Proof of Burn - no private key? - is it a completely dead account?

[justinpclark]

Newbie conspiracist question, go easy on me please 

Please could someone explain how a target account/address is dead (completely) in order for Proof of Burn to take place. The conspiracist in me thinks someone is sat there picking up all the dead BTC 

thanks All!
Justin

[Josepht]

When someone tells you that an address is 'dead', or in other words, there is no way the private key is restored, can never prove that. There is always a possebility that he has written down the private key (or even backed it up on a computer).

However, why would you want to send coins to an address that is dead anyways? It just makes you lose your coins.

[justinpclark]

Joseph,

The idea is that miners should show proof that they burned some coins -that is, sent them to a verifiably unspendable address. This is expensive from the miners’ individual point of view, just like proof of work; but it consumes no resources other than the burned underlying asset. To date, all proof of burn cryptocurrencieswork by burning proof-of-work-mined cryptocurrencies, so the ultimate source of scarcity remains the proof-of-work-mined "fuel”. More details here:- https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Proof_of_burn

That's why I'm keen to understand (technically) how an account is created as dead... completely unaccessible...

cheers
Justin

[justinpclark]

Very happy to have found the answer!

https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/1851/how-to-generate-a-valid-bitcoin-address-for-destroying-bitcoins