Topic: How to steal BTC just with public key. (Read 370 times)

The statement is irony. I slowly believe in your thought but I think if it is possible then bitcoin already gone right now. Public keys have similarity in private keys but you cannot unlock or encrypt easily the algorithm provided by just using a public key. Even a mathematician and hacker will combine their knowledges, they can't solve and cracked bitcoins algorithm unless you are Satoshi Nakamoto.

i know it is hard to understand the technical part of it which is why i mentioned examples (bitfinex cold storage). here is the address https://blockchain.info/address/16rCmCmbuWDhPjWTrpQGaU3EPdZF7MTdUk and it contains 137,203 or $1.2 billion. and since it has made lots of transactions you can see its public key in all of those (outgoing) transactions. here is the public key:
02f0bb0774f61a63a610719f73c63f0019c0db62bdfc3682bc55f911538c766674
if it were possible, it would have been stolen already!

RawDog is just trolling here by saying "work a little bit"! it is impossible as of today and in the near future. maybe some day after 100 years with advancement we get enough computing power to find a reverse solution for it and break it but not any sooner. and if we get closer to something like that a simple fork can change bitcoin in a way to prevent it. you still have nothing to worry about, these things don't happen over night.

for example, years ago (2012) SHA1 was considered less secure and everyone slowly moved to other hashings to increase their security until it was no longer used for anything important (2013). finally after years that nobody used it anymore it was broken (last year - 2017) by putting a huge amount of computing power (roughly 110 years of computing from a single GPU for just one of the phases) in it by Google.

Oh that would be the least of your concerns. The encryption scheme used by bitcoin is used for all sorts of protection. Banks, databases, websites... It would be a free for all on stealing, and bitcoin would barely register compared with all the other assets protected by SHA.

I think it not possible..but may not be impossible if someone finds a way to make a private key based on public address.If it happens,the bitcoin value will go down to zero

It may allow someone to make an association between two public keys and reveal that they were created by the same wallet. But it will not help an attacker to get your bitcoin. Only the private key can do that.

This has never happened in the history of bitcoin and it would likely take billions of years if you were taking hundreds of guesses per second.

I don't think this is possible because if it then there has been cases reported already. This is the reason why we have to keeo our private key hiden and secret so only the owner has access. I believe only a private key can access our bitcoin balance as simple as that.

Thank you, read this. https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.35530458

So, in the case a person use always the same public key? Is there any vulnerability.

The public key is not possible to get the private key, but the private key can generate the public key, so only knowing the address is not possible to get the BTC.

To spend money or sign a message you must have a private key.  Each private key controls some number of public keys. As long as you use each public key only once it is very hard to determine an association between public keys and the private key that controls it.  But a public key alone is useless in accessing anyone's bitcoin.

Thank you Pooya87, well I don´t understand yet about that thing, to sign a message, I don´t know how it works, I will read and try to understand later. But check this answer about my thread.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.35530458

I mean when you send some fraction to somebody else. It has to be some way because when you send a transaction, your public key is connected with the private key.

No of course not. 

If that were the case then none of us would have a penny. It is impossible. Don't let anyone without a clue or a bitcoin tell you different. I'll prove it. Anyone want some bitcoin? Here is the public key, whoever gets it can have it.

https://blockchain.info/address/1Q1fDcqMBFYFi6Qd6JDnRnNsRLwHBKtqwq

What I mean is if I send any amount of btc to somebody else, through the transaction can be a way.

I don´t know how to explain it, for example, if you send btc through that transaction any code or any script is given when a transaction is signed and sent.

That isn't possible. If the attacker does not have a private key from your wallet, he can not take possession of your bitcoins.

I've never heard that way, and I think stealing bitcoin can not be as easy as you say, and bitcoin does have a decentralized system and it does not matter.

This is impossible, public key is wallet address only.
For send bitcoin need private key and sign transaction.
TX can't sign without private key.

Bitcoin has a decentralized system that can be seen by everyone, and if only in that way it would not be possible that bitcoin could be stolen as easily as you say.

It's possible, but probably not with our current technology. Simply put, Bitcoin's cryptographic protocols were built in such a way that it would be almost completely impossible to crack for current computers. The same goes for pretty much every secure system out there.

That being said, the next generation of computers probably could.

Yes.  Absolutely. 

The Public Key is mathematically related to the Private Key by an algorithm.  If you get the Private Key, you can steal the Bitcoin.  Just work a little bit to discover the algorithm which converts the Public Key to the Private Key and you are totally golden.  First one to discover it is a millionaire!!!  But don't be greedy.   If others find out you did it, the whole system will get less valuable fast.