Can Bitcoin be hacked and what will be the result if it happens?

[PolarPoint]

I think bitcoin can be hacked in the future when computing power escalates. When the devs see SHA256 is starting to be weak, they will change to SHA512 and so on. The bitcoin protocol is not fixed, it can be changed when the community agree on it.

[fonenumba]

Can someone find a way to hack Bitcoins or find a way to hack and get the private keys. If it might happen what will happen to Bitcoin? , Is it the worst nightmare a Bitcoin holder can have to wake up one day to see that someone hacked and found a way to extract all the private keys? All opinions and constructive answers are welcome  

Sure anything is possible. Someone could, in theory figure out a way to reverse calculate the epileptic curve, however I doubt that this is actually possible.

If someone wanted to steal bitcoin from people, a more efficient way would probably be to do so via either social engineering, malware or some other weakness in someone's security.

[LandofBitcoins]

Bitcoin has grown past the point of being hacked by any person or group of people...

This video will explain it all>>>> http://landofbitcoin.science/understand-bitcoin-better/   

[lucasjkr]

On a protocol level, private keys appear safe from people attacking or analyzing the block chain; of the private key fur any address can be extracted, that will be it for Bitcoin. But if that happens, lots of other things far more valuable will fall apart as well.

But ln the individual level, the threat of Any one persons key getting stolen can be substantial if they aren't taking adequate steps to protect themselves.

[gadman2]

Can bitcoin be hacked: Yes
The Result: At least 1 fork and a whole lot of fixes/improvements.

Answer solved. No need for thread to continue.

[kelsey]

I think there needs to be tighter constraints over how the bitcoin core is updated. At the moment, the power is concentrated in a tiny group of developers that can pretty much take liberties as they choose. Most likely, the solution will be to spread the world's wealth across multiple blockchains.

wow I actually agree with microguy on something, especially when Andresen openly admits he only has to convince 5 people in order to change anything on bitcoin.

oddly enough at the same time many of the powers to be within bitcoin what sidechains to replace and eliminate alternatives..............................................................dange rous path.

[Kprawn]

Watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZloHVKk7DHk and tell me if you still think it's possible to brute force a private key?

If that happens, everything will collapse around Bitcoin until SHA512 is implemented and they will have to start over again.

This is not a real issue in my opinion... be more worried about 3rd party software being hacked that is built on top of the protocol.

[abyrnes81]

Private key could be hacked if you have billion of quantum supercomputer & some patience
But, bitcoin network could be hacked if someone could hack every nodes & miners in bitcoin network (if anyone can do it )

No, it is impossible to find (bruteforce) a number = 10^48 .... Have you seen how it is big that number or not? You need 100 years of time and maybe you can find only one bitcoin private key (converted in binary code). It is not so simple as you think, come one mate... this is math!

[Snail2]

There are no 100% secure system. However hacking bitcoin needs munch more effort then the value you can get in return.

[Agestorzrxx]

Lots of service depends on SHA256 algorithm, if it was hacked, the effect is not only for bitcoin.

[Q7]

There is no way for you to find out the private key just by knowing the public key but you can certainly brute force. However the probability using this method to find a private key that actually holds bitcoin is low. To hack the network you will need considerable hash rate to do so, thus overall in general very much unlikely.

[Lauda]

The Private keys can be brute forced. But I don't think you're going to find the correct combination if you do so very easily or soon. It will take some of the world's super computers years to do that, millions.
However, if you're keeping your bitcoin on a Online wallet just consider your bitcoins lost/hacked already

This is a serious understatement. Are you trying to do this on purpose or is it the lack knowledge?

Can bitcoin be hacked: Yes
The Result: At least 1 fork and a whole lot of fixes/improvements.

Exactly. Everything can be hacked. If we stood united during/after the hack we would easily recover. The development would definitely speed up.

[redsn0w]

Lots of service depends on SHA256 algorithm, if it was hacked, the effect is not only for bitcoin.

Yes of course, if someone will break the sha256 algorithm I am sure the first target will be the bank system and not the bitcoin. Most people will think that the actual banks are safe but they are wrong.

[Morenod]

The bitcoin code is hacked every day and the result is some new shitcoin. Yes, it can be hacked and is hacked all the time but there is no successful exploit.

