Crypto vs "the lucky dude" --- Is Bitcoin really SAFE?

[Mik75]

I know that in mathematical terms, finding a private key of a bitcoin address is virtually impossible ... but not impossible. Having said that, a site like https://www.privatekeys.directory/ gives the ability to virtually explore all the private keys existing in the elliptic curve. The Random button on the site https://www.privatekeys.directory generates pages of private keys that could reveal addresses with a positive balance!!!

Considering that whale accounts and exchange accounts contain thousands of bitcoins, one lucky guy could accidentally find millions of dollars on hand !!

From what I understand the only defense against this event is to divide your assets into many accounts to reduce the risk. But even this trick can't ensure your funds aren't stolen by a lucky dude.

[o_e_l_e_o]

From what I understand the only defense against this event is to divide your assets into many accounts to reduce the risk.

No, the defense against this is math:

Let's say we have a trillion planet Earths. On each Earth, there are a trillion people. Each person has a trillion computers. Each computer generates a trillion keys a second. All these computers have been creating a trillion keys per second since the birth of the universe 13.7 billion years ago. 10^12 * 10^12 * 10^12 * 10^12 * 60 * 60 * 24 * 365 * 13.7 * 10^9 = 4.3*10^65. This means thay they would have so far generated approximately 0.0000000004% of all private keys.

If you are worried about someone using such a site to stumble across your private key, then you should be absolutely terrified of dying from a meteor strike, shark attack, or lightning strike, all of which are exponentially more likely to happen. You should also be terrified about someone guessing your credit card number and stealing all your fiat, since for every possible credit card number there is somewhere in the region of 10 trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion possible private keys.

[hatshepsut93]

There are zero documented cases of someone stealing coins by bruteforcing private keys. Whenever someone gets their coins stolen, it's because of malware, phishing, and some dumb mistakes like using brainwallets.

The idea that you can guess a private key comes from people who don't know math and who think that if something is possible to happen, than it can realistically happen or already happened.

[coolcoinz]

I saw this discussed a number of times. Every now and then someone comes in and asks exactly the same question as you, OP. If I can generate a random key, what's there to stop the generator from generating an existing private key and then I'll have access to somebody else's wallet.
There was even a guy who was doing it, generating new keys in hope that one of them would happen to be full and posting the results here on the forum. You can find the thread if you spend a while.
As far as I remember he spent a lot of time doing it and never even got a few bucks out of it. I think he got some spent addresses but all of them were empty already.

If it was that easy some of those people would've got a hit on Satoshi's coins already. Imagine getting a Binance wallet or something. Sorry, but your chances of winning a lottery are higher.

[aoluain]

Yea from o_e_l_e_o's example above you would be better off playing the lottery.

As long as I'm the forum I havent heard of anyone guessing private keys and
I'm thinking why would you want to steal someone elses property?

One of Bitcoins strengths is its security, the weakest link is us humans and how we
treat our private keys.

[Synchronice]

I know that in mathematical terms, finding a private key of a bitcoin address is virtually impossible ... but not impossible. Having said that, a site like https://www.privatekeys.directory/ gives the ability to virtually explore all the private keys existing in the elliptic curve. The Random button on the site https://www.privatekeys.directory generates pages of private keys that could reveal addresses with a positive balance!!!

Considering that whale accounts and exchange accounts contain thousands of bitcoins, one lucky guy could accidentally find millions of dollars on hand !!

From what I understand the only defense against this event is to divide your assets into many accounts to reduce the risk. But even this trick can't ensure your funds aren't stolen by a lucky dude.

The more accounts you create, the harder it becomes to retain all the information in safe places. It's easier to keep one thing than two and more because the more you have, the more space and attention you need to keep.
The chance of someone stealing your keys that way is as low as the chance of you owning a magic power.

In statistics, we can say that the probability of the sun turning into human is zero, i.e. P(x) = 0. We can certainly say that it will never happen but in reality, the P(x) = 0 doesn't mean that it's fundamentally impossible to happen. Sometimes you should really forget all this stuff.

[Marvelman]

I know that in mathematical terms, finding a private key of a bitcoin address is virtually impossible ... but not impossible.

In this case, there is virtually no difference between the two terms.

