Topic: Is There Any Chance? (Read 2360 times)
I wish I had a way to gain those missing BTC back to the market, I mean back to my pocket.
You are more likely to catch a fish that swallowed a USB drive with an unencrypted BTC wallet on, than come up with a valid method of cracking private keys.
This is an awesome analogy!
I really wonder whether there are flash drives that have been swallowed by a fish. Maybe even with a private key stored on them. I think the best chances are in dumping the contents of old hard-drives and trying to extract unencrypted Bitcoin private keys from them.Then there's the other more profitable activity, standing in the back yard with your mouth open, waiting for a meteorite to land on your tongue.
The main issue I have with all these 'proof' of difficulty is that they assume it's perfectly random.
In fact, they ignore the type of encryption used and focus exclusively on the length. 256 bits then 2^256 possibilities. Way higher than the age of universe to hack - agreed.
But then why is a PGP 256 bit key (RSA to be pedantic) completely unsafe but the Bitcoin 256 bit key safe?
Reference
Cryptographic key length recommendations: http://www.keylength.com
In fact, they ignore the type of encryption used and focus exclusively on the length. 256 bits then 2^256 possibilities. Way higher than the age of universe to hack - agreed.
But then why is a PGP 256 bit key (RSA to be pedantic) completely unsafe but the Bitcoin 256 bit key safe?
Reference
Cryptographic key length recommendations: http://www.keylength.com
You answered your own question partially.
It's all about the type of encryption and how many bits
of security it really provides, not the key length.
And this in turn is based on the kinds of algorithms
that can find a solution most efficiently.
Elliptic curve cryptography is excellent because
it it only requires 2 characters for each bit of
security.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_curve_cryptography:
Quote
Since all the fastest known algorithms that allow one to solve the ECDLP (baby-step giant-step, Pollard's rho, etc.), need O(\sqrt{n}) steps, it follows that the size of the underlying field should be roughly twice the security parameter. For example, for 128-bit security one needs a curve over \mathbb{F}_q, where q \approx 2^{256}. This can be contrasted with finite-field cryptography (e.g., DSA) which requires[17] 3072-bit public keys and 256-bit private keys, and integer factorization cryptography (e.g., RSA) which requires a 3072-bit value of n, where the private key should be just as large. However the public key may be smaller to accommodate efficient encryption, especially when processing power is limited.
So you get 128 bits of security with Bitcoin. This is further increased
to 160 bits for an unspent address because of RIPEMD-160 hash.
Hehe - I know, I have to admit I was trolling.
Now that you confirmed that. What about the following picture which has fancy words like 'thermodynamics', 'dyson sphere', and my personal favorite - "the laws of the universe" - mmm?
Though it's a nice photoshop and I'm sure it won't be the last time it shows up.
All the better for the economy.
Less supply
=
Scarcer resource
=
Price up
Less supply
=
Scarcer resource
=
Price up
[Pic of the sun with explanation how difficult it is to crack a random private key]
Do you mean this :
legendary
Activity: 1302
Merit: 1008
Core dev leaves me neg feedback #abuse #political
The main issue I have with all these 'proof' of difficulty is that they assume it's perfectly random.
In fact, they ignore the type of encryption used and focus exclusively on the length. 256 bits then 2^256 possibilities. Way higher than the age of universe to hack - agreed.
But then why is a PGP 256 bit key (RSA to be pedantic) completely unsafe but the Bitcoin 256 bit key safe?
Reference
Cryptographic key length recommendations: http://www.keylength.com
In fact, they ignore the type of encryption used and focus exclusively on the length. 256 bits then 2^256 possibilities. Way higher than the age of universe to hack - agreed.
But then why is a PGP 256 bit key (RSA to be pedantic) completely unsafe but the Bitcoin 256 bit key safe?
Reference
Cryptographic key length recommendations: http://www.keylength.com
You answered your own question partially.
It's all about the type of encryption and how many bits
of security it really provides, not the key length.
And this in turn is based on the kinds of algorithms
that can find a solution most efficiently.
Elliptic curve cryptography is excellent because
it it only requires 2 characters for each bit of
security.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_curve_cryptography:
Quote
Since all the fastest known algorithms that allow one to solve the ECDLP (baby-step giant-step, Pollard's rho, etc.), need O(\sqrt{n}) steps, it follows that the size of the underlying field should be roughly twice the security parameter. For example, for 128-bit security one needs a curve over \mathbb{F}_q, where q \approx 2^{256}. This can be contrasted with finite-field cryptography (e.g., DSA) which requires[17] 3072-bit public keys and 256-bit private keys, and integer factorization cryptography (e.g., RSA) which requires a 3072-bit value of n, where the private key should be just as large. However the public key may be smaller to accommodate efficient encryption, especially when processing power is limited.
