Author

Topic: Private key (privkey) hunters - unite! (Read 15279 times)

full member
Activity: 431
Merit: 105
May 24, 2021, 11:03:00 AM
#72
so i read all this and all that, but truly honoustly,

a lot of peeps talking about gpu flayer flayer 2 etcetera, has anyone got a hold
of such a program, to try out, work with, test. also etcetera,
great.
jr. member
Activity: 31
Merit: 8
October 31, 2021, 01:09:58 PM
#71
It's now May 1 2019, anybody still hunting BTC private keys?
For sure there are still people who do strive and hoping to get some jackpot into those wallets who do have balances but i do think

that most of them completely stop yet its pointless on hunting out btc private keys that do have corresponding balance considering on the odds.
You will find yourself on finding these keys for eternity  Grin

I just started private key hunting a few days ago when I realized that BTC key generation is only pseudo random. It instead generates similar keys based on what keys have already been generated and used (this is where I realized it can be exploited). Why it does this I'm not sure, but it does nonetheless. Not going to give much more information until I make a large profit myself as I said I only realized this a couple of days ago. I've already found hundreds of keys with transactions in the past, and a couple with actual balances (dust).

Hey Cryptoneze, are you still hunting private key? I stumbled upon this thread by actually searching to hunt for private keys and its been two years since you started your hunt with the script you created. I wonder how did it go? If it worked at all. Please PM me. I tried pming you and couldn't.
full member
Activity: 706
Merit: 111
November 18, 2019, 04:01:29 PM
#70
The program that I posted
23trillion pupkey / s
check out my profile

the thing you are trying to sell seems to be only working for that puzzle transaction and when you have the public key not in general which is the case of the comment you quoted and also is the general theme of this topic. not to mention that OP started this topic mainly as a brainwallet stealer!



He's a scammer and good luck to all the private key hunters.
legendary
Activity: 2114
Merit: 1293
There is trouble abrewing
July 28, 2019, 08:38:04 AM
#69
The program that I posted
23trillion pupkey / s
check out my profile

the thing you are trying to sell seems to be only working for that puzzle transaction and when you have the public key not in general which is the case of the comment you quoted and also is the general theme of this topic. not to mention that OP started this topic mainly as a brainwallet stealer!
legendary
Activity: 2268
Merit: 1092
July 27, 2019, 05:35:35 AM
#68
Lol I mess around with Keys.lol for like 1 hour one time. I stumbled upon it by accident. I would have to say, In the little time that I have tinkered around with it. I would have to say it IS PRETTY HARD LMAO,

From the math I have read here it's probably not even worth the time. lol

The program that I posted here https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.51294948 will, when paired with brainflayer, search random private keys at a rate of about 120,000 Bitcoin keys per second on a single i7 core. That's just over 10 billion per day.

The chances of ever finding a match for a random 256 bit key, even when checking 10 billion keys a day, even if you're using multiple cores to double/triple/quadruple etc that rate, even if you're using a GPU assisted program that focuses on a small set of addresses and runs at 500 times that rate, is still virtually zero.

It's absolutely not worth the time.
full member
Activity: 1036
Merit: 144
Penguin Party 🐟
July 27, 2019, 01:17:35 AM
#67
Any Hunter here. I saw a lot of good hunter here. I am just using a lottery system. Like Keys.lol / Privatekeys.pw and thegalacticlottery I don't know some coding that's why I only use this website. 3 days of hunting and still nothing. Open about 60 browser in my pc and 40 browser in my laptop running with script to auto refresh and if it read an transaction it auto stop with message and alarm. but thegalacticlottery I only open 1 browser in my pc and laptop. and while searching for browser I use my PC to play games Cheesy only the laptop is wasting energy.
So whats your conclusion? Searching for wallets that do have balance is pretty hard eh?

Lol I mess around with Keys.lol for like 1 hour one time. I stumbled upon it by accident. I would have to say, In the little time that I have tinkered around with it. I would have to say it IS PRETTY HARD LMAO,

From the math I have read here it's probably not even worth the time. lol
legendary
Activity: 3290
Merit: 16489
Thick-Skinned Gang Leader and Golden Feather 2021
June 28, 2019, 03:54:24 AM
#66
Yeah It is 4th day now. and still running Cheesy
Why don't you try to find the next Bitcoin block? There's an instant 12.5 BTC reward waiting for you!
The chances of finding it with your computer are of course practically zero, as ASICS made GPU mining useless years ago, but it's still much more likely than finding a random private key.
legendary
Activity: 3472
Merit: 10611
June 27, 2019, 10:39:25 PM
#65
~
Yeah It is 4th day now. and still running Cheesy but it's okay I just leave it like this. Because I always use my pc.

if you want to waste electricity and lower the lifespan of your computer hardware by putting a lot of continued pressure on them then  at least start mining altcoins! that way you can at least earn something for real instead of wasting your time on something that obviously not going to work not just in a couple of days or years or decades,... it won't work for a million years!
legendary
Activity: 2268
Merit: 1092
June 27, 2019, 08:16:10 PM
#64
Yeah It is 4th day now. and still running Cheesy but it's okay I just leave it like this. Because I always use my pc.

You're really just wasting electricity. Even if your computer was able to search a thousand or a million times faster, the chances of ever finding a match within your lifetime are effectively zero. You'd have more chance of winning a (real world) lottery.

Is it possible to find addresses with balances or (more likely) which have had balances in the past? Yes: look up SHA256 brain wallets, broken key generator code, deliberately weak keys, user mistakes, etc.

Can you find them by generating random keys via a website? No. (The code I posted above generates random keys - it was meant to be a joke. Smiley )
newbie
Activity: 8
Merit: 0
June 27, 2019, 03:10:51 PM
#63
Any Hunter here. I saw a lot of good hunter here. I am just using a lottery system. Like Keys.lol / Privatekeys.pw and thegalacticlottery I don't know some coding that's why I only use this website. 3 days of hunting and still nothing. Open about 60 browser in my pc and 40 browser in my laptop running with script to auto refresh and if it read an transaction it auto stop with message and alarm. but thegalacticlottery I only open 1 browser in my pc and laptop. and while searching for browser I use my PC to play games Cheesy only the laptop is wasting energy.
So whats your conclusion? Searching for wallets that do have balance is pretty hard eh?


