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by OmarAssadi 943 days ago
> I think since I use a password manager anyway, I could just generate a random 6-8 character prefix when signing up for a new account, and since it's saved in my password manager it's easy to look up again later (no need for a true hash).

Yeah, same. I store all the addresses in KeePass.

The main reason I don't just totally randomize them is just that there have been a few moments where I do have my salt somehow, but for whatever reason, it is either inconvenient or impossible to immediately open up the password manager and add a new entry.

In those moments, being able to deterministically generate the address and then add it at my leisure without having to double-check what I used is nice.

It also likely wouldn't happen to me, but should I ever somehow lose/lose access to both my old emails and my password manager, as long as I have my salt, I can still "remember" my email addresses for important services (e.g., PayPal or whatever) to re-generate the addresses and reset my passwords.

Whatever route you go, be it randomized addresses or hashed addresses, even though I think I am more vigilant and careful than most, it's still nice having an extra-layer to the catch-all that can't easily be targeted by someone malicious without first either somehow obtaining your salt, compromising the service, etc; it's handy being able to immediately filter and flag anything relating to my bank or whatever else if it isn't sent to the right address.