Bitcoin address - are there enough for us all?

[DoublerHunter]

I think the bitcoin addresses are created randomly and they are unlimited so i think there is nothing to worry about the bitcoin address because it is so easy for the bitcoin network to generate new bitcoin address everyday. I think the thing that we should worry about is the supply of bitcoin because when the massive adoption came then there will be a shortage on the supply of bitcoin.

[tinus42]

Considering that bitcoin addresses get wasted and discarded like plastic bottles of water, is there ever a risk that we'd use up all the bitcoin addresses?

I realize the possible combinations is 36 to the power of 32, but I don't have a way to make sense of the resulting number. How many address are used in a day? How quickly are we going through these possible combinations?

The actual number of possible Bitcoin addresses is 2¹⁶⁰

This number is so large our tiny human brains cannot comprehend it.

There is no need to worry about running out.  We never will.

We have enough bitcoin addressees and there is no shortage of it. What makes me feel worried is the total number of bitcoins in circulation.If everyone in the world start using Bitcoins it might get out of supply  

If everyone in the world starts using Bitcoin then Bitcoin will become more valuable and you pay like BTC0.0000001 for a cup of coffee. It would mean that someone who has even BTC1 will become a millionaire.

[moviebuff777]

Considering that bitcoin addresses get wasted and discarded like plastic bottles of water, is there ever a risk that we'd use up all the bitcoin addresses?

I realize the possible combinations is 36 to the power of 32, but I don't have a way to make sense of the resulting number. How many address are used in a day? How quickly are we going through these possible combinations?

Maybe in 100 years after we are long gone this could become an issue. For now there are plenty of addresses to go around.

[7788bitcoin]

Maybe in 100 years after we are long gone this could become an issue. For now there are plenty of addresses to go around.

Ha... this is not a problem for even another 1000 year... the number is so so so huge...

[PremiumCodeX]

Would just figure out a quicker-expanding generation algorithm and put it into consensus.

With the development of computing technology, not only the numbers advancing, but the generation possibilities too.

[zohaibh]

there are enough bitcoin addresses and i think they are enough for us.

[paul gatt]

Considering that bitcoin addresses get wasted and discarded like plastic bottles of water, is there ever a risk that we'd use up all the bitcoin addresses?

I realize the possible combinations is 36 to the power of 32, but I don't have a way to make sense of the resulting number. How many address are used in a day? How quickly are we going through these possible combinations?

A silly question, it's like asking you why there are so many people in the world, but no one is the same (except the twins). All bitcoin addresses are made up of complex words, calculate its probability combinations, and you can create countless bitscoins without worrying about anything else. Furthermore, each bitcoin address is independently created, and is stored on a bitcoin basis, so it never occurs overlap. We can rest assured about it.

[Janation]

there are enough bitcoin addresses and i think they are enough for us.

Not just enough, it is too much for us that everyone can have 10 of them. Bitcoin wallet is unique and so many that is why you don't need to think of these as a problem.

[stompix]

There are far more chances to get struck 3 times by lighting , being chased by a bear, bitten by a shark and win the loto than getting the same address somebody is using.

This will be our last problem.
I'm sure we would be unable to use all the addresses at 7tps /sec  before this galaxy will go dark.

[TastyChillySauce00]

there are enough bitcoin addresses and i think they are enough for us.

Not just enough, it is too much for us that everyone can have 10 of them. Bitcoin wallet is unique and so many that is why you don't need to think of these as a problem.

Not only 10, everyone can have any amounts they want, just see those sites which generate a one-time address for a payment or deposits. There are so many addresses available that it needs exactly more than quintillion years to brute force an address by finding its private key randomly. Just as what people have spoken above.

[Kprawn]

James D'Angelo had a good video on the Math behind Bitcoin and he had a illustration with open post boxes.... that illustration actually made me

realize how big this number is and how impossible it would be to run out of Bitcoin addresses. It is a pity that he made all his videos private, after

he had a rage quit, because that was one of the best videos I have seen on the subject. 

[johnwest]

Technically we will run out of address combination after 250-300 years. We dont know yet that whether Bitcoin will survive that long, I dont think even Earth will survive that long if we continue to mine our Planet, So i guess no worries.

[deisik]

Maybe in 100 years after we are long gone this could become an issue. For now there are plenty of addresses to go around.

Ha... this is not a problem for even another 1000 year... the number is so so so huge...

That claim has been refuted many times

And exactly according to the laws of physics (or of this Universe if you want me to put it this way). In short, the lowest theoretically possible amount of energy equals the energy of a single photon whose wavelength is approximately the size of the observable universe. You see that would be small enough to theoretically build a device that would count to 2^256 in less than half a jiffy, so "nothing more efficient possible" is a false assumption. And that has nothing to do with thermodynamics as such (as this picture suggests)

[Betwrong]

Technically we will run out of address combination after 250-300 years. We dont know yet that whether Bitcoin will survive that long, I dont think even Earth will survive that long if we continue to mine our Planet, So i guess no worries.

