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Topic: How long would we have to wait to see a bitcoin address collision? a LONG time. - page 2. (Read 1902 times)

hero member
Activity: 546
Merit: 500
LOL what you looking at?
you don't gamble very much do you? It's possible to have a collision in the next minute.
You don't like mathematics do you? There is a huge difference between possible and probable. While a collision is possible at the moment it is highly unlikely.
Even if we are going to see the first collision in 500 years, it doesn't matter. Nobody can honestly expect any money system to last that long. Even if Bitcoin becomes widely adopted, eventually it will be replaced by something better (just as Bitcoin is replacing current systems) or it will have to be extensively upgraded.

there is a way to know if a collision happened, i mean blockchain will tell you that? because otherwise the one who will generate it, because of heavy luck, will not say a word about it, and no one will know if a collision has occured or not...
Well if you get lucky you would notice an added balance to your wallet. Otherwise you can manually check the first time the addresses has been seen in the blockchain. I do not think that others can know if you've generated a existing address though. Only the person(s) involved would know at first.

You could just answer him: KEEP BETTIN!  Cheesy Cheesy Cheesy
hero member
Activity: 546
Merit: 500
LOL what you looking at?
Our planet

Very interesting.
And I suppose this makes 99.9999999999999999% of transactions safe.

But... there's a butt.

I was thinking to post a thread regarding this exact matter MINUTES AGO.
If I didn't consult the forum right now, I would have posted it.
How many chances are those, that somebody opens a thread answering my question before I post it?
hero member
Activity: 770
Merit: 509
What would happen if this actually happened? Like what would the consequences be of an address being generated as new, actually being one with a previous history and record? what would happen if you did a transaction? would the funds of said address suddendly pop on your wallet? weird stuff to think about, its almost like a glitch in the matrix.
legendary
Activity: 2674
Merit: 3000
Terminated.
so there are chances(yeah very slim and all, i know), that it has happened already and no one know about it, if there aren't ways to know about it, maybe for a small amount, for a big one someone might have created a thread already...
Exactly. It is not something that is impossible, it is just very improbable (unlikely). I do not think that the system has a means of figuring out if someone generated a collision. So, unless someone comes out publicly stating that he/she generated a collision, we might never know.
Also, OP forgot to consider what Danny suggested. If a collision happens with a unused/dead/empty address then it is really pointless. The chance to generated a meaningful collision should be much smaller.
sr. member
Activity: 364
Merit: 250
It'll take a very long time even all of us generates a new address every one transaction because bitcoin address have very many combination. Maybe when we achieve it, bitcoin isn't popular anymore or maybe we have died.
legendary
Activity: 3472
Merit: 4801
- snip -
With every human on Earth, all generating a new address every second it would still take about 6.5 billion years in order for there to be a 50/50 chance of a bitcoin address collision.- snip -

I get slightly different numbers.  
- snip -

While an address collision is so unlikely that it can be considered, for all practical purposes, impossible...

An address collision is also meaningless unless there are actually bitcoins associated with the address.

Since there can't be more than *2,099,725,475,406,004 (approximately 2.1 X 1015) addresses at any moment in time that simultaneously have any unspent outputs associated with them, please recalculate your odds taking into consideration the chance of a meaningful collision occurring.


* See https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Controlled_supply  and   https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.7647669
legendary
Activity: 3248
Merit: 1070
there is a way to know if a collision happened, i mean blockchain will tell you that? because otherwise the one who will generate it, because of heavy luck, will not say a word about it, and no one will know if a collision has occured or not...
Well if you get lucky you would notice an added balance to your wallet. Otherwise you can manually check the first time the addresses has been seen in the blockchain. I do not think that others can know if you've generated a existing address though. Only the person(s) involved would know at first.

so there are chances(yeah very slim and all, i know), that it has happened already and no one know about it, if there aren't ways to know about it, maybe for a small amount, for a big one someone might have created a thread already...
legendary
Activity: 1680
Merit: 1205
There is still a very small chance this could happen tomorrow. The same chances as getting annilhated from a black hole I think, but still not impossible.
legendary
Activity: 2674
Merit: 3000
Terminated.
you don't gamble very much do you? It's possible to have a collision in the next minute.
You don't like mathematics do you? There is a huge difference between possible and probable. While a collision is possible at the moment it is highly unlikely.
Even if we are going to see the first collision in 500 years, it doesn't matter. Nobody can honestly expect any money system to last that long. Even if Bitcoin becomes widely adopted, eventually it will be replaced by something better (just as Bitcoin is replacing current systems) or it will have to be extensively upgraded.

