Limited number of bitcoin addresses - page 3.

jackg

copper member

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Merit: 3071

https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory

Quote from: TrueBeliever on August 28, 2015, 10:00:22 AM

Quote from: jackg on August 28, 2015, 09:54:08 AM

I meant if the maximum is 33 characters and the number on my address created a few days ago caontained 22 then the number of characters must increase to 23 once al of the probabilities for 22 have been used! Otherwise there is no point in setting a maximum to 33.

the address in your signature contains 34. If I remember correctly an address is 33-34 characters long. There are no 22 character addresses.

Sorry; i miscounted the number of charactes in my bitcoin app as they are set into sets of 4 so I assumed there were 5.5 sets instead of the actual 8.5 sets!

TrueBeliever

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Quote from: jackg on August 28, 2015, 09:54:08 AM

I meant if the maximum is 33 characters and the number on my address created a few days ago caontained 22 then the number of characters must increase to 23 once al of the probabilities for 22 have been used! Otherwise there is no point in setting a maximum to 33.

the address in your signature contains 34. If I remember correctly an address is 33-34 characters long. There are no 22 character addresses.

jackg

copper member

Activity: 2856

Merit: 3071

https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory

I meant if the maximum is 33 characters and the number on my address created a few days ago caontained 22 then the number of characters must increase to 23 once al of the probabilities for 22 have been used! Otherwise there is no point in setting a maximum to 33.

TrueBeliever

member

Activity: 78

Merit: 11

It's a newbie asking the question so no I don't think it is a joke.

the short answer is the addresses will not run out.

bitcoin is designed to have far far far more addresses than will every be required. therein lies its security.

assuming the hypothetical, that there was a collision and you created an address that was already in use then you have direct access to any funds at that address (unspent outputs sent to that public key). However the probability of that happening is so low that it is impossible (see other threads for comparisons to atoms in the universe etc). We are not talking about winning the lottery odds here, these odds are far far lower, more like winning the lottery in a trillion years type of probability.

Even if only 1% of bitcoin addresses were used up then bitcoin would be considered well and truly broken.

teukon

legendary

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Quote from: jackg on August 28, 2015, 06:21:31 AM

If there are eventually no more bitcoin addresses avaliable as all of them are in use: what will happen to the address, will it increase by a letter or will the old addresses be scrapped and new addresses brought in.

Unlike say, IP addresses, Bitcoin addresses cannot be exhausted. Instead, the Bitcoin address system would become insecure should the total number of used addresses become a non-negligible fraction of the square root of the theoretical maximum.

BurtW

legendary

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All paid signature campaigns should be banned.

You must be joking. I hope you are joking. This is a joke, right?

jackg

copper member

Activity: 2856

Merit: 3071

https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory

Quote from: Jeremycoin on August 28, 2015, 06:48:18 AM

I believe that won't be happen fast, cos the address has 33 characters max.
So it's more than enough for human being, maybe even if we're running out of addresses. It will took a long long time (CMIIW)

Does the maximum number of addresses increase as all of the previous addresses have been used?

Jeremycoin

legendary

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𝓗𝓞𝓓𝓛

I believe that won't be happen fast, cos the address has 33 characters max.
So it's more than enough for human being, maybe even if we're running out of addresses. It will took a long long time (CMIIW)

jackg

copper member

Activity: 2856

Merit: 3071

https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory

If there are eventually no more bitcoin addresses avaliable as all of them are in use: what will happen to the address, will it increase by a letter or will the old addresses be scrapped and new addresses brought in.
This would be unlikely as there are currently:
(22^36) throught the characters that are currently in use (letters and numbers):
2,124,303,230,726,006,271,483,826,780,841,554,627,491,524,509,696

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