Private key (privkey) hunters - unite!

[Flangler]

Why are people still doing this, if the probability of finding a private key that is used, is almost zero?
-snip-

Yup, by brute-forcing the key, the chance to hit a collision is close to 0.0000000000000000000000000000001%. Wait,

No, what they talking about (in this thread) are those neglectfully stored wallet.dat files, private key backups, paper wallet images or other forms of backups which potentially have funds.
History can tell that some people are stupid enough to store those (not only wallets but passwords and sensitive info too) directly in the internet without "hiding" the files with a disguised file name, file type, etc.

This one for example:

Found more than 10 wallets with a positive balance without any password protection. Not entirely sure how or why you come up with the idea to put your wallet.dat in your public Dropbox folder. Those were the days...

@OP, this isn't "hacking" and... use this to display the image (the link must be the image's direct link that ends with ".png/.gif/.jpg"):

Code:

[img alt=img height=420]https://i.imgur.com/PrBSxN8.png[/img]

Winning a big lottery also has a small chance, you will never know unless you try. The numbers do not work always like that, technically you have two options you can find one with balance or not. Why there are doing this? Because they can.

[MrCrank]

I'm interested but I don't understand.. How can use this "empty" private key? any reason please..
I don't check keys yet.. Can claim forks?

[b1ockchain]

It's reasonable for you to do so although the odd might not in your favor but yet "nothing is unhackable".

[mattcode]

Did any of you try to access wallets by guessing the seed? I think it might be easier to create a program that randomly checks various seed combinations than trying to find a private key with a positive balance. As time goes by there will be so many seed combinations that a modified password guesser linked to a dictionary might do the job. And this time if you'll able to find something it might not be a single address but a bunch of them. You might even get lucky and get into a wallet owned by a treasure hunter like yourself

Electrum has a dictionary size of 1626 words and uses 12 of them randomly, producing 1626^12 possible combinations, which is close to 10^38 combinations. Good luck finding a collision. It will take quite a while. Example:

If somehow could test 1 billion combinations per second (arbitrary number I just came up with), we need 10^(38-9) = 10^29 seconds to try them all. That is approximately 3.17*10^27 years.

The universe has existed for about 13.8*10^9 years.

You see where this is going... right?

I think that the last few words are a checksum, so your chances are slightly better than that (but still impossibly low).

[bill gator]

I'm having an existential crisis right now. Maybe it's because I have a poor understanding of math, but the chances of winning the Powerball lottery are something like 1 in 300 million and it happens all of the time. Statistical improbability does not equal impossibility, in fact it's tangibly the opposite. I could type random keys on my keyboard and potentially end up with an old Satoshi address at my disposal. The chances that someone pops a Private Key increases each time more people are attempting to do so, and increases exponentially when any of these attackers is using a method more effective than simple random generation or brute-force. Sophisticated hacks have a better chance than these figures would suggest.

[ljonathan]

To be honest never taught about that, what are the odds to hit a wallet with bitcoin in there

[LoyceV]

~ the chances of winning the Powerball lottery are something like 1 in 300 million and it happens all of the time.

People win all the time because the chance to win is equal to the number of tickets sold. It's not rare that someone wins, it's rare that you win.

Back to Bitcoin: I can generate a random private key right now. The chance of me finding that key: 1 in 1461501637330902918203684832716283019655932542976 !
But the chance of me finding a key: 100%.

When comparing Bitcoin to the Powerball lottery, I think it's safe to say you're more likely to win that lottery without buying a ticket, than finding a collision on a private key.

I could type random keys on my keyboard

Humans are very bad at creating random keystrokes.

and potentially end up with an old Satoshi address at my disposal.

No you can't! It's easy to confuse a theoretical chance with a real chance.
Example: You can randomly generate my phone number, call me, and tell me my creditcard number. Although this sounds far fetched, it's still 1461501637330902918203 times more likely than finding a private key collision.

and increases exponentially when any of these attackers is using a method more effective than simple random generation or brute-force. Sophisticated hacks have a better chance than these figures would suggest.

That's why it's very important to generate your private keys at random. If your random isn't random, someone else can reproduce it.

[neo_crypt]

But the chance of me finding a key: 100%.

The quantum computers is a key. Nobody know how AI works, but AI drives your Tesla

[BTCW]

We just found a really interesting ETH private key:

Code:

Privkey: 64e604787cbf194841e7b68d7cd28786f6c9a0a3ab9f8b0a0e87cb4387ab0107
Address: 0xf46b6b9c7cb552829c1d3dfd8ffb11aabae782f6

https://etherscan.io/address/0xf46b6b9c7cb552829c1d3dfd8ffb11aabae782f6

What's cool about this one?

It received 21 ETH from the genesis block! Check the first transaction on the blockchain (link above).

How did we find it? Wordlists, math and blockchain APIs (our own scripts).

Pseudocode:

keccak-256sum("ABC123*") = 64e604787cbf194841e7b68d7cd28786f6c9a0a3ab9f8b0a0e87cb4387ab0107

(* The phrase is actually NOT "ABC123", but you should be able to reproduce this one quite swiftly, with a basic wordlist.)