[DarkHyudrA]

Ok thanks for letting me know, I am relatively new to Bitcoins and I am very much interested in the inner workings of the Bitcoins, so it is a group effort to over write the original source code from Satoshi, does someone verifies the integrity of new codes added or someone can manipulate as it was done earlier by creating false Bitcoins? Thanks and I'm just curious about all this as i think it will be the future of money  

I think there needs to be tighter constraints over how the bitcoin core is updated. At the moment, the power is concentrated in a tiny group of developers that can pretty much take liberties as they choose. Most likely, the solution will be to spread the world's wealth across multiple blockchains.

If the actual developers take the wrong path that nobody accepts, we can fork Bitcoin.
Remember that its the people that chooses or not to upgrade their clients and daemons to the new release.

[SebastianJu]

You shouldnt care so much about bitcoin hacked but about your smartphone or notebook hacked. It contains your wallet most probably and if a hacker could get into your computer then he might be able to steal from you. Thats why solutions like armory exist where you can hold your wallet away from internet.

If you have your coins in an online wallet website then you have risks of they stealing it or hackers stealing from the website.

While im at it... make backups of your wallet. You dont want to wake up, finding that your harddisc is broken and that you lost your coins on the way.

[bensam12345]

Lots of service depends on SHA256 algorithm, if it was hacked, the effect is not only for bitcoin.

Yes of course, if someone will break the sha256 algorithm I am sure the first target will be the bank system and not the bitcoin. Most people will think that the actual banks are safe but they are wrong.

So it is safe with sha256 algorithm, good, but I'm sure many people are working towards trying to hack it, many things what people thought impossible when later people achieved by finding simple solutions, I think it is just a matter of when and I think it will rarely ever happen during our life times 

[lucasjkr]

Private key could be hacked if you have billion of quantum supercomputer & some patience
But, bitcoin network could be hacked if someone could hack every nodes & miners in bitcoin network (if anyone can do it )

No, it is impossible to find (bruteforce) a number = 10^48 .... Have you seen how it is big that number or not? You need 100 years of time and maybe you can find only one bitcoin private key (converted in binary code). It is not so simple as you think, come one mate... this is math!

For attacking any given key, you needs far far far more time than 100 years. If it was just 100 years, with moores law doubling power every 2, Youd probably only be looking at 10 or 12 years tops (I know the math isn't difficult, I'm just on my phone not bothering to look it up).

I've been curious about the effort to attack a private key that was generated in a controlled environment that you can recreate; say if a key was generated in a VM, if one recreated that VM in its entirety, platform, OS, any serial numbers, MAC address, system time, etc, would that shorten the time taken to attack a private key? Like, what sources does a VM have or use for generating random numbers, since everything, even hardware RNGs is then virtualized.

Can anyone give insight on that?

[TheGr33k]

The Private keys can be brute forced. But I don't think you're going to find the correct combination if you do so very easily or soon. It will take some of the world's super computers years to do that, millions.
However, if you're keeping your bitcoin on a Online wallet just consider your bitcoins lost/hacked already

Is the 51% attack where someone gains control over most of the network? How would that work

[redsn0w]

Private key could be hacked if you have billion of quantum supercomputer & some patience
But, bitcoin network could be hacked if someone could hack every nodes & miners in bitcoin network (if anyone can do it )

No, it is impossible to find (bruteforce) a number = 10^48 .... Have you seen how it is big that number or not? You need 100 years of time and maybe you can find only one bitcoin private key (converted in binary code). It is not so simple as you think, come one mate... this is math!

For attacking any given key, you needs far far far more time than 100 years. If it was just 100 years, with moores law doubling power every 2, Youd probably only be looking at 10 or 12 years tops (I know the math isn't difficult, I'm just on my phone not bothering to look it up).

I've been curious about the effort to attack a private key that was generated in a controlled environment that you can recreate; say if a key was generated in a VM, if one recreated that VM in its entirety, platform, OS, any serial numbers, MAC address, system time, etc, would that shorten the time taken to attack a private key? Like, what sources does a VM have or use for generating random numbers, since everything, even hardware RNGs is then virtualized.

Can anyone give insight on that?

The generation of a private key is not related with the "machine" itself, so also if you can recrete that exact instance you will not be able to get that "key" a second time. I hope you have seen this video :

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZloHVKk7DHk

I think you will understand a lot of things.