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bitcoinmining (OP)
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December 03, 2014, 01:21:46 AM |
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Is there any chance to find those lost BTCs' private keys? Lots of early BTC adopters lost their private key and thousands of BTC is now useless...
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Bitcoin addresses contain a checksum, so it is very unlikely that mistyping an address will cause you to lose money.
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inBitweTrust
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December 03, 2014, 01:34:30 AM |
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Is there any chance to find those lost BTCs' private keys? Lots of early BTC adopters lost their private key and thousands of BTC is now useless...
Depends upon what you mean by lost. If you mean they forgot about a device or wallet or find a Casascius coin in their couch than sure, otherwise never and those lost coins represents a deflationary "donation" to the community. |
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bradleyb5155
Newbie
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Activity: 59
Merit: 0
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December 03, 2014, 01:50:14 AM |
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How exactly does the "private keys" work? If you guess the correct key do you have access to the wallet, given there is no encryption?
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inBitweTrust
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December 03, 2014, 02:27:26 AM |
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How exactly does the "private keys" work? If you guess the correct key do you have access to the wallet, given there is no encryption?
Having unencrypted access to the private keys means you can move or spend the funds on the public ledger. Essentially, those that control the private keys own the money associated to those keys. |
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segvec
Full Member
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Activity: 196
Merit: 100
The cheddar breed jealousy
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December 03, 2014, 02:31:49 AM |
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If there were, I'd be a multi-million dollar man right now.
/thread.
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twister
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December 03, 2014, 03:43:46 AM |
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Is there any chance to find those lost BTCs' private keys? Lots of early BTC adopters lost their private key and thousands of BTC is now useless...
Nope. It's not possible. If that was possible hackers would find any key and steal BTC from any one. |
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jonald_fyookball
Legendary
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Activity: 1302
Merit: 1004
Core dev leaves me neg feedback #abuse #political
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December 03, 2014, 05:10:51 AM |
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How exactly does the "private keys" work? If you guess the correct key do you have access to the wallet, given there is no encryption?
Sure. Just like if you can guess where pirates buried treasure a few centureis ago, and dig there, you would have access to the booty. So, yeah... "good luck" with that one. |
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bitcoinmining (OP)
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December 03, 2014, 10:03:25 AM |
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How exactly does the "private keys" work? If you guess the correct key do you have access to the wallet, given there is no encryption?
Sure. Just like if you can guess where pirates buried treasure a few centureis ago, and dig there, you would have access to the booty. So, yeah... "good luck" with that one. Yeah I was imagining something like that, it would be fun to find someone else's lost 500 Bitcoin like finding old treasure  |
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shorena
Copper Member
Legendary
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Activity: 1498
Merit: 1520
No I dont escrow anymore.
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December 03, 2014, 10:25:30 AM |
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Is there any chance to find those lost BTCs' private keys? Lots of early BTC adopters lost their private key and thousands of BTC is now useless...
Jup, 1 in 2 160 multiplied by the number of private keys that have spendable coins on them. In order words: dont even bother. How exactly does the "private keys" work? If you guess the correct key do you have access to the wallet, given there is no encryption?
If you guess the correct key you have access to the funds there. Since there are 2 96 private keys for each address it does not even have to be that same exact private key. Encryption does not matter in this case. Its like guessing a password. The private keys are only encrypted so your wallet file is harder to temper with. -snip-
Sure. Just like if you can guess where pirates buried treasure a few centureis ago, and dig there,
you would have access to the booty. So, yeah... "good luck" with that one.
Chances to find a lost chest a pirate burried are higher than finding a private key that has coins. |
Im not really here, its just your imagination.
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cryptworld
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December 03, 2014, 11:48:30 AM |
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If there were, I'd be a multi-million dollar man right now.
/thread.
actually no,because bitcoin value would drop to zero |
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thompete
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December 03, 2014, 11:57:39 AM |
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Is there any chance to find those lost BTCs' private keys? Lots of early BTC adopters lost their private key and thousands of BTC is now useless...
I think it will be useless. The amount of coins lost because of this could be upto a million, but hard to say or predict. Maybe, after 10 years an app will come out, to show what amount of coins have not moved in the last 10 years. |
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Q7
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December 03, 2014, 12:09:25 PM |
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Unless that account holds significant amount of bitcoin like probably few hundred thousands, i believe technologically people can still find a way to recover the private key. Whether they invest in super hardware or by other means, it will just take considerably long time to do that. But first the question is.... is the reward worth all the trouble???
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rz20
Legendary
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Activity: 1330
Merit: 1001
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December 03, 2014, 12:10:37 PM |
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It is impossible to find a lost key, you won't be able to recover it ever, so they are lost forever.
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thompete
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December 03, 2014, 12:15:46 PM |
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It is impossible to find a lost key, you won't be able to recover it ever, so they are lost forever.
Its impossible to find a lost key belonging to another individual. But if people lost it in a computer crash or backup, then they might be recoverable. |
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Flashman
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December 03, 2014, 12:18:36 PM |
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You are more likely to catch a fish that swallowed a USB drive with an unencrypted BTC wallet on, than come up with a valid method of cracking private keys.
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TL;DR See Spot run. Run Spot run. .... .... Freelance interweb comedian, for teh lulz >>> 1MqAAR4XkJWfDt367hVTv5SstPZ54Fwse6
Bitcoin Custodian: Keeping BTC away from weak heads since Feb '13, adopter of homeless bitcoins. |
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rz20
Legendary
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Activity: 1330
Merit: 1001
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December 03, 2014, 12:20:42 PM |
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It is impossible to find a lost key, you won't be able to recover it ever, so they are lost forever.
Its impossible to find a lost key belonging to another individual. But if people lost it in a computer crash or backup, then they might be recoverable. Sure. This is why you should always save you keys in a paper or in an electrum seed. |
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cheekychap
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December 03, 2014, 12:59:30 PM |
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You are more likely to catch a fish that swallowed a USB drive with an unencrypted BTC wallet on, than come up with a valid method of cracking private keys.
Even if you do come about cracking private keys, it might not be of someone, who lost his provate keys. Would be quite random I suppose. |
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Febo
Legendary
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Activity: 2730
Merit: 1288
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December 03, 2014, 02:02:05 PM |
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Is there any chance to find those lost BTCs' private keys? Lots of early BTC adopters lost their private key and thousands of BTC is now useless...
Ofcourse. Is there chance to find ships that was sink in 15 century bringing Gold to spain from South America? Yes with new technology it is. So in 10-20-30 years, people will search fro such wallets for a living. try to get passwords. |
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jonald_fyookball
Legendary
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Activity: 1302
Merit: 1004
Core dev leaves me neg feedback #abuse #political
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December 03, 2014, 02:16:18 PM |
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-snip-
Sure. Just like if you can guess where pirates buried treasure a few centureis ago, and dig there,
you would have access to the booty. So, yeah... "good luck" with that one.
Chances to find a lost chest a pirate burried are higher than finding a private key that has coins. please provide your analysis on that probability. |
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