there is a way to know if a collision happened, i mean blockchain will tell you that? because otherwise the one who will generate it, because of heavy luck, will not say a word about it, and no one will know if a collision has occured or not...
Well if you get lucky you would notice an added balance to your wallet. Otherwise you can manually check the first time the addresses has been seen in the blockchain. I do not think that others can know if you've generated a existing address though. Only the person(s) involved would know at first.
legendary
Activity: 1722
Merit: 1000
Satoshi is rolling in his grave. #bitcoin
When I start to think about this, I also consider this video ---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZloHVKk7DHk

He explains it so clearly, you could not even consider it as a risk factor.... The wonderful world of math and Bitcoin, makes this a mission impossible.

So on the OP's list, you have a better chance of dying from a catastrophic event, than loosing your Bitcoins. Now that is more scary... Shocked 

You mean; "than to gain someone elses bitcoins.." but anyways, loosing bitcoins is way more probable due to uninformed people
getting hacked or scammed, than it is to loosing them from address collision, and this is where the attention should be pointed.

cheers
full member
Activity: 224
Merit: 100
you don't gamble very much do you? It's possible to have a collision in the next minute.
legendary
Activity: 1904
Merit: 1074
When I start to think about this, I also consider this video ---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZloHVKk7DHk

He explains it so clearly, you could not even consider it as a risk factor.... The wonderful world of math and Bitcoin, makes this a mission impossible.

So on the OP's list, you have a better chance of dying from a catastrophic event, than loosing your Bitcoins. Now that is more scary... Shocked 
legendary
Activity: 1722
Merit: 1000
Satoshi is rolling in his grave. #bitcoin
In a normal circumstances it's safe to say that bitcoin address collision will never happen. The only way for it to be a reality is if in some
point in time some kind of vulnerability gets discovered, allowing address generation not to be as random as it is supposed to be.

cheers
legendary
Activity: 3248
Merit: 1070
there is a way to know if a collision happened, i mean blockchain will tell you that? because otherwise the one who will generate it, because of heavy luck, will not say a word about it, and no one will know if a collision has occured or not...
staff
Activity: 3458
Merit: 6793
Just writing some code
Well if you are blockchain.info's android wallet with their screwed up RNG from a few months back, then you are going to generate a collision pretty much guaranteed for every single address generated.  Grin
hero member
Activity: 770
Merit: 504
No one ignores the supreme universal bitcoin chancellor!  Angry
 
  
 
NOW YOU WILL FEEL THE WRATH OF DICK BLOCKCHENEY
sr. member
Activity: 322
Merit: 250
No one ignores the supreme universal bitcoin chancellor!  Angry
hero member
Activity: 770
Merit: 504
I get slightly different numbers.  

24*365*3600*7*150*1,000,000*((1,000,000,000)^4)=

3.311 * 10^52,

whereas 2^160 = 1.46 * 10^48.

so instead of it taking 150 billion years, it would take more like 150 million years.  but who's counting? Cheesy


 
  
I took a second look and the math was pretty FUBAR the first time.  Thanks.  I limited them to only generating one new addresses a second to keep everything else working right.   Wink
legendary
Activity: 1302
Merit: 1008
Core dev leaves me neg feedback #abuse #political
I get slightly different numbers.  

24*365*3600*7*150*1,000,000*((1,000,000,000)^4)=

3.311 * 10^52,

whereas 2^160 = 1.46 * 10^48.

so instead of it taking 150 billion years, it would take more like 150 million years.  but who's counting? Cheesy

sr. member
Activity: 308
Merit: 250
Never happen.  The world governments are spending their resources blowing each other up, not on space exploration.  Maybe if another alien species, like the body snatchers or something were to take over and keep the block chain going, then we might have a chance for a collision.
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