Yeah It is 4th day now. and still running Cheesy but it's okay I just leave it like this. Because I always use my pc.
hero member
Activity: 3010
Merit: 794
June 27, 2019, 01:48:40 PM
#62
Any Hunter here. I saw a lot of good hunter here. I am just using a lottery system. Like Keys.lol / Privatekeys.pw and thegalacticlottery I don't know some coding that's why I only use this website. 3 days of hunting and still nothing. Open about 60 browser in my pc and 40 browser in my laptop running with script to auto refresh and if it read an transaction it auto stop with message and alarm. but thegalacticlottery I only open 1 browser in my pc and laptop. and while searching for browser I use my PC to play games Cheesy only the laptop is wasting energy.
So whats your conclusion? Searching for wallets that do have balance is pretty hard eh?
newbie
Activity: 8
Merit: 0
June 27, 2019, 09:27:07 AM
#61
Any Hunter here. I saw a lot of good hunter here. I am just using a lottery system. Like Keys.lol / Privatekeys.pw and thegalacticlottery I don't know some coding that's why I only use this website. 3 days of hunting and still nothing. Open about 60 browser in my pc and 40 browser in my laptop running with script to auto refresh and if it read an transaction it auto stop with message and alarm. but thegalacticlottery I only open 1 browser in my pc and laptop. and while searching for browser I use my PC to play games Cheesy only the laptop is wasting energy.
jr. member
Activity: 63
Merit: 1
June 02, 2019, 03:27:24 PM
#60
It's now May 1 2019, anybody still hunting BTC private keys?
Yeah I even seen pools that use miners to brute force private keys  Grin
legendary
Activity: 2268
Merit: 1092
Here's a random private key generator. Feed the output to brainflayer -x -t priv, or a suitable tool that takes a raw private key.

Code:
// output random hex digits as a 256 bit priv key

#include
#include
#include
#include
#include

uint64_t timeuseconds() {
        struct  timeval thistime;

        gettimeofday(&thistime, NULL);
        return((thistime.tv_sec * 1000000) + (thistime.tv_usec % 1000000));
}

int main() {

        int i;

        srandom(timeuseconds() );

        while (1)
        {
                for (i = 0; i < 16; i++)
                {
                        printf("%04lx", random() & 0xffff);  /* not cryptographically secure */
                }
                printf("\n");
        }
}
legendary
Activity: 2268
Merit: 1092
The point isn't to brute force in attempting to crack a single address, it's to use an algorithm that generates random private keys and the possibility is still there that on the very first try the key can be one that is tied to a large bitcoin address. I've done it and am doing it and have generated some addresses that match with already created addresses that have been used and a couple that have had small balances in them so it's not like it never happens. The only thing that makes it not so noteworthy is that it hasn't been tied to an account with 50+ btc or something, but the odds that I and others even reached one with an already used balance proves that private key collision is a common occurrence even given the trillions to 1 odds.

I find this really hard to believe, especially since you imply it's happened more than once. Are you generating truly random numbers, between 0 and 2^256? There's (almost) no way you could coincidentally generate a random private key which matches a funded address. Can you provide proof by showing the addresses and a signed message?
jr. member
Activity: 80
Merit: 2
That is NOT what I explained, two different private keys will never link to a single address.

Wrong, there are 2^256 possible private key permutation, but there are only 2^160 possible address permutation.
Even though i never see any cases where 2 different private keys leads to same address, it's possible since there's less possible address permutation than possible private key permutation.

If my calculation is right, 1 address has about 2^96 corresponding private key.

But two different scripts can and have on several occasions generated identical private keys that have been tied to already used, and in some cases wallets with balances.

Only applies if the script uses weak random algorithm/function. Wallet these days use more random algorithm/function which is cryptography secure.


Also not true, BTC addresses can and do vary in length. There will never be two private keys that match the same address.

e.g

Two Valid addresses {

15PLdWhPDFCyAwMF78SebDAeRRMva8Tgop

1SArTJ5PBwq69x9NHdpGVcBqv9eCmYcYg

}
Also it is no more likely to crack a weak private key than a 'strong' private key through 'RANDOM PRIVATE KEY' generation, not brute forcing. We are not speaking about brute force attacks.


member
Activity: 133
Merit: 34
Shouldn't there be, theoretically, a "tipping point", i.e. mining difficulty becomes so high that it would make more sense to try to find a private key instead to mine?

jr. member
Activity: 80
Merit: 2
~
That's not what a collision is, a collision is two separate generators generating the same private key that points to the same address. Not two different keys pointing to the same address. The private key is the root of an address. The address is simply the hash of that private key.


Quote
address is not hash of private key, it is hash of public key. and what you explained (2 different entities find the same address with 2 different keys) is only one type of collision. the other type is indeed 2 different entities finding the same private key. the space they are in are different. the first one is in 160 bit and second is in 256 bit and both of them are huge enough to be considered impossible.


That is NOT what I explained, two different private keys will never link to a single address. But two different scripts can and have on several occasions generated identical private keys that have been tied to already used, and in some cases wallets with balances.

Secondly, It's a hash that roots from the private key, same difference.
legendary
Activity: 3472
Merit: 10611
~
That's not what a collision is, a collision is two separate generators generating the same private key that points to the same address. Not two different keys pointing to the same address. The private key is the root of an address. The address is simply the hash of that private key.

address is not hash of private key, it is hash of public key. and what you explained (2 different entities find the same address with 2 different keys) is only one type of collision. the other type is indeed 2 different entities finding the same private key. the space they are in are different. the first one is in 160 bit and second is in 256 bit and both of them are huge enough to be considered impossible.

