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Topic: Are some private keys safer than others? - page 2. (Read 2172 times)

hero member
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September 21, 2017, 05:50:52 AM
#7
use generate privates keys, since it is important key to access your account, you need strong combinations to make it

Which combinations are you talking about now?

If it is truly random, then your randomly generated private key could be 1 just as probably as anything else. I prefer to check that my randomly generated key is NOT very small  or close to the biggest possible number.

That is a good exercise, however the bitcoin private keys would be pretty much uncrackable at least on modern computer. I think winning in  a lottery has a bigger chance, than generating a private key that already has bitcoins on it.

What I understand is that generating private is not bad or not secure and what you need to put in check or always make sure is secure is your passcode/password which mean you have to use a genuine and uncrackable.

Generating vanity addresses is the same security as far as i know, as just using the automatically generated keys by your wallet. Also it does not matter if you have a password, unless you have a BIP39 encrypted key, which is not used by the wallets by standard. I  use at least vanitygen for my keys, and generating a key on vanitygen is as safe as your computer is, assuming that you take care of your security well enough.
hero member
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September 21, 2017, 05:18:09 AM
#6
What I understand is that generating private is not bad or not secure and what you need to put in check or always make sure is secure is your passcode/password which mean you have to use a genuine and uncrackable.
full member
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September 21, 2017, 02:52:38 AM
#5
Quote
Of course small keys aren't safe. There are no checks for key nor for the seed words. Only important thing is that it was randomly generated.
If it was, then it would be pointless to check if it some small key due to the huge possible range of numbers it could be. If there was any realistic chance for a key to be small, then random number generator is not doing a good job in the first place and that would be the actual problem to solve.

If it is truly random, then your randomly generated private key could be 1 just as probably as anything else. I prefer to check that my randomly generated key is NOT very small  or close to the biggest possible number.
full member
Activity: 406
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September 20, 2017, 10:01:29 PM
#4
Considering that many people generate public keys non-stop, I guess some private keys are better to be avoided, for example private key 1 or the maximum key value allowed. Are there any general rules for checking that you private key is safe in this terms i.e. how far it is from the both ends of the range for example, or from the middle or with a few zero bytes in it or with a simple pattern that might attract people picking up keys?

The same question about seeds that are used to generate private keys: are all seeds acceptable or are there some checks in place?

Thank you!
use generate privates keys, since it is important key to access your account, you need strong combinations to make it
sr. member
Activity: 490
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Do not trust the government
September 20, 2017, 07:48:08 PM
#3
Considering that many people generate public keys non-stop, I guess some private keys are better to be avoided, for example private key 1 or the maximum key value allowed. Are there any general rules for checking that you private key is safe in this terms i.e. how far it is from the both ends of the range for example, or from the middle or with a few zero bytes in it or with a simple pattern that might attract people picking up keys?

The same question about seeds that are used to generate private keys: are all seeds acceptable or are there some checks in place?

Thank you!

Of course small keys aren't safe. There are no checks for key nor for the seed words. Only important thing is that it was randomly generated.
If it was, then it would be pointless to check if it some small key due to the huge possible range of numbers it could be. If there was any realistic chance for a key to be small, then random number generator is not doing a good job in the first place and that would be the actual problem to solve.

You simply shouldn't choose the numbers or seeds yourself, because as a human you are not a good source of randomness. As such, there is no need for checks then, as it is simply random otherwise.

This more comes down to how your computer functions IMO. If your compuer is good at randomely generating numbers, then your private keys/public keys should be safe and not be repeated. There have been reports that the randomisation in linux that is used is not as accurate as the randomisation in Windows (I'm not sure how accurate this was or whether it's still significant enough to cause a difference).

It's probably a good idea to check addresses/public keys on block explorers first to see if there's anything significant on them and see if they've already been used (but there probably won't be - and if they have, try to report it and not take any temptation to steal from the user's address you have the private key of if by an odd chance you manage to generate someone else's private key - but this would be near impossible).

I doubt that Windows is better at randomness. Not just because it is generally less security focused system and is closed source, which means there could be a quite predictable algorithm that chooses numbers under the hood. But also because there were many cases when the randomness was attacked in .NET framework. Some of the ransomwere was cracked due to these issues and they just started popping up relatively recently.

Of course there were old Linux versions with bad RNG, and some old routers still have crackable WiFi because of this, but as an open source software, you know what you are using.
copper member
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September 20, 2017, 05:51:27 PM
#2
Considering that many people generate public keys non-stop, I guess some private keys are better to be avoided, for example private key 1 or the maximum key value allowed. Are there any general rules for checking that you private key is safe in this terms i.e. how far it is from the both ends of the range for example, or from the middle or with a few zero bytes in it or with a simple pattern that might attract people picking up keys?

The same question about seeds that are used to generate private keys: are all seeds acceptable or are there some checks in place?

Thank you!

This more comes down to how your computer functions IMO. If your compuer is good at randomely generating numbers, then your private keys/public keys should be safe and not be repeated. There have been reports that the randomisation in linux that is used is not as accurate as the randomisation in Windows (I'm not sure how accurate this was or whether it's still significant enough to cause a difference).

It's probably a good idea to check addresses/public keys on block explorers first to see if there's anything significant on them and see if they've already been used (but there probably won't be - and if they have, try to report it and not take any temptation to steal from the user's address you have the private key of if by an odd chance you manage to generate someone else's private key - but this would be near impossible).
member
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September 20, 2017, 04:57:37 PM
#1
Considering that many people generate public keys non-stop, I guess some private keys are better to be avoided, for example private key 1 or the maximum key value allowed. Are there any general rules for checking that you private key is safe in this terms i.e. how far it is from the both ends of the range for example, or from the middle or with a few zero bytes in it or with a simple pattern that might attract people picking up keys?

The same question about seeds that are used to generate private keys: are all seeds acceptable or are there some checks in place?

Thank you!
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