What if all possible bitcoin wallets are owned?

[VoR0220]

It is my understanding that bitcoin wallets are created through a hash table with 64 bits of alphanumeric characters. What happens when all wallets are completely used up? What happens then? Just a curiosity question.

[cr1776]

It is my understanding that bitcoin wallets are created through a hash table with 64 bits of alphanumeric characters. What happens when all wallets are completely used up? What happens then? Just a curiosity question.

In all likelihood the universe will have ended thousands billions of years before anyone (or any group) could generate them all.

And if they did in some alternate reality with different laws of physics, they'd just be reused.

If it ever looked like it was a physical possibility, doubling the length would change that.

[funtotry]

It IS possible for one person to generate every single private key for all addresses, but this would take more than billions of years to do. There are limited amount of bitcoin address yes but when this happens it will be MUCH longer time from now.

[erre]

This is more appropriate:

[gmaxwell]

It is my understanding that bitcoin wallets are created through a hash table with 64 bits of alphanumeric characters.

Your understanding is incorrect. There is no hashtable involved anywhere, and Bitcoin addresses have 160 bits of data.

[HarmonLi]

It is my understanding that bitcoin wallets are created through a hash table with 64 bits of alphanumeric characters.

Your understanding is incorrect. There is no hashtable involved anywhere, and Bitcoin addresses have 160 bits of data.

Just have to stop by and say how awesome it is that people with incredible inside knowledge and understanding like gmaxwell just stop by and help answering questions from people who are new to Bitcoin. Awesome!!!

[VoR0220]

It is my understanding that bitcoin wallets are created through a hash table with 64 bits of alphanumeric characters.

Your understanding is incorrect. There is no hashtable involved anywhere, and Bitcoin addresses have 160 bits of data.

thank you for the correction.

[activebiz]

that's not possible as there are over 2^160 possible addresses

[Amph]

it would take a huge amount of time, which is impossible for any human, maybe some alien technology in the future can make it possible

[jjacob]

It is my understanding that bitcoin wallets are created through a hash table with 64 bits of alphanumeric characters. What happens when all wallets are completely used up? What happens then? Just a curiosity question.

I guess you are talking about bitcoin addresses and not wallets. Given the number of addresses possible, it is unlikely to happen when mankind rules. 
There are so many addresses that the probability of an identical address being generated by 2 users is almost zero. That should happen long before all addresses are used up.

[dothebeats]

There are too many bitcoin addresses that can be generated. Generating them all requires a computing power that's never been heard of before, and can be possibly invented after millions of years from now. It is possible, but is very improbable at the current time frame.

[Velkro]

Chart couple posts above should end this discussion.
There is more bitcoin addresses than all grains of sands in all beaches of the world

[cellard]

This is more appropriate:

This is really mindblowing. Bitcoin will survive until universe explodes.

[VoR0220]

That's pretty damn cool. Not gonna lie. Anyways, thanks for the response guys. Appreciate the education.

[yenzae0215]

it will take yearssssssss to generate all possible BTC address but just in case, maybe they can add atleast 1 character to it

[Q7]

If I were you I won't be bothered at all as the possibility is so low. Too low, like almost zero probability to have the same address owned by two different person. Even in advancement in computing power for years to come it will take a whole lifetime for things like that to happen.

[ranochigo]

It is practically impossible for one to generate all the addresses available without a few thousand hardware from the future (few hundred years). Why would someone even want to try it? It would just be a waste of resources.

[randy8777]

would it be possible that a fork brings us way more addresses and still let us use our current ones?

[Erza]

i don't think it will done ever
even if someone setup system to generate a lot of new addresses automatically then it will take them hundreds of the years or more

[koelen3]

This is more appropriate:

What's f**cking Zeptometre and Yoctoseconds