Having said that, a site like https://www.privatekeys.directory/ gives the ability to virtually explore all the private keys existing in the elliptic curve. The Random button on the site https://www.privatekeys.directory generates pages of private keys that could reveal addresses with a positive balance!!!

This website is made for entertainment purposes only.

Considering that whale accounts and exchange accounts contain thousands of bitcoins, one lucky guy could accidentally find millions of dollars on hand !!

From what I understand the only defense against this event is to divide your assets into many accounts to reduce the risk. But even this trick can't ensure your funds aren't stolen by a lucky dude.

No. Math is probably the most exact science ever invented. You should learn some of it.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I think he got some spent addresses but all of them were empty already.

If he did, then it was because those addresses were generated insecurely (e.g. brain wallets), or he had some additional information or knowledge about those addresses. No one has ever or will ever randomly stumble across the same private key as anyone else, period.

Sorry, but your chances of winning a lottery are higher.

Given that most lotteries have a chance to win the jackpot in the region of 1 in 10⁸, and there are around 10⁷⁷ possible private keys, then you are a few trillion trillion trillion times more likely to win the jackpot 5 times in a row than to find a single previously used private key.

Imagine stumbling across an address with a only few thousand sats in it, knowing you could have exponentially more easily just won several billion dollars by winning the lottery over and over and over!

[batang_bitcoin]

I guess it's like generating of just some words that could be said as private keys. If there's a program like that then you saw how many successes that website has been made. So, how many?
I don't think that you're able to get even a penny from those generations of private keys.

[nullama]

I know that in mathematical terms, finding a private key of a bitcoin address is virtually impossible ... but not impossible. Having said that, a site like https://www.privatekeys.directory/ gives the ability to virtually explore all the private keys existing in the elliptic curve. The Random button on the site https://www.privatekeys.directory generates pages of private keys that could reveal addresses with a positive balance!!!

Considering that whale accounts and exchange accounts contain thousands of bitcoins, one lucky guy could accidentally find millions of dollars on hand !!

From what I understand the only defense against this event is to divide your assets into many accounts to reduce the risk. But even this trick can't ensure your funds aren't stolen by a lucky dude.

Humans are very bad at reasoning with extremely large numbers, and probabilities.

When you say "not impossible" you make it sound like it's probable because of a limitation of our language. I guess it's easier to understand it if you compare it to something else.

The probability of a human to walk through a wall is also virtually impossible, but not impossible based on quantum tunnelling:

the probability of a human of tunnelling is e^-10^35.

Would you try walking through walls? of course not. Same with accidentally finding the keys of another person's Bitcoin wallet.

[KennyR]

I guess it's like generating of just some words that could be said as private keys. If there's a program like that then you saw how many successes that website has been made. So, how many?
I don't think that you're able to get even a penny from those generations of private keys.

Agreed, and these are some form of trap. Not even a single private key can be generated and used to recover funds of a wallet which is in custody of another user holding the real private key. It is good not to enter such websites.

In the past I've tried some of the multiplier scams which directs you to download software and run it. In such a way I lost little bitcoins. So, never enter such websites and later these websites might request for funds to generate private Keys. In particular the beginners should be informed about these kind of traps.

[o_e_l_e_o]

In the past I've tried some of the multiplier scams which directs you to download software and run it.

I hope you have since formatted whichever computer(s) you used to download that software, since it will definitely have installed some kind of malware on your device and could attempt to steal any coins you store on that device in the future, or perhaps your log in credentials for exchanges or other sites.

So, never enter such websites and later these websites might request for funds to generate private Keys.

The more concerning feature is that sites like the one OP has posted often offer a functionality for users to "check your own private key". And of course as soon as you enter your private key in to a website, you can wave goodbye to all the coins on it.

[odolvlobo]

... a site like https://<suspicious link>/ gives the ability to virtually explore all the private keys existing in the elliptic curve. The Random button on the site https://<suspicious link> generates pages of private keys that could reveal addresses with a positive balance!!!

Be very careful with these sites. Many of them are phishing sites. They encourage you to enter private keys in order to steal your coins.

[batang_bitcoin]

I guess it's like generating of just some words that could be said as private keys. If there's a program like that then you saw how many successes that website has been made. So, how many?
I don't think that you're able to get even a penny from those generations of private keys.

Agreed, and these are some form of trap. Not even a single private key can be generated and used to recover funds of a wallet which is in custody of another user holding the real private key. It is good not to enter such websites.

