Mining v Hacking

[thirdprize]

Just curious, if you had unlimited processing power, would it be easier to use it for mining or (after having found a nice public key) trying to work out the private key?  Presumably you could spam transactions with an infinite number of private keys and one of them would eventually work.  Is there any safeguards against this?

[1715091576]

1715091576

[1715091576]

1715091576

[shorena]

Just curious, if you had unlimited processing power, would it be easier to use it for mining or (after having found a nice public key) trying to work out the private key?  Presumably you could spam transactions with an infinite number of private keys and one of them would eventually work.  Is there any safeguards against this?

Against unlimited procecssing power? Nope, nothing, but the boundaries of this universe.

[bitcoin_purist]

Just curious, if you had unlimited processing power, would it be easier to use it for mining or (after having found a nice public key) trying to work out the private key?  Presumably you could spam transactions with an infinite number of private keys and one of them would eventually work.  Is there any safeguards against this?

If you had unlimited processing power, you could hack the entire internet, bitcoin would not be number one target imho.

[Jamie_Boulder]

Just curious, if you had unlimited processing power, would it be easier to use it for mining or (after having found a nice public key) trying to work out the private key?  Presumably you could spam transactions with an infinite number of private keys and one of them would eventually work.  Is there any safeguards against this?

Against unlimited procecssing power? Nope, nothing, but the boundaries of this universe.

Assuming these is a limit which there always is, time is your only enemy.

[548845]

Just curious, if you had unlimited processing power, would it be easier to use it for mining or (after having found a nice public key) trying to work out the private key?  Presumably you could spam transactions with an infinite number of private keys and one of them would eventually work.  Is there any safeguards against this?

Against unlimited procecssing power? Nope, nothing, but the boundaries of this universe.

Numbers.
Once you have realized that there will always be MORE mathematical equations (solutions) for you to perform, then you will realize that numbers is the ONLY thing that is truly infinite.


 

[turvarya]

Where is the user, with this nice little picture about what amount of energy you would need for that ?

[TookDk]

Where is the user, with this nice little picture about what amount of energy you would need for that ?

Someone summoned me

http://miguelmoreno.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/fYFBsqp.jpg

[turvarya]

Where is the user, with this nice little picture about what amount of energy you would need for that ?

"Someone summoned me"

Are you thinking of this one?

http://miguelmoreno.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/fYFBsqp.jpg

Yay
I love this picture, I should bookmark it ^^

[Soros Shorts]

Just curious, if you had unlimited processing power, would it be easier to use it for mining or (after having found a nice public key) trying to work out the private key?  Presumably you could spam transactions with an infinite number of private keys and one of them would eventually work.  Is there any safeguards against this?

If you had unlimited processing power, you could hack the entire internet, bitcoin would not be number one target imho.

Hopefully someday Bitcoin would be the number one target, but right now if I had that kind of power I would clean out people's online accounts at JPMC, Citi and BofA.

[TookDk]

Where is the user, with this nice little picture about what amount of energy you would need for that ?

"Someone summoned me"

Are you thinking of this one?

http://miguelmoreno.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/fYFBsqp.jpg

Yay
I love this picture, I should bookmark it ^^

Yes, it really but things in perspective.
Also help illustrate how big of a number 2^256 is, most people have an idea that it is big, but not how big it really is.

As a side note: the number space of bitcoin private keys are "only" 2^160, since capital "O", the capital "I" and the lowercase "l", as well as the number "0" is excluded.

But 2^160 is till a very very very very very large number.

[redsn0w]

Where is the user, with this nice little picture about what amount of energy you would need for that ?

"Someone summoned me"

Are you thinking of this one?

http://miguelmoreno.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/fYFBsqp.jpg

Yay
I love this picture, I should bookmark it ^^

Yes, it really but things in perspective.
Also help illustrate how big of a number 2^256 is, most people have an idea that it is big, but not how big it really is.

As a side note: the number space of bitcoin private keys are "only" 2^160, since capital "O", the capital "I" and the lowercase "l", as well as the number "0" is excluded.

But 2^160 is till a very very very very very large number.

It's almost impossible , you can't live "for ever". This is a great image that explain you better :



Thanks to @TookDk.

[TookDk]

Thanks to @TookDk.

You are welcome

Please note I am not the author of the picture, I just like to post it, when people start talking about bitcoin address collisions and brute forcing private keys.

[hhanh00]

Today mining is easier since it is possible whereas a brute force hack is not.
But mining adjusts its difficulty. It has 256 bits to work with and hacking has 160 bits.
In theory, mining can become harder than hacking. Though
In practice both are unfeasible by brute force.

However brute force is the dumbest way to hack. Bullies don't make good hackers.

[shorena]

-snip-

Yes, it really but things in perspective.
Also help illustrate how big of a number 2^256 is, most people have an idea that it is big, but not how big it really is.

As a side note: the number space of bitcoin private keys are "only" 2^160, since capital "O", the capital "I" and the lowercase "l", as well as the number "0" is excluded.

But 2^160 is till a very very very very very large number.

Base58 ("O","I","l" and "0" excluded) is not the reason behind this. A private key is actually a 256bit number as well as the public key, but besides SHA256 also RIPEMD-160 is used and offers "only" 160 Bit. Thus there are 2⁹⁶ valid private keys for each address. The Base58 encoding you are refering to is just the final step [1].


[1] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Technical_background_of_version_1_Bitcoin_addresses

[Q7]

Well it depends. If a person is a cunning type and would not bother living happily despite knowing the victim who has lost the stash of bitcoin is living in misery, then probably he will choose to hack. That is provided that by calculation the account holds substantial stash of btc measured and weighed against mining reward.

For me, I would never do that even with all the processing power at my disposal. Question is.... not everybody will think the same.
.

[Flashman]

Damn, most of these threads sound like.

"I have a bicycle, that means I can get to Sirius right?"

[sandy47bt]

Lol, if you have unlimited processing power
I will trying work out satoshi nakamoto wallet 

But, you can get something better than bitcoin itself 
You might can predict future with huge source & unlimited processing power

Where is the user, with this nice little picture about what amount of energy you would need for that ?

Someone summoned me

http://miguelmoreno.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/fYFBsqp.jpg

Nice explanation 

[thirdprize]

Yeah, but do the NSA have any back doors into it?   

[Flashman]

Yeah, but do the NSA have any back doors into it?   

http://bitcoinmagazine.com/7781/satoshis-genius-unexpected-ways-in-which-bitcoin-dodged-some-cryptographic-bullet/
https://chrispacia.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/nsa-backdoors-and-bitcoin/

[thirdprize]

If Btc is to be the future then it needs to be future proof.  How fast will Quantum computers be in 20 years time?  What if we had two suns could we multi thread it?