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Topic: How this vanity address had been generated? (Read 883 times)

legendary
Activity: 1260
Merit: 1019
June 24, 2017, 07:25:21 AM
#8
Can you guarantee that EVERY 160 bit value can be generated with a 256 bit input into RIPEMD160?
I can not prove it. But I can guarantee. I think these words are slightly different Smiley

Guarantee - is some kind of insuranse.
"I guarantee" means "I promize I'll pay you in case of..."
legendary
Activity: 3472
Merit: 4801
There is no guarantee that address even has a valid private key.
There are ~2256 private keys and only 2160 p2pkh-addresses
So, the probability that this address has a private key is very close to 100%
I think... I can say... I guarantee that this address has a private key Smiley
On the other hand I can guarantee that no one on planet (even me) knows it today Smiley

Here's where my knowledge of cryptographic functions such as hashes gets a bit weak...

Can you guarantee that EVERY 160 bit value can be generated with a 256 bit input into RIPEMD160?

Is it certain that, with 256 bit input, RIPEMD160 distributes across all 160 bit values, or are there some 160 bit values that will never be generated with 256 bit input regardless of the value of that input?

While there are 2160 addresses that match the base58check encoding, how can you be certain that they can all be generated with a 256 bit input?
legendary
Activity: 1260
Merit: 1019
There is no guarantee that address even has a valid private key.
There are ~2256 private keys and only 2160 p2pkh-addresses
So, the probability that this address has a private key is very close to 100%
I think... I can say... I guarantee that this address has a private key Smiley
On the other hand I can guarantee that no one on planet (even me) knows it today Smiley
hero member
Activity: 2506
Merit: 645
Eloncoin.org - Mars, here we come!
There was a group that supposedly did a random list of 8 million in the hopes of having near matches to used and balance wallets for viral scamming.  The group caught up with another and they started another project that I am sure is out there stealing from someone.  They pop in and out on the Facebook groups and claim these things, who knows.
legendary
Activity: 3472
Merit: 4801
Taking advantage of the subject in the thread, does that mean that if someone could manage to generate the private keys of that address, could they spend those Bitcoins?

There is no guarantee that address even has a valid private key.  However, if it does, and if someone generated it, then yes they could spend those bitcoins.

Or does a Bitcoin burn address have any special technology to prevent this kind of problem?

No.

I know it's near impossible to even generate this custom address but it won't be impossible right?

That depends on what you mean by "impossible".

There are many things that are mathematically "possible", but they will never happen in the real world.

For example, it is mathematically possible that you could make a random guess at the exact order of all the cards in a well-shuffled standard 52-card deck AND get it exactly right 10 times in a row.

But in the real world, that simply isn't going to happen, so we humans call that "impossible".

What would happen to Counterparty if this happened?

Difficult to predict.  That would depend on how the users react.

Could anyone withdraw the funds and re-send them to generate other tokens infinitely?

That would depend on what safeguards Counterparty builds into their system.
legendary
Activity: 2758
Merit: 6830
That's a 'burn address', private key is not known and coins are lost forever.

Google 'how to generate a bitcoin burn address'.

Taking advantage of the subject in the thread, does that mean that if someone could manage to generate the private keys of that address, could they spend those Bitcoins? Or does a Bitcoin burn address have any special technology to prevent this kind of problem?

I know it's near impossible to even generate this custom address but it won't be impossible right?

What would happen to Counterparty if this happened? Could anyone withdraw the funds and re-send them to generate other tokens infinitely?
legendary
Activity: 2786
Merit: 1031
That's a 'burn address', private key is not known and coins are lost forever.

Google 'how to generate a bitcoin burn address'.
member
Activity: 80
Merit: 11
I'm looking at this well known Burn address

1CounterpartyXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXUWLpVr

If I use Vanitygen, even for 1Counterparty the difficulty is 573254251836560363813 and judging from wiki page it should take the gen millions of years to generate one. 1CounterpartyXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX's difficulty is beyond any measure.

Was this address an extremely rare lucky find that came handy?
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