Could a super hacker make a counterfeit Bitcoin?

[twolifeinexile]

As far as brute-forcing keys:



 - https://i.imgur.com/VjtG3.jpg

Interesting.... 
Any counter-argument, my fellow bitcointers?

[DannyHamilton]

To "forge" bitcoins would mean to get an unauthorized (by me) transaction from that address.

I'd call that "theft", not "counterfeit".

One thing to worry about is forging (replacing) public addresses with fake ones.

Another form of "theft", still not "counterfeit".

As far as brute-forcing keys:

 - https://i.imgur.com/VjtG3.jpg

Which again would not permit counterfeiting, only theft.

But there may be bugs in the dominate client sofeware, like last time's overflow error.

That's the best suggestion I've heard so far.

You're right, certainly there could.  And if one such bug were to appear and be leveraged, it would be repaired, just like it was last time. So I suppose if there is such a bug, and someone can figure out how to exploit it, the coins that would be temporarily created could be considered "counterfeit". Especially if the "counterfeiter" can get anyone to accept them.  Then after the repair, the coins would cease to exist, and the result would be "theft".

[BBQKorv]

This is very calming to read, future seems good for the BTC.

[DannyHamilton]

If you can protect your private keys, and only accept transactions after they are confirmed, and verify that they only trace back to valid coinbase transactions you are safe.

FTFY 

[kokjo]

to anyone asking how  i got my magic numbers: pulled it out of my ass, but EVERYTHING is hackable. and therefor ts a good estimate(not saying stuff gets cracked, but maybe a software flaw).

[josephtbn]

As stated above there would be no way to do this so question has already been answered I guess.

[WaveyDee]

Thanks guys

This was all very insightful!

 

~Wavey

[Dabs]

I think no one can crack or hack Bitcoin. But what hackers will do is social engineer your wallet or private key, or the passwords that protect them. People are stupid. No, not all 7 billion of us. But there's a sucker born every minute.

Someone will shoulder surf, bug your house, use rubber-hose cryptography (threaten you with force), kidnap your family, ... before any super hacker can derive a single private key from a public key, or before any super hacker group can do a successful 51% attack and fork the blockchain forcefully.