Create a specific address (not vanity address)

[btc4peace]

Simple question: If I know a full, valid address that is not yet used on the blockchain, is it possible to create and claim that address and generate the private key? 

Not looking for vanity, looking to create a valid address off chain, and then claim that address on chain.

Thanks for your reply

[1714099584]

1714099584

[1714099584]

1714099584

[1714099584]

1714099584

[ranochigo]

It has the same difficulty of generating an address that has transactions in it.

When you generate an address, there is an equal probability of you generating any address (used or not). The whole process basically involves you starting out with an ECDSA key and ending up with an address. To generate a specific address, you need a very specific ECDSA keypair. Without that, the ending address will be different.

[btc4peace]

Thanks.

So what is stopping someone from using brute force to generate billions of addresses and checking them against for balances and storing keys for dumping later?

[ABCbits]

Thanks.

So what is stopping someone from using brute force to generate billions of addresses and checking them against for balances and storing keys for dumping later?

Basically because there's 2^160 possible address while AFAIK super computer only can generate about 2^32 address/second which means time needed for address collusion/bruteforce is 2^(160-32) seconds. CMIIW.

I can generate the adresses on a separate chain.

The only way to know valid address that isn't exist on blockchain is by generate the address

How? AFAIK you don't need blockchain to generate address, all you need is script/software which contain proper CSPRNG, base58 encoder/decoder and collections of cryptographic hash/signature (ECDSA, RIPEMD-160, SHA-256, etc) library.

[btc4peace]

So in theory it could work but we will all be dead before the computer could solve it.

Cool.

Thanks.

So what is stopping someone from using brute force to generate billions of addresses and checking them against for balances and storing keys for dumping later?

Basically because there's 2^160 possible address while AFAIK super computer only can generate about 2^32 address/second which means time needed for address collusion/bruteforce is 2^(160-32) seconds. CMIIW.

I can generate the adresses on a separate chain.

The only way to know valid address that isn't exist on blockchain is by generate the address

How? AFAIK you don't need blockchain to generate address, all you need is script/software which contain proper CSPRNG, base58 encoder/decoder and collections of cryptographic hash/signature (ECDSA, RIPEMD-160, SHA-256, etc) library.

[aplistir]

So in theory it could work but we will all be dead before the computer could solve it.
Cool.

Pretty much.
The scale of difficulty is similar than finding  the exactly right 1mm x1mm square from the whole Milky Way Galaxy.

The diameter of Milky Way is about 150000 light years.
One light year is 9460730472580800000 mm

The (2D) area of Milky Way is     
(PI*((150000*9460730472580800000)/2)^2)         #(PI=3.1425...)
= 1581691349841256110761018035871634520600000000000 mm^2

Which is about the same scale than 2^160
= 1461501637330902918203684832716283019655932542976

These are pretty big numbers.

[odolvlobo]

We "mine" bitcoin PoW math stuff, why not mine addresses with balances instead?  (Other than it is illegal to steal of course)

Currently, it is much more cost effective to mine bitcoins than it is to brute force private keys.

I went through the math in this post: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4465231.msg41591114#msg41591114

[DevilOper]

So what is stopping someone from using brute force to generate billions of addresses and checking them against for balances and storing keys for dumping later?

Usually - the knowing of the Probability theory.