That's not what a collision is, a collision is two separate generators generating the same private key that points to the same address.
There's no way to prove that. But that's more relevant for Large Bitcoin Collider Thread 2.0 than for this topic Smiley
that topic is only solving a puzzle, it has nothing to do with collision despite what the name suggests! they have been basically searching from private key = 1 and incrementing it 1 at a time checking whether the result matches the puzzle addresses that were placed there to be found.
legendary
Activity: 3290
Merit: 16489
Thick-Skinned Gang Leader and Golden Feather 2021
That's not what a collision is, a collision is two separate generators generating the same private key that points to the same address.
There's no way to prove that. But that's more relevant for Large Bitcoin Collider Thread 2.0 than for this topic Smiley
jr. member
Activity: 80
Merit: 2
but the odds that I and others even reached one with an already used balance proves that private key collision is a common occurrence even given the trillions to 1 odds.
There's only one way to prove a private key collision: show 2 different private keys that both produce the same address. Nobody has been able to do that yet.

You can't brute-forcing a random private key. The only way to find it, is if it's not really random (or if someone leaks it).

That's not what a collision is, a collision is two separate generators generating the same private key that points to the same address. Not two different keys pointing to the same address. The private key is the root of an address. The address is simply the hash of that private key.
legendary
Activity: 3290
Merit: 16489
Thick-Skinned Gang Leader and Golden Feather 2021
but the odds that I and others even reached one with an already used balance proves that private key collision is a common occurrence even given the trillions to 1 odds.
There's only one way to prove a private key collision: show 2 different private keys that both produce the same address. Nobody has been able to do that yet.

You can't brute-forcing a random private key. The only way to find it, is if it's not really random (or if someone leaks it).
jr. member
Activity: 89
Merit: 6
but the odds that I and others even reached one with an already used balance proves that private key collision is a common occurrence even given the trillions to 1 odds.

Yeah it can happens but it's not common (how do you define common btw?).

Phishing give you better odds than looking for private key. But for sure if it's just for fun, let's try to find an address with 0.11111 BTC in it!
jr. member
Activity: 80
Merit: 2
Everything that can happen, will happen. And finding a private key with a balance can happen, however small the chances are. Therefore it will happen. The odds are small but that doesn't make it impossible, I don't think that people seem to understand that just because the odds are greatly against the possibility of it happening it doesn't mean that someone on their first try on keys.lol can type in a random number and find a wallet with a huge balance attached to it. I personally have created a webscraper running that randomly check private keys so if I never find anything major it's cost me basically nothing but the time it took to create the scraper which was only a few minutes. Not even electricity as my pc runs 24/7 anyway

Is it possible? Yes
Is it probable? No

You clearly don't understand :
1. How big is 2^256 possible private key and 2^160 possible bitcoin address. Please calculate how long it'd took to get all possibility with today's supercomputer.
2. Most wallet uses CSPRNG which won't let people guess your private key easily.

Simply brute-force all possible permutation won't get you anywhere, you must reduce space search either by finding flaws on CSPRNG used by a wallet or knowing whether a user use insecure way to generate his bitcoin address/seed.

The point isn't to brute force in attempting to crack a single address, it's to use an algorithm that generates random private keys and the possibility is still there that on the very first try the key can be one that is tied to a large bitcoin address. I've done it and am doing it and have generated some addresses that match with already created addresses that have been used and a couple that have had small balances in them so it's not like it never happens. The only thing that makes it not so noteworthy is that it hasn't been tied to an account with 50+ btc or something, but the odds that I and others even reached one with an already used balance proves that private key collision is a common occurrence even given the trillions to 1 odds.


 
copper member
Activity: 236
Merit: 17
It's now May 1 2019, anybody still hunting BTC private keys?
If I had what your username says, I tried it
hero member
Activity: 3010
Merit: 794
It's now May 1 2019, anybody still hunting BTC private keys?
For sure there are still people who do strive and hoping to get some jackpot into those wallets who do have balances but i do think

that most of them completely stop yet its pointless on hunting out btc private keys that do have corresponding balance considering on the odds.
You will find yourself on finding these keys for eternity  Grin
It is not pointless. The odds for lotto lottery also are very small yet people stiil keep winning.
But the question is, would you entirely devote yourself or simply seek out keys for lifetime?  Grin

Everything that can happen, will happen. And finding a private key with a balance can happen, however small the chances are. Therefore it will happen. The odds are small but that doesn't make it impossible, I don't think that people seem to understand that just because the odds are greatly against the possibility of it happening it doesn't mean that someone on their first try on keys.lol can type in a random number and find a wallet with a huge balance attached to it. I personally have created a webscraper running that randomly check private keys so if I never find anything major it's cost me basically nothing but the time it took to create the scraper which was only a few minutes. Not even electricity as my pc runs 24/7 anyway
Your choice yet each people do have different views on this and we do have our own minds on what would be the actions we should do.
You'll soon realize on what we are trying to say.
jr. member
Activity: 80
Merit: 2
It's now May 1 2019, anybody still hunting BTC private keys?

actually with 2017-18 increased adoption and market filling with newcomers there has been an increased number of people who started wasting their time "searching" for private keys they can "steal"! i usually see new projects on GitHub's explore popping up Cheesy

It is not pointless. The odds for lotto lottery also are very small yet people stiil keep winning.
take the odds of winning a lottery, divide them by millions. then divide that result by millions, and continue calculating that for the rest of your life. you still haven't come close to the odds of finding a private key with a balance in it.


