Computer guessing private keys, (I'm sure it's been answered but..)

[dan123]

Yeah, I know it would take a million years for a computer to guess a private key, but say in the future will money property.... there are 100 billion private keys.
From most of the it's impossible to guess a private key articles, they're talking about guessing 1 high value key.
What if you don't care which key you're trying to crack.  Don't the odds go way down cus there are 100 billion key possibilities?
I assume this is already answered, I'm just wonder the protection or if the odds are still astronomical.

[Rabur]

http://directory.io/
Look at the number of pages

Also, you can move your BTC around which will force anyone searching for your private key to stop and start over.

[dan123]

http://directory.io/
Look at the number of pages

Also, you can move your BTC around which will force anyone searching for your private key to stop and start over.

It really wouldn't matter if I moved my private key because who's ever searching is searching for a random private key, not mine in particular.  You could have 1000s of computers guessing random private keys.  If they get one right, maybe it's 5 cents or 5 million, who knows, but the odds will be better of just trying to guess a single address.

When I transfered  money from a paper wallet into blockchain, I just had to enter a private key.  That's it and it took all the money.  Even if it's a 1000 digit number, you can still have computers guessing.  Odds would go way down if there are 100 billion active numbers out there.

[Rabur]

If you are worried about YOUR btc address, then someone trying to find private key for this particular address would have to start over.

If you ask about testing all the private key / address pairs for the account balance (if there is anything at the address), then basically:
~10^77 addresses
1 BTC = 100,000,000 Satoshis
21mln BTC = 2,100,000,000,000,000 Satoshish = 2,1*10^15 addresses with ONE satoshi
If you take all the BTC ever available and spread them across addresses, you will still have roughly 1 of 10^62 addresses filled with any balance.
Actual BTC network hashrate is 10mln GHash/s = 10^6*10^9hash/s = 10^15 hash/s. Lets assume that testing one address equals to testing one hash. If you take power of the whole BTC network and try to find ONE SATOSHI you would have to spend 10^62/10^15 s = 10^47s ~= 3*10^39 years.
Age of the Universe is 14billion years = 1,4*10^10.
You would still have to live the whole universe 3*10^39/(1,4*10^10) = ~2*10^29 times.
Network which is 2, 5, 100, billion times faster still wouldn't help it

Hope you like the answer

[colinfx]

Hope you like the answer

Love the detail! But, with the advent of quantum computing and say a further 25 years down the line of development, would this number be calculable?

Maybe all clients should only allow 100 import attempts and if the private key is wrong 100 times then it locks?

Or even adding a 1 second delay to any private key import attempt would make the activity futile as there would not be enough time left in the universe to try every combination and the delay will offset (be immune) against all advances in quantum computing power in the future.

Cfx.

[Rabur]

You don't have to import key to test the account balance. Blockchain is open to anyone Any locks, delays etc wouldn't work.

@quantum computers: if they are able to somehow concurrently do the calculations, whole banking system and national security systems will go down first because it also means that you can break nearly any cryptographic key. In other words: don't worry

PS. I dont wanna be a Newbie

[Peter Lambert]

Hope you like the answer

Love the detail! But, with the advent of quantum computing and say a further 25 years down the line of development, would this number be calculable?

Maybe all clients should only allow 100 import attempts and if the private key is wrong 100 times then it locks?

Or even adding a 1 second delay to any private key import attempt would make the activity futile as there would not be enough time left in the universe to try every combination and the delay will offset (be immune) against all advances in quantum computing power in the future.

Cfx.

The bitcoin protocol is open source, so you cannot make restrictions telling every client to do such, since any programmer can just make their own client and leave out that rule.

Look at the calculation again, you would need to run the current bitcoin network for 200000000000000000000000000000 times the age of the universe to get just one satoshi.

It is much more reliable to spend that hashing power generating blocks instead of checking random keys to see if they hold any bitcoins.

[colinfx]

Look at the calculation again, you would need to run the current bitcoin network for 200000000000000000000000000000 times the age of the universe to get just one satoshi.

We should stick to scientific notation, i'm having problems counting those zeros!

In the meantime, there's $$$ to be made and i'm enjoying this great forum to an almost addictive level!

[dan123]

Yeah, I guess you couldn't restrict the client for the number of attempts.

Well can you make threads and test 1000+ keys at once with a client software?

Eventually you'll run out of memory on your computer for the amount of requests made, but each request isn't that much is it?
(Also I know my wrong, I just want to know why)

[Sheldor333]

http://directory.io/
Look at the number of pages

Also, you can move your BTC around which will force anyone searching for your private key to stop and start over.

Unless they are looking for a private key of someone who hasn't moved their BTC because they have lost the key, the lost coins that is.

[Smileyftw]

 the odds can way down cause there are 100 billion key possibilities eventually.