Your keys, your bitcoin?

[CarnagexD]

The chances of this happening (two people having same private key) is very low. The purpose of the other party having access to the key is to steal coins. You can't trace that except it's an empty wallet.

What the court advised in the article is about keeping your coins in where you can control them and not be like the guy that sued Coinbase and lost the case because he left his coin there. He learned the hard way.

Not so sure why there shod be so much debate as to what it really means. It just means to be responsible for your own stuff and don't blame others for your mistakes. Delving too much in not your keys, not yours logic would only mean certain chaos as this promotes thievery in the community. So if I found your keys, then you are in no way responsible of holding them back against me

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[BTCappu]

what if someone generated the exact private key or, more realistically, have stolen it, how would it possible to prove that victim is the real possesor of private key? What would California court say in this case?

Lol someone generating the same private keys? Nah I don’t think that’s ever going to be possible, in fact it’s not possible and I have not seen it happen before. We should only talk about someone stealing your private keys, and what the court is going to do in a case like that?

Well, there might still be other ways to prove that you’re the one who really created the wallet or maybe not, that’s what I can’t tell for sure. If, at the time before the keys were stolen, that you have already signed a message on the address to prove ownership, at this point there wouldn’t be any need for argument, because that message will be there already.

[vapourminer]

The chances of this happening (two people having same private key) is very low. The purpose of the other party having access to the key is to steal coins. You can't trace that except it's an empty wallet.

Not even a single chance that private keys will be the same. As we created a new Bitcoin wallet, it generates also a different keys that is why there is no possibility that it will be similar to the previous wallets created.

yes there is a possibility two identical private keys can be generated. after all, its just a random number and theres no database to check. and the various systems generating the keys sure wont be checking that key with others to see whats what.

its just so vanishingly small for duplicate private keys to be generated its not worth worrying about.

[CasherUp]

You have to be clear about something when you say "Your keys" it means that only you have access to them without the need for a third party or anything, greetings

[witcher_sense]

You have to be clear about something when you say "Your keys" it means that only you have access to them without the need for a third party or anything, greetings

In theory, the very fact that I generated a particular private key makes me a valid owner of this private key. In other words, I did some work so that I could generate it, made an effort to get a unique sequence of numbers. The private key is consequently my property, and now I have a right to defend my property or do with it whatever I desire. In practice, however, it is very problematic to prove my ownership of keys because a private key, in essence, is just a number, and I cannot possess numbers. Moreover, I can't even prove the fact that I was the first who generated a unique number.

[FACE 2 FACE]

It seems to me that the question raised by the author of the topic is quite timely. How can you correlate a specific person with a specific private key? If someone spies on your notes in a notebook, then naturally he will become the owner of this private key in the same way as you yourself.

I got an idea. What if the binding of a private key to a specific person will carried out on the basis of some chip that identifies this person built into his body?) Then no one will doubt that only one person can own this private key. or as an option, a person, in addition to the private key itself, must have a certain second factor - like a yubikey or something else.

I understand - my thoughts are rather "raw", but maybe this will lead someone to another right idea.

[vapourminer]

It seems to me that the question raised by the author of the topic is quite timely. How can you correlate a specific person with a specific private key? If someone spies on your notes in a notebook, then naturally he will become the owner of this private key in the same way as you yourself.

I got an idea. What if the binding of a private key to a specific person will carried out on the basis of some chip that identifies this person built into his body?) Then no one will doubt that only one person can own this private key. or as an option, a person, in addition to the private key itself, must have a certain second factor - like a yubikey or something else.

that introduces a third party you need to trust (the chip maker say). bitcoin is designed to be trustless. and security keys get lost or break. who issues them and the replacements? another party to trust.

bitcoin security is based on math, mainly the astronomical odds of finding a duplicate key. its the only thing needed atm. just protect your keys. which is admittedly harder for some than others.

[okala]

This is a very though question that need an urgent answer if the private key is not yours since it stored on the blockchain and any one that have access to the private key automatically becomes the owner of the coin then signing a message does little or no help at all the Court need to make an adjustments to that clues in the law.

[Blue MoonFlower]

Absolutely. That's the importance of our private keys, that we need to store and keep it to ourselves or in any places that we think it is secured enough. We should be the only one person responsible to our digital wallets and the control over the coins/assets that we stored inside it. If it isn't ours, then probably it belongs to anybody else 

[witcher_sense]

It seems to me that the question raised by the author of the topic is quite timely. How can you correlate a specific person with a specific private key? If someone spies on your notes in a notebook, then naturally he will become the owner of this private key in the same way as you yourself.

I got an idea. What if the binding of a private key to a specific person will carried out on the basis of some chip that identifies this person built into his body?) Then no one will doubt that only one person can own this private key. or as an option, a person, in addition to the private key itself, must have a certain second factor - like a yubikey or something else.

I understand - my thoughts are rather "raw", but maybe this will lead someone to another right idea.

I would say that your proposal is quite an efficient solution to the problem of proving ownership of private keys. However, as vapourminer correctly noted, for such a verification system to function as intended, we would have to deal with numerous third-parties, which in itself is unacceptable when it comes to decentralized systems such as Bitcoin. We would have to reveal our identities, sacrifice our right to privacy, entrust our lives to those who would be implanting the chips into our bodies. Besides, such chips might come with different backdoors and software for tracking your current location and history of purchases. That would give governments additional tools to control you.

