The title of this post is how I imagine lots of (new) people visiting this boards think. In this post I would like to list a number of ways these gold diggers think how they might get rich quick. If you are on the hunt yourself please read on to get a feeling what you are up against.
[I found my wallet.dat file again!]Mostly found in the Bitcoin Technical Support section. Like these:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/walletdat-recovery-pls-help-me-5256437https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/walletdat-question-5254636https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/i-need-help-5246039https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/wallet-recovery-5249142https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/wallet-recovery-urgency-passphrase-private-key-5248295In general they are posted by new accounts claiming to have found an old computer/usb/backup or whatever containing a wallet.dat which is password protected but they forgot the password. All that's left between them and all the juicy BTC is a password that needs to be brute forced.
In reality chances are extremely big they got tricked/scammed in buying a tampered wallet.dat file which will never be unlocked.
Please realize the difference between: my password should either start by "mary" or "Mary" because that was my girlfriend back then and followed by 4 or 5 digits versus I have no idea what the password is and what the length it could be.
Advice: If you did buy a wallet.dat and ask for help in this forum include that fact, don't make up stories that won't hold if you get questions asked. Also: be prepared you got scammed.
[Let's generate a private key already in use]Mostly found in Bitcoin Discussion section or Development & Technical Discussion. Like these:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/is-it-possible-to-get-the-private-key-from-a-bitcoin-raw-transaction-5254171https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/how-to-get-pubkeys-for-many-adresses-script-or-util-needed-5253012There are a lot of addresses out there with fat balances and the only thing standing between you and all those bitcoins is one simple Private Key.
So, lot's of questions get asked if it is possible to generate a private key already in use. And you know what, in theory it's possible. And that's where the gold diggers stop their reading and start firing up their questions.
It all boils down to this: could you win every single lottery world wide for 50000000000 times in succession? In theory you could, but you know that's not going to happen.
I've even seen suggestions where forum members used Vanity Address generators to look for a full bitcoin address, hoping they got lucky
Advice: Try to get a feeling how many different private keys / addresses are possible and then ask yourself if you still want to go hunting for a duplicate.
[Public key is known, so Private Key is up for grabs]Popular in Development & Technical Discussion currently mostly because of this thread:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/pollards-kangaroo-ecdlp-solver-5244940Don't get me wrong: there is nothing wrong with the linked EDCLP solver thread. It's just the way gold diggers translate this very
specific use case to: "Ah, so when a Public Key is known the Private Key can be calculated with enough computing power".
Just to be clear: Under very specific and intentional created circumstances a private key can be calculated based on the public key. The algorithm to do so will only work when it is known what the search space for the private key is. In other words: you know up front there are a limited possibilities what the private key can be. And that circumstance will only be met when it was done intentionally, for instance for a brute forcing puzzle.
Advice: Don't waste your time running your GPU or multiple GPUs to find a private key when there is not guarantee it is limited in possible values. No matter if you know the public key or not.
[Some software messed up, so the Bitcoin protocol must be broken]A bit more exotic, Development & Technical Discussion is a good candidate section. A recent example:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/non-canonical-der-signature-5258113Just because some software/wallet/script contains a bug doesn't mean the bitcoin protocol itself is bugged. So for instance if a wallet messes up by creating an anyone-can-spend transaction that doesn't mean you all transactions in the blockchain are magically up for grabs.
Advice: Try to comprehend a bug entirely before jumping to the conclusion you can use it to get rich.
[Puzzle transaction will make me rich]Popular in Development & Technical Discussion currently mostly because of this thread:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/pollards-kangaroo-ecdlp-solver-5244940Who doesn't like a good puzzle? I sure do! And the linked thread still has a lot of BTC available for those who can solve some of the harder puzles.
The only problems is: all simple/medium puzzles have been solved already. So the really hard ones are left. You probably will need a lot of computing/GPU power and cheap energy or the cost will be higher than the reward.
Just to give you an impression: the last puzzle from the linked topic was solved using 256 Nvidia V100 GPUs, the hardware alone costs around $250,000. The reward for solving/brute forcing was 1 BTC.
Advice: puzzles are fun! So with lots of people playing meaning it will be extremely hard to win/solve anything left.
[Brainwallets: come up with new ones]Topics are usually either in Development & Technical Discussion or Bitcoin Discussion section.
Brainwallets-hacking got big when Brainflayer was released. I made an entire site myself two years back with all brainwallets I found myself. Check out this thread:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/collection-of-18509-found-and-used-brainwallets-4768828A lot of brainwallets have been found and emptied in the past years. Billions of brainwallet-candidates are in the lookup tables of bots ready to scoop up any transaction made to a brainwallet address.
Advice: Brain wallets are fun to study. But don't expect to find an undiscovered one especially with any balance left.
[Conclusion]There is no get-rich-quick way using bitcoin in a way that hasn't been thought of before. And even if you come up with a way do you really want to
STEAL bitcoins that aren't yours? How would you feel if you wake up one morning to see your own bitcoins to be stolen? I'm not here to tell you what you should do or should not do, the choice is ultimately yours alone!
That being said, some fun puzzles, brainwallets, challenges are an excellent way to dive deeper into the inner workings of bitcoin. So you will learn a lot when you do so, just don't expect to get out filthy rich