Everything that can happen, will happen. And finding a private key with a balance can happen, however small the chances are. Therefore it will happen. The odds are small but that doesn't make it impossible, I don't think that people seem to understand that just because the odds are greatly against the possibility of it happening it doesn't mean that someone on their first try on keys.lol can type in a random number and find a wallet with a huge balance attached to it. I personally have created a webscraper running that randomly check private keys so if I never find anything major it's cost me basically nothing but the time it took to create the scraper which was only a few minutes. Not even electricity as my pc runs 24/7 anyway
sr. member
Activity: 1274
Merit: 267
What are you going to do with there private keys?
You should not think that you can steal any coin from just guessing other people private keys because in wallet generators, after number one is not number two. So that this kind of action is such a waste time.
legendary
Activity: 3080
Merit: 1353
It's now May 1 2019, anybody still hunting BTC private keys?

Maybe there are people still hunting, but I gave up in 2017.  Grin

@Flangler  - Not pointless? Well I do hope you have enough computing power, and the lotto comparison? Nah, finding a BTC private keys is way more difficult so the odds is far more difficult as compare to winning a lotto.
legendary
Activity: 3472
Merit: 10611
It's now May 1 2019, anybody still hunting BTC private keys?

actually with 2017-18 increased adoption and market filling with newcomers there has been an increased number of people who started wasting their time "searching" for private keys they can "steal"! i usually see new projects on GitHub's explore popping up Cheesy

It is not pointless. The odds for lotto lottery also are very small yet people stiil keep winning.
take the odds of winning a lottery, divide them by millions. then divide that result by millions, and continue calculating that for the rest of your life. you still haven't come close to the odds of finding a private key with a balance in it.
jr. member
Activity: 80
Merit: 2
It's now May 1 2019, anybody still hunting BTC private keys?
For sure there are still people who do strive and hoping to get some jackpot into those wallets who do have balances but i do think

that most of them completely stop yet its pointless on hunting out btc private keys that do have corresponding balance considering on the odds.
You will find yourself on finding these keys for eternity  Grin

I just started private key hunting a few days ago when I realized that BTC key generation is only pseudo random. It instead generates similar keys based on what keys have already been generated and used (this is where I realized it can be exploited). Why it does this I'm not sure, but it does nonetheless. Not going to give much more information until I make a large profit myself as I said I only realized this a couple of days ago. I've already found hundreds of keys with transactions in the past, and a couple with actual balances (dust).
member
Activity: 963
Merit: 57
It's now May 1 2019, anybody still hunting BTC private keys?
For sure there are still people who do strive and hoping to get some jackpot into those wallets who do have balances but i do think

that most of them completely stop yet its pointless on hunting out btc private keys that do have corresponding balance considering on the odds.
You will find yourself on finding these keys for eternity  Grin
It is not pointless. The odds for lotto lottery also are very small yet people stiil keep winning.
hero member
Activity: 3010
Merit: 794
It's now May 1 2019, anybody still hunting BTC private keys?
For sure there are still people who do strive and hoping to get some jackpot into those wallets who do have balances but i do think

that most of them completely stop yet its pointless on hunting out btc private keys that do have corresponding balance considering on the odds.
You will find yourself on finding these keys for eternity  Grin
newbie
Activity: 12
Merit: 9
It's now May 1 2019, anybody still hunting BTC private keys?
newbie
Activity: 30
Merit: 0
November 26, 2018, 07:06:23 PM
#38
Hi how are you ? I saw your post about the bitcoin private key, I am a bitcoin fan and I wanted to work with you.
Thank you !
legendary
Activity: 3290
Merit: 16489
Thick-Skinned Gang Leader and Golden Feather 2021
June 12, 2018, 02:44:12 PM
#37
Looks like it survived for 20 minutes, before being spent, hopefully by its owner, but who knows:

https://blockchain.info/address/1EmoMxgGMr1KdYNQVzfs7u6YJYBoR2C3Nj
I count 8 seconds before the first attempt to take the funds.
What I don't get though, is why it confirmed the transaction with 152.47 sat/B, and not the older transaction with 446.43 sat/B! Miners are supposed to take the highest fee.
copper member
Activity: 193
Merit: 255
Click "+Merit" top-right corner
June 12, 2018, 01:03:35 PM
#36
Here's a genius who figured posting his/her private key on Twitter seemed like a good idea.



Reference:
https://twitter.com/_pronto_/status/821072274442829824

Code:
Private key: 5KENaH6zZfjrmhim96ygs657kVWTZ5b9AaS193XNhLUwByW2sKc
Public key: 1EmoMxgGMr1KdYNQVzfs7u6YJYBoR2C3Nj

Posted on January 16, 2017. Looks like it survived for 20 minutes, before being spent, hopefully by its owner, but who knows:

https://blockchain.info/address/1EmoMxgGMr1KdYNQVzfs7u6YJYBoR2C3Nj

Bravo.

member
Activity: 129
Merit: 12
June 12, 2018, 06:00:15 AM
#35
Wait a minute. I'm not talking about randomly generating private keys like

Code:
openssl rand -hex 32

and luck out a la (Powerball)^128. We all know the odds for finding a positive balance address that way is practically close to infinity, even if you had the computational power to check a billion addresses per second.

I'm talking about way to significantly reduce the entropy. Or completely remove it, such as finding images of paper wallets that people frequently - those were the days - used to share on Instagram, Imgur, Flickr and so forth.

Take this one, for example. It had more than 2 BTC in October 2015:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/files/2014/11/IMG_20141027_185706.jpg&w=1484

Another way is (was) brainwallets, maybe the stupidest contribution to the bitcoin ecosystem. A famous example is sha256sum("mike") that gives (I'm by no means taking credit for this one):

Code:
64b4d0f47c93ce23d157e68a58767356283dc9b63c459d45d0e0e39b3a64b9b9
5JadzKfQLiM4v5dpqE3J5knhkZdnug6FRmjiCxpnPMAWix11rWR
144BBhjaTofkGJzCG7opHyG5t5HP2boUXc

https://blockchain.info/address/144BBhjaTofkGJzCG7opHyG5t5HP2boUXc

After the 2016 release of brainflayer and this instructional video (recommended viewing!), I assume every possbile and impossible wordlist has been used to sweep the blockchain clean of brainwallets, in a global script kiddie joint venture.

