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Topic: Is it possible to generate the same adress twice? - page 3. (Read 5670 times)

sr. member
Activity: 531
Merit: 260
Vires in Numeris
It's possible but you're more likely to win the lottery multiple times. I don't know, if the chain could help enforce the first used instance as perhaps it doesn't see enough of the private key to be sure but then the extra effort is probably not worthwhile.
member
Activity: 90
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Untitled
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=62.0;all

If you were to intentionally try to make a collision, it would currently take 2^126 times longer to generate a colliding bitcoin address than to generate a block.  You could have got a lot more money by generating blocks.
hero member
Activity: 728
Merit: 500
The number of possible addresses is so large that you could have every computer on the planet continuously generating addresses for as long as the universe has existed and you would still not expect to see the same address twice.

Yes, it is possible to generate the same address twice. There is nothing in the Bitcoin protocol that enforces that an address you have in your wallet is not also generated by someone else. But the numbers make it so mindbogglingly unlikely that there´s no point in worrying about it.
member
Activity: 98
Merit: 10
Official Troll of bitcointalk,Certified by John K.
I have this question that has been bugging me lately.

Is it possible to accidentaly generate the same adress twice on 2 different machines?
I mean, if you think of it, couldn't it be possible that i make a new adress on my pc to do a payment, and at the exact same time, someone else makes one too.
I know the chances are almost infinitely small, but in theory those 2 adresses could be the same right?  Does the client check with the network before making one? What about nodes that are disconnected but have empty adresses on them for later use?
How does the blockchain deal with that? Is there a safety protocol in place to prevent this? Would those 2 adresses have the same private key as well? Would the blockchain reject one of those adresses, and if so, which one?

I'm trying to understand as much as possible about bitcoin, so if anyone can enlighten me, that would be great!

bitcoin-qt generates 100 address in advance in wallet.dat
sr. member
Activity: 323
Merit: 250
I have this question that has been bugging me lately.

Is it possible to accidentaly generate the same adress twice on 2 different machines?
I mean, if you think of it, couldn't it be possible that i make a new adress on my pc to do a payment, and at the exact same time, someone else makes one too.
I know the chances are almost infinitely small, but in theory those 2 adresses could be the same right?  Does the client check with the network before making one? What about nodes that are disconnected but have empty adresses on them for later use?
How does the blockchain deal with that? Is there a safety protocol in place to prevent this? Would those 2 adresses have the same private key as well? Would the blockchain reject one of those adresses, and if so, which one?

I'm trying to understand as much as possible about bitcoin, so if anyone can enlighten me, that would be great!
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