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All Bitcoin private keys are on this website

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Re: All Bitcoin private keys are on this website

#111
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a rare care where "astronomically low" is actually underselling how unlikely something is.

I mean, I found 10 used wallets not within 1000 pages of the first nor last page of his website in roughly 5 minutes. I’m fully aware behind the math of finding a wallet actually holding anything… but I was fairly weirded out to come across 10 wallets that quickly. Most had their last txn out roughly 2019.

I've noticed that there are a few hardcoded ones on the final page, where the account exists and the key is wrong.

I'd say odds are that the website is wrong, but you can always load those keys in a wallet and see if they give you control over the actual address.

If that works, I'd assume it's the case that some people have used weak keys (for example, a popular Ethereum wallet would actually generate 256 bits of entropy but accidentally truncate it to 32 bits in an operation), and any funds in those wallets will have been snagged long ago.

Point being: generate a private key properly, and no one will ever find it.

EDIT: I realize this is another page then the one I've seen previously, but I think the same idea applies. That one had support for Ethereum, too, and on the final page was an account with a balance.

Re: All Bitcoin private keys are on this website

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With every supercomputer working for 100 years, you can have 0.01% of all accounts, maybe.

... not even close. 2^256 is a very large number. If you could build a computer that required a single atom, and could test the balance of a single account in a single nanosecond, and then converted the entirety of the earth into such computers, it would take ~2.8 million years for you to check 0.01% of all accounts. Brute-forcing modern cryptography isn't something that can happen. The magnitude of 2^256 is close to…

The best quote for this is from Bruce Schneier:

"... brute-force attacks against 256-bit keys will be infeasible until computers are built from something other than matter and occupy something other than space."

https://security.stackexchange.com/a/82412

Re: All Bitcoin private keys are on this website

#117
Let's play a game just to visualize how unlikely this is.

Do you know our universe?

Nice, now choose a random atom. Yup, one single atom.

Randomly guessing your exact single atom is just a bit harder than guessing someone's private key in that way... considering that the number of atom in the observable universe is between 10^78 and 10^82 and not considering that there are a lot of wallets around.

Re: All Bitcoin private keys are on this website

#120

Soo what happens if you're incredibly lucky and stumble across the private key for an active wallet? If you transfer the funds out, isn't that just theft? Is "guessing" a private key any different from guessing someone's bank details?

The problem would be getting the money out without revealing your identity
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