Topic: Is it possible to send BTC to an address that doesn't exist? - page 2. (Read 4631 times)

Reference for the sun enough energy in our star to brute force 256 bit keyspace

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/09/the_doghouse_cr.html

Note that the energy calculated is to count to 2^256 nothing more.

i.e. this code can't be completed even with a computer using all power of our star at perfect theoretical efficiency

Only the generation transaction to that address can't be redeemed. Other transactions could be redeemed by Satoshi if he still has the private key.

Also you "get rid of coins" by sending them to the address which received the block reward for block 0. This block starts everything off, and is hard-wired into Bitcoin. It was never actually "mined". As such, the 50 generated coins in that address cannot be redeemed.

Additional payments to that address can be redeemed by Satoshi, if he still possesses the private key for that address. Since the date of that block (3 January 2009), people have sent almost 50 additional payments to that address, increasing its balance by more than 6 bitcoins.

It's kind of like tossing coins into a fountain for good luck. You have lost the coins forever, but you had fun making a wish.

If anyone wants to toss some coins into the Satoshi fountain, here is the address:
1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa

(edited to correct an error in my original post)

There is actually one legitimate reason someone might want to send bitcoins to a fake address, thereby destroying them.

People working on alt-coins who want to make sure bitcoin prices rise as the alt-coin is adopted may choose to release some of their coins in exchange for bitcoin destruction.

I proposed this in The Second Bitcoin Whitepaper as a method of ensuring that alt-coin adoptions built on top of bitcoin don't completely leave bitcoin values in the dust (since bitcoins must have enough value to provide incentive to miners to keep the block chain secure).

Generating key pairs is always a random process. There is no way to predict the length of time it will ever take to find any key/address. Likewise, there is no notion of progress toward finding any key/address. It's like you have a (very, very) big bin of ping-pong-balls whirling around (like for bingo or lottery drawings), each of which is a unique key pair. Generating a key pair (for vanity purposes or otherwise) is effectively like pulling a random ball from the bin. All the vanity generators are doing is pulling them out as fast as possible, looking at the public address for a matching string (your vanity word), and discarding any non-matches.

More precisely, probabilistically speaking, each chosen ball (whether "discarded" or kept in your wallet) are actually thrown back into the bin (they're just numbers and can never go away). The bin is just so big that no one is ever likely to pull that same ball back out.

Short answer, not at all.

You'd still be searching for one specific address in the full exponential sea of addresses, number of errors don't matter, just the possible solutions to look for (one) of possibilities (all addresses).

What if there is only a single error (or two) in the address (and I know which character(s)).

Can I vanitygen the key much faster?

This is incorrect, I have been told on good authority that bulanula owns the private key for that address. 

Above is correct. To elaborate, "sending" bitcoins is a bit of a misnomer. I've even read introductory tutorials that indicate that the recipient must "claim" the receipt. This is inaccurate and misleading. Here's a more accurate portrayal of a transaction: First, presume that you're Bitcoin client has the private key for an address, which has some bitcoin value assigned to it (from some other address, via the very process about to be described). Your client uses that private key to digitally sign a transaction message, assigning some (or all) of that value to another valid address. This transaction message (tx) gets broadcast to the Bitcoin network at large, where it is eventually accepted into a block on the blockchain, effectively setting it in stone for all time. Notice that your client did not require any knowledge of the recipient beyond a valid address, and there is no action taken by the recipient. The transaction is an irrevocable record that the recipient address (and corresponding private key) now "owns" (has control of, or "is able to transfer") the specified bitcoin value. The only way to re-assign that value to yet another address is by following this same procedure, which requires the private key of the "ownership" address.

Under the original post's scenario, that private key may be unknown to anyone. If anyone ever does generate that key pair (against astronomically incomprehensible odds), they mathematically and cryptographically "own" (because this is how the Bitcoin system is defined) any associated bitcoin value assigned to them by a transaction in the blockchain!

That was a bit long-winded, but my goal was to provide a more narrative description of the process. There are many more details about how transactions can be signed over, but I hope this helps explain the fundamental behavior of the network.

This. You may want to get started now.

This is indeed amazing!
Do you have any sources for that?

And what about that story that ECDSA is not quantum-proof? I suppose that's a "cryptographic flaw" then, meaning that a quantum computer can take a much shorter path than brute force. Is that the case?

In a single word YES

Awesome!

FYPFY.  Baring a cryptographic flaw being discovered in ECDSA there is no possibility of ever recovering lost bitcoins.  Well not until man is able to harness power sources many hundreds of magnitudes more powerful than our star.

Here's a mathematically, cryptographically proven process for recovering bitcoins sent to a valid but otherwise unintended address. A vanity address generator can be used to reverse-engineer the private key from the (public) address. Take the Bitcoin address you accidentally mistyped (which now owns your bitcoins) and put it into a vanity address generator. The generator will create and test private keys until it finds one that produces a public address matching the one you're looking for, at which point you have the private key to reclaim your funds. Of course, you may need to wait several thousand years to find a match. The upside is that, by that time, Bitcoin will surely be the dominant currency in the local extra-solar economy, and your small sum today will certainly be worth quite a bit more due to deflation (only 21 million bitcoins being spread over a multi-planetary market).

Hope this helps.

Unless you are typing an address by hand this is not likely. Even if you make a typo or a few and they end up correcting themselves and making a valid key, the chances are pretty slim.

Nope



There's a checksum. Just cause it starts with 1 and is the 'right' length doesn't mean it's always valid.

Edit: I checked this forgetting that I was on testnet. haha nevermind me.... 

There are 2 choices:

First choice: Is the address valid?
Bitcoin adresses (similar to credit card numbers for example) have certain criteria they have to fulfill to be a valid address. Most clients will stop you from sending anything to an invalid address and no coins will ever be actually sent (= transaction included in a block) to an invalid address.

Second choice: Does someone actually own the private key to a valid address?
See the example with the "1BitcoinEater..." address above: it's a valid address, but very very VERY likely nobody will ever find a private key to be able to actually spend any coins sent there. You can send funds to any valid address you can think of (and there are many!), but only with a corresponding private key people will be able to actually spend these funds. Think of it like a bank deposit box, where you can (through a hole or something) deposit envelopes filled with cash - but only if somebody actually has the key to the box, he'll be able to get the money out and spend it. Bitcoin has a LOT of these boxes - so many, that you can simply generate your own key and claim the one box that fits as yours. It's practically impossible that anyone else would choose the same key, as there are so many boxes (addresses) out there.

Here's an address:
1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE
While the checksum is valid, it's pretty safe to say that nobody owns the private key for 2 reasons:
-The probability of generating a case-sensitive vanity address that long is incredibly low
-All of its inputs are unspent

Don't think of them as existing or not existing, think of them as being valid or invalid.

And since the Satoshi client(and most if not all others) allows you to only make a transaction using a valid Bitcoin address, you couldn't have sent it to an invalid one. The only question remaining now is whether you have the private key corresponding to the valid address you sent your bitcoins to, and if you don't does someone else.. and if no one does the bitcoins are lost just as if you deleted your wallet file with all your other private keys.