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A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

karpathy.github.io

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Re: A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

#62

Post by toxik »

If you, like me, were curious about what the secret key 1 is on the mainnet, then here you are:

       1 1BgGZ9tcN4rm9KBzDn7KprQz87SZ26SAMH https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1BgGZ9tcN4rm9KBzDn7KprQz87SZ26SAMH
Some others:

       2 1cMh228HTCiwS8ZsaakH8A8wze1JR5ZsP  https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1cMh228HTCiwS8ZsaakH8A8wze1JR5ZsP
       3 1CUNEBjYrCn2y1SdiUMohaKUi4wpP326Lb https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1CUNEBjYrCn2y1SdiUMohaKUi4wpP326Lb
      42 1EMxdcJsfN5jwtZRVRvztDns1LgquGUTwi https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1EMxdcJsfN5jwtZRVRvztDns1LgquGUTwi
    1337 1DN76uuAUDY1DLxABD3JAyunhhAreJbCjT https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1DN76uuAUDY1DLxABD3JAyunhhAreJbCjT

Re: A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

#64

Post by G3rn0ti »

chadhutchins10 wrote: post #22
torcete wrote: post #6

I wonder how strong would Elliptic Curve Cryptography be compared to other methods if there is a major breakthrough in quantum computing.

I wish this were talked about more. Quantum computing is the biggest long-term threat to crypto imo. What's the plan once elliptic curve cryptography can be broken? There will be a point in time where there are just a few quantum computers that can break everything before the general public has access to quantum computing. Can crypto work in that scenario? Normal computers wouldn't be able to work with the beastly al…

> What's the plan once elliptic curve cryptography can be broken?

A likely drop-in replacement for elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) currently used by Bitcoin could be

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersingular_isogeny_key_exch...

I am not a Mathematician, but what I understood, it's basically an extension of ECC using multiple elliptic curves, allows to re-use the Diffie–Hellman key exchange protocol (private keys kept secret, public keys exchanged) and memory requirements are small. So it would be a perfect replacement in wallets and validation nodes. But I can not explain why it is safe against an attack using quantum computers.

Re: A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

#65

Post by wyager »

noxer wrote: post #61

"...Bitcoin is a living, breathing, developing code base that is moving forward with new features to continue to scale..." There is exactly zero progress to make it scale in the last 10+ years.

> There is exactly zero progress to make it scale in the last 10+ years.

Lol, literally this week: https://taproot.watch/

Re: A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

#67

Post by noxer »

wyager wrote: post #65
noxer wrote: post #61

"...Bitcoin is a living, breathing, developing code base that is moving forward with new features to continue to scale..." There is exactly zero progress to make it scale in the last 10+ years.

> There is exactly zero progress to make it scale in the last 10+ years. Lol, literally this week: https://taproot.watch/

Taproot doesn't make bitcoin scale its mainly to increase privacy.

Re: A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

#68

Post by blocked_again »

That's a lot of upvotes. Do you folks really spend hours going through the whole blog post? I for one can never go through the whole blog post. My brain would be shouting at me the whole time to work on something that can generate passive recurring revenue instead.

Re: A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

#69

Post by [deleted] »

plebianRube wrote: post #26
IncRnd wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shor's algorithm, which runs partially on a classical computer and a portion on a quantum computer, breaks elliptic-curve cryptography.

Yes, with major caveats - knowing the public key and having 100s of messages signed by corresponding private key. Nowadays people only expose their public key one time per transaction, and never reuse their address. So to steal coins, not only do you have only ~10 mins between blocks to find the private key, currently Shor's algorithm is unfeasible with only 1 signed message.

[deleted]

Re: A from-scratch tour of Bitcoin in Python

#70

Post by bogota »

noxer wrote: post #66
21eleven wrote: post #17

Looks like the exercise left to the reader has been completed: https://www.blockchain.com/btc-testnet/tx/182bf9202649ded3a6...

0.00090000 BTC moved 0.00005000 BTC Fees Thats 5.55% On the test net! On the real net it would be like 20% or more in fees.

Fees are dictated by the user and the time they have for the transaction to take place. The fee could have been much lower.

I think we are well past the point of debating if bitcoin layer one will be used for day to day transactions however. A custodial service or lighting will have to be used for that. Additionally most people treat bitcoin closer to gold than a dollar currently.

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