsValid(IsBitcoinAddressValid(address3$))
  PrintN("")
  PrintN("Press any key to close the console")
  Repeat: Delay(10) : Until Inkey() <> ""
  CloseConsole()
EndIf

  

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