In the past I've tried some of the multiplier scams which directs you to download software and run it. In such a way I lost little bitcoins. So, never enter such websites and later these websites might request for funds to generate private Keys. In particular the beginners should be informed about these kind of traps.

I highly doubt that there's a program that will be able to generate a private key that will have an actual fund. Reading those mathematical fact on how it's possible to happen, that's already enough to be convinced that this is a website and program that's really made to just generate random words. Like what we did before when I was still in school learning how to code but I'm a failure on it. And as well a good take and warning from odolv.

[seoincorporation]

Considering that whale accounts and exchange accounts contain thousands of bitcoins, one lucky guy could accidentally find millions of dollars on hand !!

It's totally possible, but the odds are so low that makes it almost impossible, there are bigger odds about a meteor hitting the earth to destroy it than finding a random address with balance.

Is like using vanitygen to Bruteforce addresses just by creating them and trying to catch one with balance, you could try for years and get an empty address all the way.

[jerry0]

Can someone show me with numbers... and not like to the power of x ... the total amount of btc seed phrases there are right now... compared to the total possible number of possible btc addresses?  What percentage does it make up?  Would someone who generated a seed but never had any btc sent to their wallet even count as an active address?  But how would that person even know what their address is if they never check to see what their receiving address is on their nano ledger?  i believe that with electrum after generating a seed phrase, the default receive address is right there?



Also... there are some 12 word seeds and of course 24 word seeds.  Or you can't find this out but only know about the addresses?



What about other coins then like say electrum litecoin that only stores litecoin?  Do they use the same word list?  Thing is if you have tons of computers... how is it not possible to find just one seed phrase that has some coin of any type?  Surely you could hit some type of coin right?   

[Fivestar4everMVP]

Since my years in this space, I've never heard, neither has it ever been in the news that someone was able to guess the private keys of a wallet containing bitcoins or any other coins, and this only points to one thing, it's practically impossible to guess the private keys to a wallet with funds in it, there are alot of computer wizards in the world who are into crypto today, if it was possible to guess the private keys of a wallet containing funds correctly, this set of individuals would have done it, and it will be in the news.

I personally at some point in time took it upon myself to try to guess private keys to different wallet hoping that in the process, I might stumble into a wallet with funds inside, I did this for several days and I was able to generate privates keys to over a thousand different wallets, but they were all wallets with no funds in it, I mean they were practically new wallets.

[o_e_l_e_o]

you could try for years and get an empty address all the way.

Correction: You will get nothing but empty addresses.

Can someone show me with numbers... and not like to the power of x ... the total amount of btc seed phrases there are right now... compared to the total possible number of possible btc addresses?

12 word seed phrases (2¹²⁸):

Code:

340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456

Addresses (2¹⁶⁰) of each type:

Code:

1,461,501,637,330,902,918,203,684,832,716,283,019,655,932,542,976

In terms of how many of each have currently been created, then we have no way of knowing for sure.

Would someone who generated a seed but never had any btc sent to their wallet even count as an active address?

No. We have no way of knowing which addresses have been generated but never funded.

But how would that person even know what their address is if they never check to see what their receiving address is on their nano ledger?  i believe that with electrum after generating a seed phrase, the default receive address is right there?

Checking an address locally leaves no traces on the blockchain, so the network has no idea if you have generated an address.

Surely you could hit some type of coin right?

No.

[jerry0]

With the second long number you posted... is that the total amount of addresses for the 12 word seed phrase?  If so, that is a lot.


What about how many total seed phrases for a 24 word seed?


Well the other thing is this.  When you look at how many possible seed phrases there are, aren't there going to be lot of seed phrases where some people will not use if say they see repeated words?  Example its been mentioned some people seed phrases could contain the same word twice.  Now imagine their seed phrase contain the same word say 6 times... surely someone might later choose another seed phrase later on if they are bothered by this? 

[GeorgeJohn]

Bitcoin is safe and safer if you keep your private phrase to the place nobody can penetrate with it via your wallet, the only factor i know quite well that is making some people to think otherwise over cryptocurrency is insecurities of cryptocurrency address, so whenever ever is misguided, it's very obvious that what ever you have in such particular wallet doesn't belong to you. So that's the reason storing the seed phrase you most be conscious and take precautions before you keep.