Our bitcoin private key will be in danger, sometime in the future

[Indamuck]

None of know how strong future technology will be, there may be things that we can't even imagine right now.  People would of thought cell phones were insanity 200 years ago.  Bitcoin may not be as unbreakable as we our lead to believe.

[traderethereum]

I don't think that will be too easy to guess private keys because I am sure that it needs special skills to determine every symbol on the private keys.

The number of digits in the private key should also be a privacy.

As long as we can hide the private keys in the secret places, and only we that will know the place, I think we can guarantee the privacy, and we don't have to worry for being stolen by other people.

[Betwrong]

we make a hypothesis based on some time in the future. The Bitcoin account is one trillion. Assumption: 256 numbers or combinations of letters are 2 trillion (it can be calculated by mathematical formulas, here we make a hypothesis) Then: any modification of the letters in the private key, it will be the private key of an account .

It also applies to altcoins. But the number of Bitcoin accounts is the largest. It needs to make changes first.

Where that 2 trillion came from? As far as I know, the number of combinations you'd need to try is 2^256=1.1579209e+77, which is way much more than 2 trillion.

To me your assumption looks like the following. "Let's assume that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is left without any security personnel, staff members are blind, other customers don't care, and all the vaults can be opened with a pin. Voila! We can rob the bank!"

[c_atlas]

Alright, first of all, private keys are not a combination of 256 numbers and letters, they're 256 bits (1's and 0's). A private key is a number in the range of 1 to n - 1 (where n is slightly less than 2^256), it can be represented by a 64 character hex string (each character is 4 bits, ranging from 0123456789ABCDEF). If you understood how large 2^256 was, you would know that the current private key size is perfectly sufficient for bitcoin today.


Any decent address generator will get this sequence of bits from a sufficiently random source of entropy, meaning your chances of guessing the exact same combination of bits is so improbable that we consider it to be impossible today.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Quantum_computing_and_Bitcoin

[kryptqnick]

Cracking a private key will take sooooooo much time before you actually land upon a wallet with actual bitcoin in it. You'd be dead of old age, and you'd still not be close to actually finding one.

That is, of course, if a powerful enough quantum computer does not appear, right? I believe it won't happen and humanity will hit some sort of a barrier like it did with space travel, but many believe that quantum computers can become a threat in the foreseeable future. While Bitcoin keys might be in danger by then, though, there will still be mechanisms of protecting the coins (I read that in case a person uses a new Bitcoin address every time, even a quantum computer will do no good with cracking the keys) as well as have an option  of switching to already existing quantum-resistant cryptocurrencies.

[finaleshot2016]

Nope, blockchain itself is getting an upgrade and our keys will be safe as time goes by. Bitcoin was a wonderful technology and it must be developed for the sake of our future. Wallets have maximum security that will let our cryptocurrency safe and can't be accessed without the keys by anyone. Unless there are some tools that can decrypt the keys but its probability to be done is very low. Keys are a combination of letters and numbers so it's very impossible to be decrypted by a normal person.

[normanz]

I think it's very difficult to guess the private key which is a complicated combination, so we don't need to worry about that.

[NeuroticFish]

When this subject comes up, and it does every few months, I like to simply point to this good old image that explains it all.
So yeah, good luck with cracking it "sometime in the future".

[Anyobsss]

We all know that Bitcoin's private key consists of 256 numbers or letters. However, with the adoption of bitcoin on a large scale. BTC accounts will be more and more. When the number of Bitcoin accounts is large enough, any 256 numbers and combinations of letters may be a private key. People can rely on guesswork to get bitcoin in their account.

i think the private key of Bitcoin should not be a fixed 256 bit. it should be able to change in an interval. the user can select the number of digits of its private key. For example: between 500 characters and 256 characters.

Why is it a public number: 256 bits?
The character of the private key is a privacy. The number of digits in the private key should also be a privacy.

The probability for someone to guess an 256 number and letter combination is zero lol. I don't that it would be possible. An eight combination numbers is really hard to guess let alone 256 combination. Also, letters and numbers are combined in getting private key.

[Reosta_]

We can't be sure about that because there is no guarantee for a situation like this. I think this cryptocurrency market will improve itself so much that people will use cryptocurrencies more comfortly.

[chenille]

It is almost impossible to hack a Bitcoin private key, people have tried to do so and the result is that it's not economical for hackers to try it. It's still questionable if quantum computer are necessary to try finding out Bitcoin private keys. For now, BTC is very safe.

[Rahman11]

I think bitcoin developers are very much aware about bitcoin security and they are possibly take best step for this issue! 256 dogits letter and numbers combination is generally so much difficult to broken! I think hackers are swelter to try success about hacking of this security system! I wish developers always thinking about facing this kind of situation!

[teejayrichard2]

The private key is mixed with both numbers and alphabets. How do one accurately guess that. I don't think any private key can be guessed even if everyone across the globe has a private key. It is way too complex for a guess work.

[yesyes18]

Sorry to say buddy but have you heard of something called permutations and combinations? That'll give you the best answer to this question. In fact you'll need to try a zillionth time with various combinations and permutations of letters and numbers to guess a correct Private Key. Nevertheless, the only threat i have read about is that Quantum Computerization can really threaten Blockchain P.Keys..and even with that it's not easy, and I can't tell if that's even realistic... but honestly, you cannot just guess a private key lol. It won't happen,

[squatter]

Of course, it is not now. It is a potential problem. When the number of Bitcoin accounts is large enough. It will be easier and easier.

It's a potential problem if/when quantum computers break elliptic curve cryptography. At that point, Bitcoin addresses which have been used to sign transactions or old P2PK outputs could be cracked.

It has nothing to do with the number of generated Bitcoin addresses, though. The chances of collisions are still extremely unlikely.

[thankyoulord]

How can one guess a private key thats so long and mixed with alphabets. It is very impossible guess a private key with the way the keys are arranged and mixed together with both numbers and alphabets. Its not like private keys follow a pattern, the numbers and alphabets for different private keys are scattered in different ways to form the private key, so how do one guess that.

[GunsLair]

No, it is impossible to do this. Even if you make to work and divine this key all the super computers, it will take billions of years. In addition, as far as I know, keys can also be generated at all without an internet connection.

[hatshepsut93]

i think the private key of Bitcoin should not be a fixed 256 bit. it should be able to change in an interval. the user can select the number of digits of its private key. For example: between 500 characters and 256 characters.

Why is it a public number: 256 bits?
The character of the private key is a privacy. The number of digits in the private key should also be a privacy.

First, you should know that cryptography is a very-very serious field, many computer scientists and mathematicians have devoted their lives to study it. There are huge incentives to break cryptography, so if someone will indeed find a flaw, it won't be an amateur like you. You should relax about the fundamentals and instead spend your time how to secure other things.

And to answer your questions, zero bits are still bits. According to Bitcoin wiki, keys starting from 0x01 are valid, so they don't have to literally be 256 non-zero bits. And your proposal of "varying key length" would do absolutely nothing, because for all purposes keys would just be padded with zeroes to maximum key length.

[Em00n01]

I think it's impossible to crack private key. This is not as easy as you are thinking. As far as I know many tried to crack private key in past but all were failed.

[bitbunnny]

It's true that security and safety is getting harder and harder to maintain and crypto users are exposed to all kind of threats all the time. Despite all the efforts about data and privacy protection.
But I think that that private keys are pretty good protected due to cryptography so I can't see any real danger.