However, I might take credit for Smiley

Code:
echo -n "8" | keccak-256sum -l | tr -d ' -'

which leads us to this Ethereum address

Code:
e4b1702d9298fee62dfeccc57d322a463ad55ca201256d01f62b45b2e1c21c10
dc39020c132047dbff55bcb81aeadccc2b042b35becdd9e6a97f0e86a84785e6c96f252986cdb081103612617754ff45122e34a0c3023e26587ac1a0eba7508e
0xe0fc04fa2d34a66b779fd5cee748268032a146c0

https://etherscan.io/address/0xe0fc04fa2d34a66b779fd5cee748268032a146c0

which was active only 57 days ago.

Ethereum is perhaps even more interesting than bitcoin, because of tokens and smart contracts, some of which you can easily dump on exchanges. I simply assume lots of people are sweeping low entropy ETH addresses for such tokens.

My main point is that there are other and much less explored methods, that I work on for time to time when I have some spare time. I'm done with brainwallets and Google Image, but still have one or two aces up my sleeve.

It would be cool to hook up with others who are into the same thing. I'm fairly certain you are out there. Step forth!
legendary
Activity: 1372
Merit: 1123
June 11, 2018, 08:54:21 PM
#34
In the Powerball lottery, a large part of the search space is covered. In Bitcoin, only a very small fraction is covered.

I figured this is what you were getting at, point taken.

I was thinking about finding a ticket.

That's not very fair, in our context! That would be similar to leaking your Private Key, and the person using it claiming to have found it randomly (seems to be the case more often than not).

I may have made up the difference for the sake of argument.

Blasphemer!
If a concept is valid and unaccounted for, then I have no problem with you "making it up". I was just genuinely puzzled at the concept.

Real chance: it won't happen. Theoretical: it might happen.

I was unaware of your prophetic abilities, Mr. Loyce. Shocked Help me peer into the nether and see what is and is not to happen.

1 in 10^11 if you don't know my country
1 in 10^16 for my creditcard

Easy enough, credit cards are 16 digits with 10 possibilities per digit. Maybe the math is easier than I thought, fair enough.

About 100% for calling at the right time.

Are you hitting on me, Loyce?

No, you can never prove you found them independently. A collision means having two private keys that both produce the same address.

Oh, well than that changes everything. I'm talking more about acquiring a Private key, rather than a collision; I'm not technically inclined enough to comment on that, yet.
legendary
Activity: 3290
Merit: 16489
Thick-Skinned Gang Leader and Golden Feather 2021
June 11, 2018, 02:31:52 PM
#33
Then I misunderstand the Powerball, because I'm talking about matching the numbers randomly pulled. Your chances of matching random numbers would be unaffected by the random numbers that others have chosen. Their "guesses" do not make your guess any more or less likely to be correct. Again, I might not understand how lotteries work I guess, but this is how I understand it. How are the chances equal to the tickets in a lottery of random numbers? More tickets makes it more likely that someone wins, but it wouldn't make your chances vary.
I clearly don't live in a Powerball country, I was assuming it uses tickets.
Anyway, the same applies: the chance that you win is small, but the chance that someone wins is quite large (I don't know the details of the lottery).
For the sake of argument, let's say the chance that someone wins is 10%.
For Bitcoin, even if a billion people search for collissions, the chance that someone finds one is stil 0.00000000......0001%.
That's what makes it so unlikely to ever find one.
In the Powerball lottery, a large part of the search space is covered. In Bitcoin, only a very small fraction is covered.

Quote
You're over exaggerating, unless we're operating on the assumption that you can win with a stolen ticket, or something? I do see your point though.
I was thinking about finding a ticket. I think it's a safe assumption that some tickets are lost, out of millions of tickets. Let's put the chance of finding a ticket at 1 in a million, that still makes it billions times more likely to win with that ticket than finding a collision.

Quote
Apparently, because I do not know the difference. I've thought on this for hours and I cannot figure out the riddle. Help me understand theoretical chance Vs. real chance, genuinely, I am interested.
I may have made up the difference for the sake of argument. Real chance: it won't happen. Theoretical: it might happen. But the chance is so low that you can safely say it won't happen anyway (I read someone else explain this better once).

Quote
What are the odds of me randomly generating your phone number, credit card and catching you at a good time for a phone call?  Wink
1 in 10^11 if you don't know my country
1 in 10^16 for my creditcard
About 100% for calling at the right time.

Quote
collision = randomly generating a previously randomly generated Private Key, right?
No, you can never prove you found them independently. A collision means having two private keys that both produce the same address.
legendary
Activity: 1372
Merit: 1123
June 11, 2018, 02:09:22 PM
#32
People win all the time because the chance to win is equal to the number of tickets sold. It's not rare that someone wins, it's rare that you win.

Then I misunderstand the Powerball, because I'm talking about matching the numbers randomly pulled. Your chances of matching random numbers would be unaffected by the random numbers that others have chosen. Their "guesses" do not make your guess any more or less likely to be correct. Again, I might not understand how lotteries work I guess, but this is how I understand it. How are the chances equal to the tickets in a lottery of random numbers? More tickets makes it more likely that someone wins, but it wouldn't make your chances vary.

When comparing Bitcoin to the Powerball lottery, I think it's safe to say you're more likely to win that lottery without buying a ticket, than finding a collision on a private key.

You're over exaggerating, unless we're operating on the assumption that you can win with a stolen ticket, or something? I do see your point though.

Humans are very bad at creating random keystrokes.

Bee Boop.

It's easy to confuse a theoretical chance with a real chance.

Apparently, because I do not know the difference. I've thought on this for hours and I cannot figure out the riddle. Help me understand theoretical chance Vs. real chance, genuinely, I am interested.

Example: You can randomly generate my phone number, call me, and tell me my creditcard number. Although this sounds far fetched, it's still 1461501637330902918203 times more likely than finding a private key collision.

