Lost names

The Mystery of "Blank Spaces"

Within the preimages file, you'll find entries where the name field is empty or blank, but a valid _hash (keccak256) and row_number exist. These are often referred to as "Blank Spaces" or "Lost Names".

Recovery Efforts ("Blank Busting"):

Recovering the original name for a Blank Space involves trying to find the input string that produces the known hash. This is often called "Blank Busting" and uses methods like:

• Brute-forcing: Trying vast combinations of characters (computationally intensive).

• Dictionary Attacks: Hashing words from known dictionaries or wordlists.

• Database Lookups: Comparing hashes against known databases of common words, names, or previously hashed strings (like the preimages.sql file from the original ENS DApp).

• Contextual Clues: Analyzing surrounding transactions or related on-chain activity.

Community efforts, like those within the Prepunk Club, have successfully recovered a significant number of these lost names, particularly within the Top 1k and Top 10k ranks.

Verification:

• When using verification tools or Dune queries, look for those specifically designed to handle Blank Spaces. They will often cross-reference the hash against lists of recovered names.

• Makoto Inoue's original Dune query will typically show these entries with an empty name field.

• Tools like verify.prepunk.club incorporate data on recovered names.

Blank Spaces add a layer of intrigue and rarity to the Prepunk collection, highlighting the technical evolution and challenges of the early Ethereum ecosystem.