What happens if I send coin to an address that is unclaimed?

[underminer]

If I send coin to an address that has not yet been claimed, will anyone eventually, randomly choosing that address get lucky with extra money?

Figured this is a good place for this question, didn't see anything about it being asked before.

[tbcoin]

If I send coin to an address that has not yet been claimed, will anyone eventually, randomly choosing that address get lucky with extra money?

Figured this is a good place for this question, didn't see anything about it being asked before.

Keep in mind that the addresses are created without checks, is just as likely to generate any address existing with balance.

[odolvlobo]

If I send coin to an address that has not yet been claimed, will anyone eventually, randomly choosing that address get lucky with extra money?

Figured this is a good place for this question, didn't see anything about it being asked before.

It is possible but extremely unlikely. If you don't have the private key for the address you might as well consider the coins as lost forever.

[underminer]

Well what happens then, does that address become "created" if it has not been already once I send coins?  Seems weird, how would the go codes for that account be set?

[tbcoin]

Well what happens then, does that address become "created" if it has not been already once I send coins?  Seems weird, how would the go codes for that account be set?

example

I can encrypt a file with the password 123, which is decrypted only with the password 456.
I don't need that 123 or 456 exist anywhere.
If a thousand years after you generate the key pair and have 123 and 456, you can decrypt my file.

It should emphasize the improbability of duplicate addresses.

[Gabi]

+1 what tbcoin said

Well what happens then, does that address become "created" if it has not been already once I send coins?  Seems weird, how would the go codes for that account be set?

It seems you don't know very well how bitcoin works. There are no "accounts". Addresses aren't "created". They just exist. An address is just a private key and it's public key. If you send btc to a key, then only someone with the related private key can use them. If no one has it then coins are lost, unless someone eventually get that address, wich is like almost impossible, even if you check billions of address per second until the universe death 

[underminer]

"It seems you don't know very well how bitcoin works"

You must be a fucking prodigy.  Why else do people post questions on the nature of bitcoin in this section?

It seems to me like if I send money to an address that is unclaimed there are two ways the situation could turn out.  Either all keys for all addresses are pre-determined and anyone randomly (or otherwise) getting that key would have the bitcoins sent *or* the act of sending the coins to an address creates a secondary key that I don't know, making it inaccessible either forever or until it is somehow cracked.

[tbcoin]

It seems to me like if I send money to an address that is unclaimed there are two ways the situation could turn out.  Either all keys for all addresses are pre-determined and anyone randomly (or otherwise) getting that key would have the bitcoins sent *or* the act of sending the coins to an address creates a secondary key that I don't know, making it inaccessible either forever or until it is somehow cracked.

NO

Why ask, if you ignore the explanation.


Although it may sound arrogant, now you deserve it

"It Seems you do not know very well how bitcoin works"

+1

[underminer]

When you two are done blowing eachother let me know.  Anyone else see what I am saying here an want to weigh in on it?

[tbcoin]

Disgusts take the trouble to explain something to an asshole.

Get back when you read some documentation and have a question that has not been answered a thousand times (for people who deserved a response more than you).

[underminer]

Taking the time?  You begun your unclear response with an idiotic insult and then fail to see what I am actually asking.  Don't answer questions if you aren't qualified/able/willing to do it without a chip on your shoulder.

You should think about the assuming way you responded to my question (in the newbie section) and quit crying about a deserved sharp response.

[Gabi]

"It seems you don't know very well how bitcoin works"

You must be a fucking prodigy.  Why else do people post questions on the nature of bitcoin in this section?

When you two are done blowing eachother let me know.  Anyone else see what I am saying here an want to weigh in on it?

Taking the time?  You begun your unclear response with an idiotic insult and then fail to see what I am actually asking.  Don't answer questions if you aren't qualified/able/willing to do it without a chip on your shoulder.

You should think about the assuming way you responded to my question (in the newbie section) and quit crying about a deserved sharp response.

  so much fail. Go read wiki and inform instead of insulting other people

[RaTTuS]

no,
tbcoin explained it fine

[memvola]

Everybody's so tender nowadays.

It seems to me like if I send money to an address that is unclaimed there are two ways the situation could turn out.  Either all keys for all addresses are pre-determined and anyone randomly (or otherwise) getting that key would have the bitcoins sent *or* the act of sending the coins to an address creates a secondary key that I don't know, making it inaccessible either forever or until it is somehow cracked.

