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I don't know if I'm going a little bit mad here, or if this is actually an Ethereum address collision. I have installed Parity onto a brand new computer that I had custom built. The machine had not been turned on before today.

During Parity set up I created an account like normal. But the first thing that I noticed was that the balance of the account was none zero.

https://etherscan.io/address/0x00a329c0648769a73afac7f9381e08fb43dbea72

I'm gathering more info. But this is weird.

Ok update, I definitely have control over this account. I've made this transaction: https://etherscan.io/tx/0x33a1b81eae1c1d5f542c69960e3ace67177d61dd633639d41972ec603c73a96b . In it you can see that I sent 0.0016347 Ether which is the same number as appears in this URL Did I generate an existing Ethereum address in Parity?, the URL for this question.

I don't know how to prove that I have never controlled this account before, but I have never controlled this account before. This is definitely an address collision.

I'm not sure what this means, did I hit a one in a bazillion chance just randomly? I'd really like for some feedback about what I can do to prove my case. What are the implications for the Ethereum network?

Update

Ok I've had a look over what happened. I think this issue maybe related to an empty seed phrase account.

When I got to the create account stage, the computer froze for over 30 minutes, I restarted the parity client. Once the application loaded up again I was prompted to create a new account, I did and this time was able to create a new account, but no option for a seed phrase.

The next thing I noticed was that Parity gave me notifications of Ether deposits, I thought, "hmm! Parity must be giving you some faucet money now", but then I saw that the account had lots of transaction history.

This looks a lot like user error / Parity bug.

From the look of it, it seems like others are able to access this account from the more recent transaction history.

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  • Yes, that's a known usability annoyance which was addressed with the release of 1.6.7 last week.
    – q9f
    May 22, 2017 at 12:00
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    I appreciate your response, though I think it is a little more than an annoyance, given significant amounts of Ether have been lost to this account. Does the recent fix address circumstances like mine where set up was interrupted by computer / application failure?
    – Samuel Hawksby-Robinson
    May 22, 2017 at 12:16
  • It's not possible to create an existing account unless you use the recovery feature, and you already said you did. Also, as I said before, this issue is already addressed with the latest release, it's not possible to generate this account anymore on foundation network.
    – q9f
    May 22, 2017 at 12:27
  • Ah, I think we are confusing "account" to mean different things. When I say "account" I'm referring to an Ethereum address not a "Parity Account".
    – Samuel Hawksby-Robinson
    May 22, 2017 at 12:32
  • I've just had the same issue Created this as a new account using parity (yes have recovery phrase) Sent 5 ETH to it - all consumed by transaction fees!
    – john
    Aug 11, 2017 at 21:02

2 Answers 2

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That account corresponds to using the empty string "" as a restore phrase. Are you sure you clicked on "create account" and not "recovery phrase" as described here: https://blog.parity.io/restoring-blank-seed-phrase/ ?

If you clicked the other button and then didn't specify a restore phrase, this is the account you will get every time (others have already accessed this account and sent the transactions you see). Unfortunately, before version 1.6.7 Parity didn't warn you that you were doing this. If you generate this address it is not a safe place to store funds! Anyone else can generate and access it easily.

On the other hand, if you did properly use the "new account" option this could be a bug. When you generated the account, did it give you a recovery phrase to write down? (And did you write it down?)

To elaborate for others: no, this is not a one in a bazillion chance collision. Ethereum is fine! What it is is either a misclick or an error in the Parity application.

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    The more discuss this and look into what I've done your answer seems to reasonably explain what happened.
    – Samuel Hawksby-Robinson
    May 19, 2017 at 19:08
  • Did you write down a recovery phrase? If there was not one given to you to write down it is much more likely you clicked the other button.
    – Jeff Coleman
    May 19, 2017 at 19:55
  • I've added some extra information. Basically Parity crashed during the set up no recovery phrase was given.
    – Samuel Hawksby-Robinson
    May 19, 2017 at 20:01
  • Ahh, sorry didn't see that.
    – Jeff Coleman
    May 19, 2017 at 20:06
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I generated this address as root on Ubuntu via Geth.

I have both the private key and Json file. Transactions being thrown due to missing function () payable {} modifier in the transaction solidarity and the depreciated throw do not send to 0x00 address constructor argument in most contract code.

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  • I just recently learned about the payable {} modifier, and have been trying to come up with a solution. My only idea is to deploy a contract. But with a 0 balance insufficient gas
    – RySpen
    Nov 16, 2017 at 18:12

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