From there, it's two relatively simple operations, including elliptic curve, to derive the public address.

Pretty awesome, no?

[LoyceV]

We just found a really interesting ETH private key:

Code:

Privkey: 64e604787cbf194841e7b68d7cd28786f6c9a0a3ab9f8b0a0e87cb4387ab0107
Address: 0xf46b6b9c7cb552829c1d3dfd8ffb11aabae782f6

~

Pretty awesome, no?

It would be pretty awesome indeed, if this private key wouldn't have been published 10 months ago already.

[BTCW]

We just found a really interesting ETH private key:

Code:

Privkey: 64e604787cbf194841e7b68d7cd28786f6c9a0a3ab9f8b0a0e87cb4387ab0107
Address: 0xf46b6b9c7cb552829c1d3dfd8ffb11aabae782f6

~

Pretty awesome, no?

It would be pretty awesome indeed, if this private key wouldn't have been published 10 months ago already.

How very curious. Because that short blog post doesn't mention WHY they use that private key in their example.

[bill gator]

People win all the time because the chance to win is equal to the number of tickets sold. It's not rare that someone wins, it's rare that you win.

Then I misunderstand the Powerball, because I'm talking about matching the numbers randomly pulled. Your chances of matching random numbers would be unaffected by the random numbers that others have chosen. Their "guesses" do not make your guess any more or less likely to be correct. Again, I might not understand how lotteries work I guess, but this is how I understand it. How are the chances equal to the tickets in a lottery of random numbers? More tickets makes it more likely that someone wins, but it wouldn't make your chances vary.

When comparing Bitcoin to the Powerball lottery, I think it's safe to say you're more likely to win that lottery without buying a ticket, than finding a collision on a private key.

You're over exaggerating, unless we're operating on the assumption that you can win with a stolen ticket, or something? I do see your point though.

Humans are very bad at creating random keystrokes.

Bee Boop.

It's easy to confuse a theoretical chance with a real chance.

Apparently, because I do not know the difference. I've thought on this for hours and I cannot figure out the riddle. Help me understand theoretical chance Vs. real chance, genuinely, I am interested.

Example: You can randomly generate my phone number, call me, and tell me my creditcard number. Although this sounds far fetched, it's still 1461501637330902918203 times more likely than finding a private key collision.

Show your work for this math problem. What are the odds of me randomly generating your phone number, credit card and catching you at a good time for a phone call?  
Since I'm illiterate on vocabulary and semantics, collision = randomly generating a previously randomly generated Private Key, right?

That's why it's very important to generate your private keys at random. If your random isn't random, someone else can reproduce it.

Humans are almost as bad at programming random number generators as they are typing random numbers.

[LoyceV]

Then I misunderstand the Powerball, because I'm talking about matching the numbers randomly pulled. Your chances of matching random numbers would be unaffected by the random numbers that others have chosen. Their "guesses" do not make your guess any more or less likely to be correct. Again, I might not understand how lotteries work I guess, but this is how I understand it. How are the chances equal to the tickets in a lottery of random numbers? More tickets makes it more likely that someone wins, but it wouldn't make your chances vary.

I clearly don't live in a Powerball country, I was assuming it uses tickets.
Anyway, the same applies: the chance that you win is small, but the chance that someone wins is quite large (I don't know the details of the lottery).
For the sake of argument, let's say the chance that someone wins is 10%.
For Bitcoin, even if a billion people search for collissions, the chance that someone finds one is stil 0.00000000......0001%.
That's what makes it so unlikely to ever find one.
In the Powerball lottery, a large part of the search space is covered. In Bitcoin, only a very small fraction is covered.

You're over exaggerating, unless we're operating on the assumption that you can win with a stolen ticket, or something? I do see your point though.

I was thinking about finding a ticket. I think it's a safe assumption that some tickets are lost, out of millions of tickets. Let's put the chance of finding a ticket at 1 in a million, that still makes it billions times more likely to win with that ticket than finding a collision.

Apparently, because I do not know the difference. I've thought on this for hours and I cannot figure out the riddle. Help me understand theoretical chance Vs. real chance, genuinely, I am interested.

I may have made up the difference for the sake of argument. Real chance: it won't happen. Theoretical: it might happen. But the chance is so low that you can safely say it won't happen anyway (I read someone else explain this better once).

What are the odds of me randomly generating your phone number, credit card and catching you at a good time for a phone call?  Wink

1 in 10^11 if you don't know my country
1 in 10^16 for my creditcard
About 100% for calling at the right time.

collision = randomly generating a previously randomly generated Private Key, right?

No, you can never prove you found them independently. A collision means having two private keys that both produce the same address.

[bill gator]

In the Powerball lottery, a large part of the search space is covered. In Bitcoin, only a very small fraction is covered.

I figured this is what you were getting at, point taken.

I was thinking about finding a ticket.

That's not very fair, in our context! That would be similar to leaking your Private Key, and the person using it claiming to have found it randomly (seems to be the case more often than not).

