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All Bitcoin private keys are on this website

playxo.com

371–380 of 398 posts

Re: All Bitcoin private keys are on this website

#371
post #102

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?

It’s theft, but I suppose you could claim it was really your private key the whole time. Would the other person be able to prove it was theirs?

1. isn't bitcoin essentially worth $0 at that point? the technology is provably not safe and everyone will (should?) dump. getting it back is pointless. If I drag it out for a week or two it might not even make it to small claims.

2. having a court force someone to give bitcoin to someone else because they "don't own it" is also against what bitcoin stands for: decentralized. the blockchain decides who owns the bitcoin. regardless of how it got there. if some entity decides who should own what amount of bitcoin then the blockchain becomes irrelevant.

3. the blockchain is not irrelevant and is not under anyone's control (is it?). how can a court enforce bitcoin ownership transfer? if I burn the private key out of spite then good luck. you're not made whole, I don't have access to said bitcoin. now what? should I go to jail? what does that solve? it only tells the next guy to not brag about finding private keys left and right.

Re: All Bitcoin private keys are on this website

#372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it depends on jurisdiction, but it would be really interesting to see what would happen if someone got their hands on keys of some commercial organizations’ wallet and then publicly announced (according to the premise that they are the rightful owner). E.g by using a PRNG-weakness in some HSM or something, i.e no entry into their networks etc. My guess is that the court would recognize the first owner as th…

Does a court even have a mandate over something that it cannot enforce anyways? What's the point of a court deciding something about Bitcoin ownership? I'd just embarass itself, wouldn't it?

I think my point is that Bitcoin isn’t different (in some aspects) compared to other asset.

If a company accidentally sent a bundle of cash via registered mail to the wrong person, the recipient (if known) would probably have to return that cash after a court ruling.

If Coinbase made an erroneous transfer of BTC to one of their customers (whose identities they know), the recipient would probably have to return the bitcoins after a court ruling.

If the recipient of the mailed cash is unknown, or the person associated with the receiving wallet is unknown, then the court could obviously do nothing. But that inability is a function of the knowledge about the parties involved, not of the underlying technologies.

Bitcoin obviously makes it much easier to be unknown to the judicial system. But in my view, for it to be completely not-theft, the recipient should be able to announce publicly what he has done without fear of repercussions.

Similar to how e.g digging up historical artifacts in some jurisdictions is a legal way to gain ownership of something that previously had a different owner.

Re: All Bitcoin private keys are on this website

#373
post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am interested on the simple technical answer for this. Is it possible to simply take funds out if you stmble across or happen to randomly generate a valid private key? So if I were developing such a website as posted here ... I would obviously put an automated code that transfers any funds to my own wallet (if there is a non zero wallet discovered when rendering a page on the fly). Effectively just using the millio…

you can do that now, and without a website, obviously. You probably need to do it more than trillions of years, but go ahead. You might be lucky (though it's more likely that you crash in a plane, or, for that matter, that a plane crashes on your house, in the meantime).

but that's the point of this website. all the computation is done on the thousands of clients generating these keys. its only a matter of time (and some luck) until a green wallet is hit. if the site owner is malicious then it will actually empty the wallet in the background and show it red in the front.

Re: All Bitcoin private keys are on this website

#374
some even have transactions:

https://playxo.com/bitcoin/1

https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1PDSZN2qgFcuay1vVRxYo...

is/was there a way to get vanity keys from the 'first page'?

also last one:

https://playxo.com/bitcoin/904625697166532776746648320380374...

if a visitor to this site stumbles upon a jackpot, will the server be informed?

Re: All Bitcoin private keys are on this website

#375
post #252
post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, do you also think international companies are above the law? States very much care what's going on within its borders, if its via services hosted outside them or not. And in some cases states will even care about what their citizens do outside their borders. For example, engaging in child sex tourism can have legal consequences even if the actual abuse happens in a foreign country. Decentralization isn't magic.…

I don't see how that relates to my statement. In the trustless and decentralized system of Bitcoin (and other blockchain implementations), there is no concept of theft. If you misplace your private key you're on your own. There's no central authority to turn to. Similar if someone cracks your private key. That's the entire idea of the technology. If you use bitcoin for money laundering, you're not gonna get in troubl…

There's no concept of theft in the physical material of gold either.

Re: All Bitcoin private keys are on this website

#376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It a One in a million shot. So definitely will happen.

I'm sorry but I don't think it's one in a million. If it were, we'd be finding keys left and right every second.

That was a discworld reference.

Re: All Bitcoin private keys are on this website

#377
post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not an argument. In any case, more and more governments are now recognizing crypto as something real, and are coming onboard. E.g. most recently Dubai.

Could you tell me how it’s changing in Dubai?

Look up dubai crypto hub

Re: All Bitcoin private keys are on this website

#379
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then, when you "hit the jackpot", will you become a thief? Or will you just feel like you picked a lock, smile and pull the door back shut.

As they say "the unstoppable law of unbreakable code". You will become the "rightful" owner of those tokens, unless they happen to belong to one of the Not-The-Owners of that particular blockchain. If they are, they will just fork a blockchain removing your money from your wallet. Vitalik and Co already did this with Ethereum after TheDAO contract execution as designed, because their own funds were affected.

See my earlier comment about this no longer being feasible.
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