Show your work for this math problem. What are the odds of me randomly generating your phone number, credit card and catching you at a good time for a phone call?  Wink
Since I'm illiterate on vocabulary and semantics, collision = randomly generating a previously randomly generated Private Key, right?

That's why it's very important to generate your private keys at random. If your random isn't random, someone else can reproduce it.

Humans are almost as bad at programming random number generators as they are typing random numbers.
copper member
Activity: 193
Merit: 255
Click "+Merit" top-right corner
June 11, 2018, 09:41:35 AM
#31
We just found a really interesting ETH private key:

Code:
Privkey: 64e604787cbf194841e7b68d7cd28786f6c9a0a3ab9f8b0a0e87cb4387ab0107
Address: 0xf46b6b9c7cb552829c1d3dfd8ffb11aabae782f6

~

Pretty awesome, no?
It would be pretty awesome indeed, if this private key wouldn't have been published 10 months ago already.

How very curious. Because that short blog post doesn't mention WHY they use that private key in their example.
legendary
Activity: 3290
Merit: 16489
Thick-Skinned Gang Leader and Golden Feather 2021
June 11, 2018, 09:16:45 AM
#30
We just found a really interesting ETH private key:

Code:
Privkey: 64e604787cbf194841e7b68d7cd28786f6c9a0a3ab9f8b0a0e87cb4387ab0107
Address: 0xf46b6b9c7cb552829c1d3dfd8ffb11aabae782f6

~

Pretty awesome, no?
It would be pretty awesome indeed, if this private key wouldn't have been published 10 months ago already.
copper member
Activity: 193
Merit: 255
Click "+Merit" top-right corner
June 11, 2018, 08:43:36 AM
#29
We just found a really interesting ETH private key:

Code:
Privkey: 64e604787cbf194841e7b68d7cd28786f6c9a0a3ab9f8b0a0e87cb4387ab0107
Address: 0xf46b6b9c7cb552829c1d3dfd8ffb11aabae782f6

https://etherscan.io/address/0xf46b6b9c7cb552829c1d3dfd8ffb11aabae782f6

What's cool about this one?

It received 21 ETH from the genesis block! Check the first transaction on the blockchain (link above).

How did we find it? Wordlists, math and blockchain APIs (our own scripts).

Pseudocode:

keccak-256sum("ABC123*") = 64e604787cbf194841e7b68d7cd28786f6c9a0a3ab9f8b0a0e87cb4387ab0107

(* The phrase is actually NOT "ABC123", but you should be able to reproduce this one quite swiftly, with a basic wordlist.)

From there, it's two relatively simple operations, including elliptic curve, to derive the public address.

Pretty awesome, no?
jr. member
Activity: 35
Merit: 2
June 10, 2018, 05:17:07 PM
#28
But the chance of me finding a key: 100%.

The quantum computers is a key. Nobody know how AI works, but AI drives your Tesla Wink
legendary
Activity: 3290
Merit: 16489
Thick-Skinned Gang Leader and Golden Feather 2021
June 10, 2018, 01:45:31 PM
#27
~ the chances of winning the Powerball lottery are something like 1 in 300 million and it happens all of the time.
People win all the time because the chance to win is equal to the number of tickets sold. It's not rare that someone wins, it's rare that you win.

Back to Bitcoin: I can generate a random private key right now. The chance of me finding that key: 1 in 1461501637330902918203684832716283019655932542976 !
But the chance of me finding a key: 100%.

When comparing Bitcoin to the Powerball lottery, I think it's safe to say you're more likely to win that lottery without buying a ticket, than finding a collision on a private key.

Quote
I could type random keys on my keyboard
Humans are very bad at creating random keystrokes.

Quote
and potentially end up with an old Satoshi address at my disposal.
No you can't! It's easy to confuse a theoretical chance with a real chance.
Example: You can randomly generate my phone number, call me, and tell me my creditcard number. Although this sounds far fetched, it's still 1461501637330902918203 times more likely than finding a private key collision.

Quote
and increases exponentially when any of these attackers is using a method more effective than simple random generation or brute-force. Sophisticated hacks have a better chance than these figures would suggest.
That's why it's very important to generate your private keys at random. If your random isn't random, someone else can reproduce it.
newbie
Activity: 4
Merit: 0
June 10, 2018, 01:27:17 PM
#26
To be honest never taught about that, what are the odds to hit a wallet with bitcoin in there
legendary
Activity: 1372
Merit: 1123
June 10, 2018, 09:33:02 AM
#25
I'm having an existential crisis right now. Maybe it's because I have a poor understanding of math, but the chances of winning the Powerball lottery are something like 1 in 300 million and it happens all of the time. Statistical improbability does not equal impossibility, in fact it's tangibly the opposite. I could type random keys on my keyboard and potentially end up with an old Satoshi address at my disposal. The chances that someone pops a Private Key increases each time more people are attempting to do so, and increases exponentially when any of these attackers is using a method more effective than simple random generation or brute-force. Sophisticated hacks have a better chance than these figures would suggest.
copper member
Activity: 282
Merit: 31
June 10, 2018, 09:17:10 AM
#24
Did any of you try to access wallets by guessing the seed? I think it might be easier to create a program that randomly checks various seed combinations than trying to find a private key with a positive balance. As time goes by there will be so many seed combinations that a modified password guesser linked to a dictionary might do the job. And this time if you'll able to find something it might not be a single address but a bunch of them. You might even get lucky and get into a wallet owned by a treasure hunter like yourself Wink

Electrum has a dictionary size of 1626 words and uses 12 of them randomly, producing 1626^12 possible combinations, which is close to 10^38 combinations. Good luck finding a collision. It will take quite a while. Example:

If somehow could test 1 billion combinations per second (arbitrary number I just came up with), we need 10^(38-9) = 10^29 seconds to try them all. That is approximately 3.17*10^27 years.

The universe has existed for about 13.8*10^9 years.