I may have made up the difference for the sake of argument.

Blasphemer!
If a concept is valid and unaccounted for, then I have no problem with you "making it up". I was just genuinely puzzled at the concept.

Real chance: it won't happen. Theoretical: it might happen.

I was unaware of your prophetic abilities, Mr. Loyce. Help me peer into the nether and see what is and is not to happen.

1 in 10^11 if you don't know my country
1 in 10^16 for my creditcard

Easy enough, credit cards are 16 digits with 10 possibilities per digit. Maybe the math is easier than I thought, fair enough.

About 100% for calling at the right time.

Are you hitting on me, Loyce?

No, you can never prove you found them independently. A collision means having two private keys that both produce the same address.

Oh, well than that changes everything. I'm talking more about acquiring a Private key, rather than a collision; I'm not technically inclined enough to comment on that, yet.

[robolove]

Wait a minute. I'm not talking about randomly generating private keys like

Code:

openssl rand -hex 32

and luck out a la (Powerball)^128. We all know the odds for finding a positive balance address that way is practically close to infinity, even if you had the computational power to check a billion addresses per second.

I'm talking about way to significantly reduce the entropy. Or completely remove it, such as finding images of paper wallets that people frequently - those were the days - used to share on Instagram, Imgur, Flickr and so forth.

Take this one, for example. It had more than 2 BTC in October 2015:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/files/2014/11/IMG_20141027_185706.jpg&w=1484

Another way is (was) brainwallets, maybe the stupidest contribution to the bitcoin ecosystem. A famous example is sha256sum("mike") that gives (I'm by no means taking credit for this one):

Code:

64b4d0f47c93ce23d157e68a58767356283dc9b63c459d45d0e0e39b3a64b9b9
5JadzKfQLiM4v5dpqE3J5knhkZdnug6FRmjiCxpnPMAWix11rWR
144BBhjaTofkGJzCG7opHyG5t5HP2boUXc

https://blockchain.info/address/144BBhjaTofkGJzCG7opHyG5t5HP2boUXc

After the 2016 release of brainflayer and this instructional video (recommended viewing!), I assume every possbile and impossible wordlist has been used to sweep the blockchain clean of brainwallets, in a global script kiddie joint venture.

However, I might take credit for

Code:

echo -n "8" | keccak-256sum -l | tr -d ' -'

which leads us to this Ethereum address

Code:

e4b1702d9298fee62dfeccc57d322a463ad55ca201256d01f62b45b2e1c21c10
dc39020c132047dbff55bcb81aeadccc2b042b35becdd9e6a97f0e86a84785e6c96f252986cdb081103612617754ff45122e34a0c3023e26587ac1a0eba7508e
0xe0fc04fa2d34a66b779fd5cee748268032a146c0

https://etherscan.io/address/0xe0fc04fa2d34a66b779fd5cee748268032a146c0

which was active only 57 days ago.

Ethereum is perhaps even more interesting than bitcoin, because of tokens and smart contracts, some of which you can easily dump on exchanges. I simply assume lots of people are sweeping low entropy ETH addresses for such tokens.

My main point is that there are other and much less explored methods, that I work on for time to time when I have some spare time. I'm done with brainwallets and Google Image, but still have one or two aces up my sleeve.

It would be cool to hook up with others who are into the same thing. I'm fairly certain you are out there. Step forth!

[BTCW]

Here's a genius who figured posting his/her private key on Twitter seemed like a good idea.



Reference:
https://twitter.com/_pronto_/status/821072274442829824

Code:

Private key: 5KENaH6zZfjrmhim96ygs657kVWTZ5b9AaS193XNhLUwByW2sKc
Public key: 1EmoMxgGMr1KdYNQVzfs7u6YJYBoR2C3Nj

Posted on January 16, 2017. Looks like it survived for 20 minutes, before being spent, hopefully by its owner, but who knows:

https://blockchain.info/address/1EmoMxgGMr1KdYNQVzfs7u6YJYBoR2C3Nj

Bravo.

[LoyceV]

Looks like it survived for 20 minutes, before being spent, hopefully by its owner, but who knows:

https://blockchain.info/address/1EmoMxgGMr1KdYNQVzfs7u6YJYBoR2C3Nj

I count 8 seconds before the first attempt to take the funds.
What I don't get though, is why it confirmed the transaction with 152.47 sat/B, and not the older transaction with 446.43 sat/B! Miners are supposed to take the highest fee.

[escobarthebest]

Hi how are you ? I saw your post about the bitcoin private key, I am a bitcoin fan and I wanted to work with you.
Thank you !

[quantummachine]

It's now May 1 2019, anybody still hunting BTC private keys?

[stomachgrowls]

It's now May 1 2019, anybody still hunting BTC private keys?

For sure there are still people who do strive and hoping to get some jackpot into those wallets who do have balances but i do think

that most of them completely stop yet its pointless on hunting out btc private keys that do have corresponding balance considering on the odds.
You will find yourself on finding these keys for eternity