Bitcoin Forum

Let's say, I would have access to all the hasing power of antpool (about 120 PH/s) how long would it take to find the private key associated with 1FfmbHfnpaZjKFvyi1okTjJJusN455paPH?

forever

From thirty seconds if you get lucky to beyond the end of the universe. Maybe somewhere in between too but leaning towards the latter. If it was possible then this forum wouldn't exist any more or anything else crypto related.

it can take an hour to probably 500,000 or even more years, if ever. it's simply impossible for any one to say how long it will take.

no it does not work in that way, it work with probability, the probability here is so low is not even funny

there are 2^256 private keys, you know how big is this number? that hash will not do it in time before the universe end

Assuming they use ASICs (everything else would be insane) it would take you


because bitcoin mining ASICs only do double sha256 which is not what you need to brute force an address. Thus you have 0 tries per year.

read again. i said it can take a day or 500,000 years or longer. that also has to do with the probability of being able to access the wallet within a basically infinite amount of time.

Well if we exclude your "lucky" from the equation, then we can talk about something near.... infinite?

btw do you have some special interest on that address? :P

what you failed to understand is that the probability is toward the 500k years(actually many more years) and not on par between those value(day vs 500k)

because saying it can take a day or 500k years it like saying that there are 50% chance of hit the the private key in one day or in 500k years

2000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 000000000000000000000000000000000000. combinations
vs
120000000000000000000 hashs a second

= 1.6667E+252      /60seconds /60 minutes / 24 hours / 365 days

= (upto)
5284965330627430000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000 years..

so you might aswell use that 120000000000000000000 hashs a second and just create a block every 10 minutes and be happy to get 25btc per block..
because im pretty sure the funds available in that address wont be enough of a reward to try brutforcing for millenia of millenias..

This should put things in perspective for you...

https://i.imgur.com/VjtG3.jpg

I guess I would have to give the most precise answer to shorena.  But I agree with most of you, just way too long.   Thanks to all - good day

so the answer is just that it will take an extremely long time with the technology we have right now. i heard about the talk of quantum computers with extreme processing powers would that be a viable option to crack private keys?

It is a relief to read it is so hard to crack a private key. To be honest, I had no idea about that. But we do not know at which time a revolution in computing power might be made. Am I Right?

well lets say they made a single computer 1000 times faster than 120peta hash combined asics
thats still
5284965330627430000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000 years

now imagine they made 1 billion of these computers super computers
thats still
5284965330627430000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 years

Why are you all so stuck on bruteforcing key's like it's the only possible way of getting results?

For example: person A is only bruteforcing WPA key and won't find it for years, even with the best gear.
                   person B finds volnerability (pixiedust in this example) and cracks it in 5 seconds.

Bruteforcing is the most retarded way of cracking anything, where exploits on the other hand do the job in seconds. Ofcourse, there's no known volnerability here yet, but that doesn't mean it's impossible.

where are you from? you fail to get the clue of my post once again. don't bite yourself stuck on my time indication. it was just an example.

yes vulnerabilities are another method..
but the OPs question was how long to find a specific privkey of a bitcoin public key by using miners...
meaning how long would it take to get by bruteforcing.

possible vulnerabilities is a totally separate matter and not what the OP asked.

You hit it spot on.

Bitcoin mining ASICS can only do sha256d, which cannot bruteforce an address. Finding the private keys requires doing stuff with ECC in order to generate the private key, which does not use sha256d. In addition, finding the actual Bitcoin address uses sha256 (single, not double) and ripemd160 algorithms to create the address. It simply is not possible due to the hardware constraints.

Good video, Private Keys "or why you can't hack Bitcoin..."

https://youtu.be/ZloHVKk7DHk?t=5m43s

It will take to the end of the universe to find the key. 120 PH is too small. You all the electricity on earth to drive all the hashing ower and take billions of years to find one key.

That is one of the old addresses where they had the DPR seized coins, but it's empty now... well close to it. { 0.0354886 } At one stage it was one of the richest addresses around,

with 144,341.57153795 BTC  ::) .... In any way, if you managed to Bruteforce that private key and you were successful to move those coins, you would have been the target of

all the SPECIAL 3-letter agencies in America.  ;D  .... rather target Satoshi's coins... the bounty would be bigger.  ;)

It is all about luck pretty much. You could find it in like 1 hour or it may take you an infinite amount of time to find it.

again no, this isn't 50/50 ratio, this is where luck is so unlikely that there is almost no luck involved, the result is clear

which is a big waste of time, it's not a dice game or betting site where you hope to win after two rounds..

into this case hacking its a brutal looney thing that can not be done

correct
blue tiger said could be an hour or infinity..

well infinity is
5284965330627430000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000 years

so 50% 'luck' will still take
2642482665313715000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000 years

so 10% 'luck' will still take
5284965330627430000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000 years

so 1% 'luck' will still take
5284965330627430000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 000000 years

so 0.00001% 'luck' (10million to 1 odds) will still take
5284965330627430000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0 years

seriously!! the number is so huge. even the chances of you hitting a random address with coins in is many millenia.. let alone that random address being the specific one that you were hoping for

I agree. Although I do think that in a dice game the chance of winning a bet is always 50/50, I mean even with 0.01% chance in reality you whether win or not. ... But here we have a bit different situation because the chance of winning is much less than a trillionth of a  trillionth of a percent.

With all these explanations above, who the heck would be trying to brute force the private key! I mean if you need such a luck, you are better off just playing a lottery. You will probably win it faster and you are going to get more money most probably!

This is why they are trying to regulate and license encryption so that it outlaws it for regular people. They can't break strong encryption. Not even governments with unlimited financial, technological, and academic resources.