I think your perspective is influenced by the "account" concept, but there is no harm in thinking of it like that. You can safely assume that all private keys for all addresses are predetermined (although there isn't a one-to-one correspondence that maps addresses to keys). Thinking this way is closer to the fact than thinking they are created somewhere. The fact that they are predetermined does not mean they are known though.

Given an address, there necessarily exists a private key, but it is assumed impossible to compute it using the address aside from trying every possible combination. Giving us the ability to make this assumption is what makes a cryptographic algorithms useful. So, we have functions that makes it easy to calculate A from P, but we don't have the reverse functions that calculate P from A.

The existence of this private key, as you see, is in the mathematical sense. You can indeed come up with an address without knowing the private key and send money to it. No one or no thing will know the corresponding private key. It's not created in the physical realm just because you used that address.

EDIT: wording

[underminer]

I think I can do both, not to say I haven't been in the wiki plenty.  I thought I'd try to get a spin from bitcoin users rather than a prefabbed explanation that doesn't answer my rather specific question--I guess that isn't appropriate however.  Since I'm already apparently "breaking all the rules" I'll go ahead and say fuck you outright.

I'll also try to avoid asking questions in the future, making sure to keep all of them to myself.  I'm sure this is what the operators of this forum intended--that existing and established users belittle junior members to keep the forum clear of anything resembling anything but absolute certainty and drivel over already firmly understood topics.

Oh wait no I don't think I will actually, If I have a question and don't see the answer, I'll go ahead and ask it.  You are welcome to avoid my posts in the future however.  
 

[tbcoin]

You are welcome to avoid my posts in the future however.  

+∞

[flatfly]

If you wanna try your luck, the Deep Space Vagabond (windows app) was made for you   Be aware that you would have to be VERY lucky (or there must be an undiscovered weakness in the cryptography routines utilized in Bitcoin) to actually stumble onto a loaded address, but hey, it's cheaper than satoshidice - actually it's free, so at least you won't lose money, just some time

[Intrinsic]

Wow I am shocked at how rude some of you are being, this is the newbie section, I'd certainly expect to see some odd, stupid, or obvious questions here.

Fairly new myself, and have read to wiki too, but questions still come up, which is why I am here, and just registered.

tbcoin: your first & second answer I kinda understood, but the way you worded it was sorta confusing.

memvola: ty, that was clear to me. Along with tbcoin's answer it seems fairly clear to me.

It seems you don't know very well how bitcoin works.

This was really uncalled for: YES this is exactly the reason we are here reading the threads and asking questions- we don't have a firm grasp on how everything works just yet!


As a newbie to bitcoins, and the bitcoin economy, I would think you all (experienced users) would want us (newbies) to learn about whats going on, how things work, etc. This comes out as questions for many of us, even after reading the wikis & guides & forums. Isn't the idea to keep this movement & economy growing?

I don't want to be afraid to ask questions, even if some people think it might be a stupid question. If I do happen to ask a stupid question, and ask a follow up, it's because I didn't exactly understand your explanation, no need to get mad!

I am here to learn, and to those of you who do answer these threads in the newbie forums: THANK YOU.
Those of you who come to insult, could you please just try to refrain from commenting.

[firefop]

Oh wait no I don't think I will actually, If I have a question and don't see the answer, I'll go ahead and ask it.  You are welcome to avoid my posts in the future however.  
 

So to answer your original question.

strictly speaking, The address doesn't exist until after something is sent to it. That being said, the address is simply a public key. The private key (which is what you use to generate the public key) is stored in your wallet.

It's possible that you or someone else could randomly generate the same key pair... unlikely in the extreme however.

[odolvlobo]

It seems to me like if I send money to an address that is unclaimed there are two ways the situation could turn out.  Either all keys for all addresses are pre-determined and anyone randomly (or otherwise) getting that key would have the bitcoins sent *or* the act of sending the coins to an address creates a secondary key that I don't know, making it inaccessible either forever or until it is somehow cracked.

The first is true. All keys and all addresses are predetermined.

The safety of a private key lies in the unimaginably huge number of keys. The chances of someone picking (or guessing) anyone else's private key is incredibly small. That is why if you send bitcoins to an address for which nobody has the private key, those bitcoins are effectively lost forever -- the odds are that nobody will ever guess the key or even pick it randomly.