[FACE 2 FACE]

I would say that your proposal is quite an efficient solution to the problem of proving ownership of private keys. However, as vapourminer correctly noted, for such a verification system to function as intended, we would have to deal with numerous third-parties, which in itself is unacceptable when it comes to decentralized systems such as Bitcoin. We would have to reveal our identities, sacrifice our right to privacy, entrust our lives to those who would be implanting the chips into our bodies. Besides, such chips might come with different backdoors and software for tracking your current location and history of purchases. That would give governments additional tools to control you.

Yes, of course, if we were forced to use this kind of implantable microchips, then naturally this, too, theoretically could give rise to another vector of attacks from hackers, and there is no doubt that government intelligence agencies would also take advantage of these opportunities. But now this attacks would be directed not at the user of the wallet or his laptop. Now hackers would attack directly the manufacturers of these microchips.

But despite this, I still like this idea, because in this way it would very likely solve the problem of identifying the owner of the private key.

And, yes, I perfectly understand that if everyone began to use such identifying microchips, then, in addition to hacker attacks, this could also lead to even more terrible things - for example, if the chip was located in the hand, or somewhere under the human skin, and if it was a certain public figure, then for sure there would be some completely reckless personalities who would not have disdained by committing physical attacks on carriers of such chips in order to extract them from bodies.

And if such wallets will contain millions or tens of millions of dollars, then, I'm sure that after some time it would become our everyday reality.

The movie Looper with Bruce Willis comes to mind for some reason. There, a plot was played up in which people were hunted in an unusual way, because it was impossible to kill such people with ordinary means precisely because of various kinds of identifiers that were used in the future on our planet.

But despite these new vectors of dangers that may take place, I still think that society will gradually move in this direction - the identification of everything and everyone on this planet.

In the meantime, for any rich guy, one single rule is still relevant: "If you want to stay rich, keep your private key a secret from everyone."

[nelson4lov]

im currently using a wallet that i dont held my private keys  . is this mean that i dont own the coins that i see inside my wallet ?  but the point is i can withdrew this coins or i can use this inside their platform  .

Yeah, you can withdraw your coin, but are you aware that leaving your bitcoin on such platform is just like saving your money in someone else's pocket, if the platform gets hacked do you know your bitcoin will be gone, do you also know the owner of that platform has access to your account and can take you all your coins if he likes, that's why its best you save your coin in wallets that you have full control over, that's storing it in  a wallet you babe private keys to.

[Sapphire915]

Of course. It is my keys, it is my bitcoin and mine only. Unless, I will share it with anybody else, which is so impossible. Maybe, we can show and tell the keys to our loved ones and only that, I guess. Others here are right, we cant definitely share our digital wallets to anyone. We alone can owned and have the full control to our assets stored in our wallets and we must secure the keys properly to avoid the losses.

[Mr.sprin]

private keys are not to be shared with other people only bitcoin owners know about it, if someone wants to share the private key with other people then that is very stupid.
I keep my private key not online I write it on paper and I keep my private key in a safe and that's only I who know.

[Nhebu]

The chances of this happening (two people having same private key) is very low. The purpose of the other party having access to the key is to steal coins. You can't trace that except it's an empty wallet.

What the court advised in the article is about keeping your coins in where you can control them and not be like the guy that sued Coinbase and lost the case because he left his coin there. He learned the hard way.

Actually, the chances of having two private keys is impossible. The algorithms around creating keys are impossible to reverse nor create another new. The combination of letters and numbers make it more hard to predict and generated again. It has more chances of hitting a thunder than having another keys. If that happens, it might be a bug for both parties.

[Salauddin1994]

Not only in the case of bitcoin but also in the case of investing in other currencies the private key should never be shared with anyone in doing so they easily gain access to our wallet and steal everything once lost it is never possible to find fire. This is why the private key must be kept in a reliable place or no one can steal it using the google 2fa code if someone logs in to your site you get access to it i put my private key in Notepad.

[hridoyb]

Bitcoin wallet protected by private key so you cannot access your wallet without the private key. Your bitcoin will be gone if anyone finds your key or given a private key to any phishing site. Your key your bitcoin means that if anyone store asset any exchanger he/she is not the owner of this wallet so if anyone holds coin on bitcoin wallet and has a private key then he is the original owner.

[Alucard1]

One private key equals one person, if the private key is not yours then the bitcoin or the funds inside that wallet is not yours as well, this is somehow similar when there is someone who steals your private key and then transfers all your funds to other wallet address, that is why securing your private key is also similar on securing your funds. without proper securing then your money will get lost easily.

[3meek]

I don't know what the California Court will say, but I know that private keys need to be kept very well, so that no one will ever be able to steal them!
On the other hand - if consider that one family uses one Ledger, the coins belong to the family and not to one person... By this logic, I will assume that if someone stole a private key, he is now the co-owner of your bitcoins!

[Nhor1011]

Of course, your keys your bitcoin. If you didn't own the private key then the funds is not yours. Simply, because you can't access the funds in a wallet with out a private key. If you have your private key then is is easy to access your fund and that is the proof that the funds is belongs to you. That's why you are the only liable to your wallet and funds ,so, take care of your private key.