No, we will not. 300 years is roughly 100,000 days. If everyone from 10,000,000,000 people will use 100 addresses per day during the next 300 years(which will hardly happen) the number of used addresses will be still not even close to 10^48.

[Ayers]

Maybe in 100 years after we are long gone this could become an issue. For now there are plenty of addresses to go around.

Ha... this is not a problem for even another 1000 year... the number is so so so huge...

That claim has been refuted many times

And exactly according to the laws of physics (or of this Universe if you want me to put it this way). In short, the lowest theoretically possible amount of energy equals the energy of a single photon whose wavelength is approximately the size of the observable universe. You see that would be small enough to theoretically build a device that would count to 2^256 in less than half a jiffy, so "nothing more efficient possible" is a false assumption. And that has nothing to do with thermodynamics as such (as this picture suggests)

where all this come from do you have a source to back this up? if this was possible it was already real by now, but i don't see anything that can count to 2^256 in a short time like you said, that image simply say thay you need more energy than the universe can hold for now to run a device that can break the 2^256 key, and not even quantum computer can break that

[HabBear]

Just take an example of the mobile numbers in this world , the most of the countries have mobile numbers digits range between 10-13 digits and they are enough for us and daily we are getting new numbers according to our needs ( new offers in sim ) , so here you can estimate that how we can complete our need with 32 character combination easily .

I don't think this is an applicable example. Mobile phone numbers are not similar to bitcoin addresses.

Mobile phone numbers are 1 per phone, so usually 1 number per person...regardless of how many calls they make or how many people need to call them. The only people with exactly 1 bitcoin address are Newbies with a paper wallet that was given to them as a gift or something. If you're using Coinbase, for example, every time you seek your address to give to someone to pay you you're getting a NEW address. Bitcoin addresses are being used almost as frequently as transactions!

We're burning through bitcoin address at a crazy speed, fortunately there are enough unique bitcoin addresses to be created that there isn't a name for the number, it's so big.

[HabBear]

Considering that bitcoin addresses get wasted and discarded like plastic bottles of water, is there ever a risk that we'd use up all the bitcoin addresses?

I realize the possible combinations is 36 to the power of 32, but I don't have a way to make sense of the resulting number. How many address are used in a day? How quickly are we going through these possible combinations?

The actual number of possible Bitcoin addresses is 2¹⁶⁰

This number is so large our tiny human brains cannot comprehend it.

There is no need to worry about running out.  We never will.

Hi Burt, how does your calculation differ from the one I provided? In other words, what am I missing in the math?

I took the number of digits in the public address to the power of the number of combinations. I'm obviously not incorporating the private key.

Also, what system verifies that a new address is created (rather than a duplicate)? Are all addresses generated from blockchain.info?

Good talk here, friends, thanks!

[jorneyflair]

Considering that bitcoin addresses get wasted and discarded like plastic bottles of water, is there ever a risk that we'd use up all the bitcoin addresses?

I realize the possible combinations is 36 to the power of 32, but I don't have a way to make sense of the resulting number. How many address are used in a day? How quickly are we going through these possible combinations?

That actually doesnt really matter how many addresses we use a day, if the current Earth population is somewhere around 9 billion people.
The reason is extremely easy, because there are just too many possibilities of a different bitcoin address, to run out of them.

In fact, there is a bigger chance that there is some guy who wins superball every single time in a year, and gets strucked with lightining at every time his heart beats.
That comparision seems insanely ridiculous, but it can show you why it is pretty much impossible to not have any free address: there are simply waaaay to many possibilities to use them all.
Also, the chance to get someones else address while generating is almost 0 too.

[jtipt]

Considering that bitcoin addresses get wasted and discarded like plastic bottles of water, is there ever a risk that we'd use up all the bitcoin addresses?

I realize the possible combinations is 36 to the power of 32, but I don't have a way to make sense of the resulting number. How many address are used in a day? How quickly are we going through these possible combinations?

The actual number of possible Bitcoin addresses is 2¹⁶⁰
This number is so large our tiny human brains cannot comprehend it.
There is no need to worry about running out.  We never will.

Yes exactly the number of combinations possible are extremely large, there is no way (practically) we would run out of bitcoin addresses even if we do, just adding one variable would increase the combinations exponentially.

[stompix]

Technically we will run out of address combination after 250-300 years. We dont know yet that whether Bitcoin will survive that long, I dont think even Earth will survive that long if we continue to mine our Planet, So i guess no worries.

Don't know what math u used there but don't use it in real life.

Technically we will run out of address combination after 250-300 years. We dont know yet that whether Bitcoin will survive that long, I dont think even Earth will survive that long if we continue to mine our Planet, So i guess no worries.

No, we will not. 300 years is roughly 100,000 days. If everyone from 10,000,000,000 people will use 100 addresses per day during the next 300 years(which will hardly happen) the number of used addresses will be still not even close to 10^48.

And even that is impossible.
Because right now we can do only 600k transactions transactions per day.
So it is impossible to actually use 10billion * 100 addresses.