You see where this is going... right?

I think that the last few words are a checksum, so your chances are slightly better than that (but still impossibly low).
newbie
Activity: 16
Merit: 0
June 10, 2018, 04:20:23 AM
#23
It's reasonable for you to do so although the odd might not in your favor but yet "nothing is unhackable".
sr. member
Activity: 1330
Merit: 258
June 04, 2018, 12:58:18 AM
#22
I'm interested but I don't understand.. How can use this "empty" private key? any reason please..
I don't check keys yet.. Can claim forks?
member
Activity: 963
Merit: 57
June 03, 2018, 04:30:46 PM
#21
Why are people still doing this, if the probability of finding a private key that is used, is almost zero?
-snip-
Yup, by brute-forcing the key, the chance to hit a collision is close to 0.0000000000000000000000000000001%. Wait,

No, what they talking about (in this thread) are those neglectfully stored wallet.dat files, private key backups, paper wallet images or other forms of backups which potentially have funds.
History can tell that some people are stupid enough to store those (not only wallets but passwords and sensitive info too) directly in the internet without "hiding" the files with a disguised file name, file type, etc.

This one for example:
Found more than 10 wallets with a positive balance without any password protection. Not entirely sure how or why you come up with the idea to put your wallet.dat in your public Dropbox folder. Those were the days...

@OP, this isn't "hacking" and... use this to display the image (the link must be the image's direct link that ends with ".png/.gif/.jpg"):
Code:
[img alt=img height=420]https://i.imgur.com/PrBSxN8.png[/img]
Winning a big lottery also has a small chance, you will never know unless you try. The numbers do not work always like that, technically you have two options you can find one with balance or not. Why there are doing this? Because they can.
full member
Activity: 634
Merit: 106
Europe Belongs To Christians
June 02, 2018, 03:39:18 PM
#20
My fellow crypto hackers. I've been into finding BTC private keys for a little more than a year. I have slightly less than 18k private keys in my own database.

As some sort of proof, here are 50 privkeys - try importing them in for example Electrum

Code:
L3wtCheT3Tvchz6WxsQgVmYopxDKBMxXKC1UpLnVJzEFi34maKLx
KzGk41jwqyoqJN3Rsbv2jDUKQBWYfMLnAke3F89U5oWwf3cauWP3
KxyHuRb7SaTkj36ynts6S58EtFYWDkwcLc3E5WpSdJkcVwgyFgaS
5KkjcrNnP1avWB5g2PimyreVdX5FN8e91UsyerK7z5pGcf6WCYD
5KknpBbehjZ4DRBStfMyd68VNP63rtFHusYaNuDqaE78N948ALf
5KkkZ48EaBs5gmY7W8pAb1cu1KHXVPH4xujT6vmyuYR4WyZ4tmn
5KkmcE7NJTSF9As6we7upSkX9dFxBq9eZNXvfNtyyaKmSbG9hUz
KyEq2YmegzAtz4ADyVowX3fqpvXUinPuTjSknsp218U2zY1Qmi5G
KyfaCbfHkzToiBpawkT1ik3TjQjFfaztgyDyzRHmgGEyz7dTArU4
L4G94NBReR1ZwRkdMSLP41nKXiooLxF9u6YVGp1uPe1eDVeN7qB4
5KkmYchw1wBKCzdY7G7tc5WF6WY5PkCmZxHXi9kYfHfyEWqY1gp
L3uSFVXSUretVNDccCBDPjLSSneCcXaeZPTfe9FS9s3SKAYfdeL6
5Kkjh1TrXpfPQGiEMcptaGBLf8h1KUbtn3n86dmqUoVqPfEfb1P
5KknEJnLyFiGgbUE6ciiGHMQez7o1zW4hMo4VZLpkdSsowuUgPQ
5KkhJ2is3EW8H56n6AvgqT1kWqWh6YhM4KM7ttfjdzrw1qJRyju
KyKQRUE38VFV6iVuX4yJ7GCGrRiquhTSoV3BLmLvCqF6RPXan67Q
5KkkCDvzfsxwTF4NQWsPNdd5ZkcgcGviZWevvQqfYp3ex45VypG
5Kko7c8fGKVSChc8PWJnzEFxXwVTvWJHZVUg8nyGmy3U9DXRMPp
L49HFoB1iFEvzXQn1agpggYGENHTW3khEL4rRArYrcWQcm1iXw4n
L4bSP2b1tBvwnuMrDoZm4vziWhrbzwBtwrsVwmPJqTDUWxCXJH6q
KyAFnDsPNN7DypKeS1wsT6Qzx9A3qGd53uWNeCuvCDjumYEPkoPj
5KkgzEYsJbifwJuqxTPSgkUGstYwX5HKPFucrM776qCwoMdwt59
5KkjenRdxoneEU8Mi8QvRFNuA6jPuiV7Wn9mVobsJiRB2uDXYsN
5Kkg2t2deWnTZrrSRG9jSByMDFKBxQvtYmPd5mycR6DFZHtiQjY
L4XnHhvLC1b4ag9L2PM9kRicQxUoYT1Q36PQ21YtLNkrAdWZNos6
KzK4uyoSm7Bdf3p91P4zVhS4cM4Pq87oCegWf4DcPrqiUDsLfDDt
KyhAKoDY9bfS8ckz2GapefFZfCKMgYTTb1FV2uH3LW2UjvY4xQTM
L3iDb3whFacS3pXFtcJfFLrxpBdJPHL5hUezgMAyYhPzEQhixgKN
5KkgNphSWbFy1r4Eobq1Pbb8kcG1geUpasi597T317HGhP8pYBe
Ky593tmxMTKEs9RjWvZ7bPMNa86wpsxm6di3X48kj4qpPaAj1ygs
5Kkk3dG43gJGHm4SaFC4qRGF7MYG4ShZZ8ESDSiKti1nu71v6Z5
5KkmVdDfTg2QnsMPcyqzbLLX7bZJx4nJATRyLJ9WXy6zDvYwaTR
5KkhGSzfoEaaYdKKeJuq3A7tmPzQdGYxZT2rm71XCAezxn8j6cT
5KkhgqewuqUTXSXZK4oTDi6rg4MHLssE5bh14oZH9NDRrwVdRvJ
KyUYJCbdvkdqWv7csuNHKWsGDcCi5YVXFaP2kfXtDpDNhykCuF6h
5KkmnJwzHL3kTWd8SAkssLmB2yRgUyYoA8X6jn73yfRxHVJYsru
5Kki22dZ3p9mLHvamV9mozC6ypUpq9ZSBa977eaYnec4EdkTLae
5KkhmdqyvaQwuhQ1cfQJCm1xfW4NXV6iDVRuRmVhXMPzGoMEm2s
5KkgASK9mPUrLAogFXZ9cMkxdkP1LNPEoFDVY2FfT64wBQs3fox
Kxk1JRsf6x1aUzN4Gff8ByFX3Jn7XP4NknGZoV6ovaEEVVJF5txf
L4QXUpcMgLC3NxrHgA9EpwAd5pRAkJfh2TvhYATXTW9fgnJuCWRn
Kxntb6r9WjUSJvajfKPWDrJvMVake5J4hBwEd5c4iGepHTbwqi8r
Kxx7AQStazNq2bhBb9nMpfZCKcdvrmKaEtUFskzcmAtVU94Y1jj4
KzedceVxZmamK3KwjpHisZkL7FWUmZnBMZQJTzAWzwbE7zwquaMd
L4rK1yDtCWekvXuE6oXD9jCYfFNV2cWRpVuPLBcCU2z8TrisoyY1
5Kkg7F7nvwy8uKtQsaKZWr9FGPMnM4Vs9nf7LuBXRdxUGZyMAtm
5KkizbG8giTgVgMgS9t1XMHNnxoUEEa2WkB8e1EoArYsqUoGDku
5KkjX2EQbKW1kJk9tRvgvbKcWxjhSicy2DUirQZSzTJ4M9Vd3UD
5KkhNgCMwzjEF7sCWXfKx7v7DHtthU3Jk6jmHHx5AaFnErA3Dzp
5KkmMUpsjKB3gKWzvDA1gsbDFsLFE5Z9H3JRsNSdVSsNFeyJU8D