So you get 128 bits of security with Bitcoin. This is further increased
to 160 bits for an unspent address because of RIPEMD-160 hash.
The main issue I have with all these 'proof' of difficulty is that they assume it's perfectly random.
In fact, they ignore the type of encryption used and focus exclusively on the length. 256 bits then 2^256 possibilities. Way higher than the age of universe to hack - agreed.
But then why is a PGP 256 bit key (RSA to be pedantic) completely unsafe but the Bitcoin 256 bit key safe?
Reference
Cryptographic key length recommendations: http://www.keylength.com
In fact, they ignore the type of encryption used and focus exclusively on the length. 256 bits then 2^256 possibilities. Way higher than the age of universe to hack - agreed.
But then why is a PGP 256 bit key (RSA to be pedantic) completely unsafe but the Bitcoin 256 bit key safe?
Reference
Cryptographic key length recommendations: http://www.keylength.com
-snip-
Sure. Just like if you can guess where pirates buried treasure a few centureis ago, and dig there,
you would have access to the booty. So, yeah... "good luck" with that one.
Sure. Just like if you can guess where pirates buried treasure a few centureis ago, and dig there,
you would have access to the booty. So, yeah... "good luck" with that one.
Chances to find a lost chest a pirate burried are higher than finding a private key that has coins.
please provide your analysis on that probability.
Just a wild guess, but given that the propabiltiy of finding a private key for a certain address (e.g. one that has coins) is roughly the same as finding a single bucky ball [1] within the earths crust I am pretty sure it stands a deeper analysis.
please provide your analysis on that probability.
This video does exactly that :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZloHVKk7DHk
Didnt watch it fully, but I like it.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminsterfullerene
True, faucets, expected return per man hour spent, about 2000 satoshis or so, h4xx0ring teh gibson blockchain or private keys, expected return per hour invested 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 satoshi
Math makes it incredibly unlikely but anything is technically possible. You would make more btc hitting faucets a few times a day.
Is there any chance to find those lost BTCs' private keys? Lots of early BTC adopters lost their private key and thousands of BTC is now useless...
It is possible but you would need a huge amount of luck..
It's better to just play the lottery because the chances of winning the lottery is higher and the prize is probably higher too.
Lost somewhere in the galaxy 18...
You are more likely to catch a fish that swallowed a USB drive with an unencrypted BTC wallet on, than come up with a valid method of cracking private keys.
This is an awesome analogy!
I really wonder whether there are flash drives that have been swallowed by a fish. Maybe even with a private key stored on them. I think the best chances are in dumping the contents of old hard-drives and trying to extract unencrypted Bitcoin private keys from them. 
I believe this to be very unlikely, I'm sure some could be found, but certainly not all.
[Pic of the sun with explanation how difficult it is to crack a random private key]
please provide your analysis on that probability.
This video does exactly that :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZloHVKk7DHk
legendary
Activity: 1302
Merit: 1008
Core dev leaves me neg feedback #abuse #political
-snip-
Sure. Just like if you can guess where pirates buried treasure a few centureis ago, and dig there,
you would have access to the booty. So, yeah... "good luck" with that one.
Sure. Just like if you can guess where pirates buried treasure a few centureis ago, and dig there,
you would have access to the booty. So, yeah... "good luck" with that one.
Chances to find a lost chest a pirate burried are higher than finding a private key that has coins.
please provide your analysis on that probability.
Is there any chance to find those lost BTCs' private keys? Lots of early BTC adopters lost their private key and thousands of BTC is now useless...
Ofcourse.
Is there chance to find ships that was sink in 15 century bringing Gold to spain from South America? Yes with new technology it is.
So in 10-20-30 years, people will search fro such wallets for a living. try to get passwords.
You are more likely to catch a fish that swallowed a USB drive with an unencrypted BTC wallet on, than come up with a valid method of cracking private keys.
Even if you do come about cracking private keys, it might not be of someone, who lost his provate keys. Would be quite random I suppose. It is impossible to find a lost key, you won't be able to recover it ever, so they are lost forever.
Its impossible to find a lost key belonging to another individual. But if people lost it in a computer crash or backup, then they might be recoverable. Jump to: