hacking secret keys in the future

[Relnarien]

I see a lot of people who don't know what the hell they're talking about.

If by "secret keys", you are referring to private keys, then there is no need to "hack" them. Here, go to this site -- http://directory.io . You can get every single private key in existence from that site. It doesn't matter though, since the digits amounting to the number of pages are more than all your fingers and toes combined. You can try to run a bot which checks every single private key you find there and your computer will die even before you get through 0.00000000000000001% of that "list". Now, if you're talking about hacking someone's computer in order to get their private keys, well, anyone can do that right now, so that's not really a theoretical scenario. Safeguard your computer and your files like a rational person would.

As for the people talking about "hacking" the blockchain, what exactly are you going on about? Do you even know what the blockchain is?

[groll]

let's say we're 20 years in the future and the world has adopted bitcoin as a global currency.  We develop very sophisticated processing technology, and a bunch of nerds hack all the secret keys of the bitcoin network.  That is a bad future.

Well as you said that it is in the future sophisticated firewalls and security will hinder bitcoin from being hacked. Government will be in control of bitcoins like they control fiat currency and so there will be strict monitoring to check any virtual invaders in the system. Nevertheless, the blockchain is there to add more protection and multiple layers to the secret keys.

[tobacco123]

If SHA256 was hacked, Bitcooin would be the least of your worries.

Exactly. Before SHA256 can be hacked, the advancement of any hacking technology would have already capable of hacking many other secure (but less secure than bitcoin) systems/networks that are more valuable than bitcoin.

[kryptqnick]

and a bunch of nerds hack all the secret keys of the bitcoin network

What secret keys, exactly?

Surely he means private keys.

Yes, but private keys are not of the bitcoin network. They are for individual accounts. Whatever they're referring to doesn't seem to make sense.

Well, if private keys don't work then btc is unprotected and people won't want to use them

[Pavua]

Hacking account, money or what is illegal.  And hacking  is one of the most crime in the world that very hard to solve. And I don't think so if hacking is secret keys to the near future.

[7788bitcoin]

I think a bunch or nerds is also trying to hack the computer systems in Banks and financial institutions. I am sure they are so so much easier and more profitable targets than bitcoin...

Basically, if bitcoin private keys are hackable, none of the current system is safe.

[Senor.Bla]

a couple of things.
over a period of 20 year not only decryption will get better. also encryption and bitcoin can update his encryption if this will be necessary, but i think we are good for a long time.
but let us assume somebody breaks sha256 tomorrow. why would he go for bitcoin? there are much more interesting targets with more money on the line. also the bitcoin price would drop fast and what you this someone do with a lot of worthless coins?

[Kakmakr]

a couple of things.
over a period of 20 year not only decryption will get better. also encryption and bitcoin can update his encryption if this will be necessary, but i think we are good for a long time.
but let us assume somebody breaks sha256 tomorrow. why would he go for bitcoin? there are much more interesting targets with more money on the line. also the bitcoin price would drop fast and what you this someone do with a lot of worthless coins?

There are other stronger encryption technologies, but it's not tested and has some challenges that needs to be addressed before it can be implemented. < Speed > Most of the other financial systems use sha256, so a breach in Bitcoin's encryption, would also spill over to all the other financial systems in the world.

We will have another Y2K event, where financial systems needs to adapt to these changes in the technologies. In all likelihood this will not happen in our life time. ^smile^

[Senor.Bla]

There are other stronger encryption technologies, but it's not tested and has some challenges that needs to be addressed before it can be implemented.

The 20 years given by op should be enough
I just wanted to point out that it is a constant race and both sides are evolving and not just the decryption side.

Most of the other financial systems use sha256, so a breach in Bitcoin's encryption, would also spill over to all the other financial systems in the world.

and this is exactly why i think the attacker would focus on those since at this point bitcoin becomes worthless but people wont stop using Dollar or Euros at once because of that. so why should the attacker bother with bitcoin.

[icanscript]

let's say we're 20 years in the future and the world has adopted bitcoin as a global currency.  We develop very sophisticated processing technology, and a bunch of nerds hack all the secret keys of the bitcoin network.  That is a bad future.

Well as you said that it is in the future sophisticated firewalls and security will hinder bitcoin from being hacked. Government will be in control of bitcoins like they control fiat currency and so there will be strict monitoring to check any virtual invaders in the system. Nevertheless, the blockchain is there to add more protection and multiple layers to the secret keys.

Firewalls? what do they have to do with SHA256 or ECDSA?

well, unless your talking about SHA256 Phase 2 of a VPN.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=931416.msg10225078#msg10225078

[yenxz]

The government may control the bitcoin as they control the original currency and so there will be strict controls to check for any invader
virtual system. This as you say that in future advanced firewall and security would hamper bitcoin from invaders / hacked .
however blockchain there is to add protection and multiple layers with a secret key .

[icanscript]

The government may control the bitcoin as they control the original currency and so there will be strict controls to check for any invader
virtual system. This as you say that in future advanced firewall and security would hamper bitcoin from invaders / hacked .
however blockchain there is to add protection and multiple layers with a secret key .

A firewall is not going to stop something that anyone can attempt to crack locally. Regarding Keys.

If you are on about nodes. then for them to accept connections on the p2p port it would have to be open anyway, so a firewall doesn't help in this situation either unless you block down exactly who can use your full node, which makes no sense anyway. firewalls can already do this kind of stuff.