Brain Wallet Scanner Project

Building

A simple Makefile and bash script are included for running the program under a

• nix system.

How it Works

The program uses Java's built in sha256 function to convert parsed phrases from a specified text file to a private bitcoin wallet. Using the bitcoinj libraries, the public addresses from each private address are found. Then a search on blockexplorer.com's public api is performed to get the total amount received in that wallet's history.
These queried results are then printed for the user to see on stdout, showing the phrase, private address, public address, and total amount received.

Findings

Through running the program over various text files from Gutenberg, the results were mostly the same. It appears that very common words often have a transaction history of a very very small amount of bitcoins.
Viewing one of these addresses on the blockchain reveals that they transfered this amount quickly to another account. If you experiment with the blockchain, you can even find that these accounts have had numerous sends to the same account, which then sends the same fractional amount across various other bitcoin addresses.
My conclusion is that this is the result of some various bitcoin tumblers which you can often find info about online. These tumblers work similarly to money laundering services with physical currency. I believe that what I've found is the result of one or more of these tumblers running a similar program which gathers wallets from common words and then conducts small transactions to hide the original source of these bitcoins. This is all in an attempt to further anonymize where one acquired bitcoins from.