Author

Topic: How many addresses can generate one private key? (Read 640 times)

hero member
Activity: 798
Merit: 1000
You have that backwards.

On average a single Bitcoin address will map to 2256-160 = 296 key pairs.

That is way more than a million.

But a given key pair will map to only one Bitcoin address.

(Well a key pair has two possible representations so in fact there are two Bitcoin addresses for each key pair because the two different representations of the public key:  compressed and uncompressed, each map to a different Bitcoin address)

Exactly. Your question is incorrectly phrased, addresses cannot generate private keys, it's private keys that generate addresses.
legendary
Activity: 2646
Merit: 1137
All paid signature campaigns should be banned.
You have that backwards.

On average a single Bitcoin address will map to 2256-160 = 296 key pairs.

That is way more than a million.

But a given key pair will map to only one Bitcoin address.

(Well a key pair has two possible representations so in fact there are two Bitcoin addresses for each key pair because the two different representations of the public key:  compressed and uncompressed, each map to a different Bitcoin address)
newbie
Activity: 8
Merit: 0
I hear that one private key can generate many addresses. Is it possible to generate a million addresses by only one private key?
Jump to: