What causes "Random error: site exist!" in HelloZeroNet/ZeroNet?

Simply retry — the index is random each call, so a second attempt will almost certainly succeed

Random error: site exist!

Error message

Random error: site exist!

What it means

getNewSiteData derives a new site private key from the master seed at a random bip32_index, converts it to an address, and asserts that address is unused. If the derived address already exists in self.sites (an astronomically unlikely collision, or a non-random index being reused), it raises 'Random error: site exist!' to prevent overwriting existing site data.

Source

Thrown at src/User/User.py:101

            del(self.sites[address])
            self.saveDelayed()
            self.log.debug("Deleted site: %s" % address)

    def setSiteSettings(self, address, settings):
        site_data = self.getSiteData(address)
        site_data["settings"] = settings
        self.saveDelayed()
        return site_data

    # Get data for a new, unique site
    # Return: [site_address, bip32_index, {"auth_address": "xxx", "auth_privatekey": "xxx", "privatekey": "xxx"}]
    def getNewSiteData(self):
        import random
        bip32_index = random.randrange(2 ** 256) % 100000000
        site_privatekey = CryptBitcoin.hdPrivatekey(self.master_seed, bip32_index)
        site_address = CryptBitcoin.privatekeyToAddress(site_privatekey)
        if site_address in self.sites:
            raise Exception("Random error: site exist!")
        # Save to sites
        self.getSiteData(site_address)
        self.sites[site_address]["privatekey"] = site_privatekey
        self.save()
        return site_address, bip32_index, self.sites[site_address]

    # Get BIP32 address from site address
    # Return: BIP32 auth address
    def getAuthAddress(self, address, create=True):
        cert = self.getCert(address)
        if cert:
            return cert["auth_address"]
        else:
            return self.getSiteData(address, create)["auth_address"]

    def getAuthPrivatekey(self, address, create=True):
        cert = self.getCert(address)
        if cert:

View on GitHub (pinned to 454c0b2e7e)

Solutions

Simply retry — the index is random each call, so a second attempt will almost certainly succeed
Check users/sites.json for duplicate or stale entries of the conflicting address and remove/merge them
Patch the code to loop with a new random bip32_index instead of raising (wrap the collision check in a while loop)
Verify the master_seed is correct; a truncated/duplicated seed can reproduce identical addresses

Example fix

// before
if site_address in self.sites:
    raise Exception("Random error: site exist!")
// after
while True:
    bip32_index = random.randrange(2 ** 256) % 100000000
    site_privatekey = CryptBitcoin.hdPrivatekey(self.master_seed, bip32_index)
    site_address = CryptBitcoin.privatekeyToAddress(site_privatekey)
    if site_address not in self.sites:
        break

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

if site_address in user.sites:
    # pick a different index before calling getNewSiteData
    bip32_index = (bip32_index + 1) % 100000000

Try / catch

for attempt in range(3):
    try:
        address, index, site_data = user.getNewSiteData()
        break
    except Exception as e:
        if 'Random error: site exist' in str(e):
            continue
        raise

Prevention

Retry on this error — collisions are astronomically unlikely
Keep users/sites.json intact and avoid duplicate site entries
Do not reuse or truncate master seeds
If creating many sites, monitor for repeated collisions as a sign of corrupted state

When it happens

Trigger: Calling getNewSiteData (used when creating a new site or cloning) when the randomly chosen bip32_index maps to an address already registered in the user's sites — effectively a 1-in-100-million collision per attempt, or deterministic seeds/indexes being reused.

Common situations: Corrupted or duplicated sites.json causing repeated creation attempts to collide; users with extremely large numbers of sites; code paths that reuse the same master_seed and a previously used index.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of HelloZeroNet/ZeroNet@454c0b2e7e (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1a4fba31f5ce95fc. Report an issue: GitHub.