...and you will get something like (sorry, seems like I don't have the required rank to embed images):

https://imgur.com/a/NwN6ZWA

The vast majority of the privkeys I've discovered are NOT from brainwallets (i.e. weak SHA256 hashes). Image search for QR-codes was nice for a while though, but those days are over. I have a couple of other techniques that I'm fairly sure anyone else hasn't thought of.

Every privkey in my database corresponds to a BTC address with at least two transactions on the blockchain. I throw away all "empty" privkeys.

I have a large Bitcoin Core wallet containing all my discovered privkeys. Five smaller transactions happened within the past week.

Anyways.... I was thinking maybe someone here has the same hobby as I do? Care to hook up and share some thoughts and strategies?

update your electrum !, its outdated
newbie
Activity: 24
Merit: 0
June 02, 2018, 12:32:25 PM
#19
Nice thread, I'm a treasure hunter myself Smiley And yes, like everyone here i know is 100x time more possible i end up fucking scarlett johansson than actually finding anything by bruteforcing.

I have however, found some keys with balance using unconventional methods. Thats the key (no pun) to find private keys. Methods come and go (Bruteforced brainwallets for example). Lots of other methods are dead and so will be a lot more in the future, just a matter of innovating!

Right now i thought, for fun, to develop a script to do old school bruteforcing, shooting in the dark without any specific order, just to see what pops up.

I began by running directory.io clone on a vps, modifying it a bit to display keys so a python script can pick them up and compare it with around 2m known addresses with funds. This beta version is doing around 6000 kps (keys per second) so its quite trashy at the moment, as it does around 500m keys per day

Currently modifying it to:
use 100% cpu, its using barely 30% atm. Multiprocessing, etc.
Convert the golang script to python so it can generate/check on the fly instead of retrieving an html page with the keys
Once this is done, modify the script to become a sort of botnet/pool that can check and upload to a server once it opens in a computer.

The funniest thing is that even that way, i wont find anything Grin!!!


I then guess you are aware of the Large Bitcoin collider. At the time of writing, running at 673.11 Mkeys/s. They've found a few collisions. The odds are not in your favor, diplomatically.

Pure bruteforcing is a dead end.

Think of ways that significantly reduce entropy is my tip. There are a number of ways. People have posted a few, and I have come up with one or two methods myself. Overall however, mining is still much more profitable than going after dust* bruteforce-stylee.

* Yeah, MOST addresses with a positive balance on the blockchain contain dust, hardly worth the effort.

I managed to scale it to 1Mk/s with some tweaks on a few spare vps's I have, they aren't doing anything so is not like im investing on it or anything, it was a fun project to make though. I'm aware of the LBC, i ran it for a few minutes but preferred to make my stuff instead ;P

But of course, its better to find human-fault keys. I have had luck with ETH keys too Smiley
legendary
Activity: 2478
Merit: 1360
Don't let others control your BTC -> self custody
June 01, 2018, 06:45:43 AM
#18
Did any of you try to access wallets by guessing the seed? I think it might be easier to create a program that randomly checks various seed combinations than trying to find a private key with a positive balance. As time goes by there will be so many seed combinations that a modified password guesser linked to a dictionary might do the job. And this time if you'll able to find something it might not be a single address but a bunch of them. You might even get lucky and get into a wallet owned by a treasure hunter like yourself Wink

Electrum has a dictionary size of 1626 words and uses 12 of them randomly, producing 1626^12 possible combinations, which is close to 10^38 combinations. Good luck finding a collision. It will take quite a while. Example:

If somehow could test 1 billion combinations per second (arbitrary number I just came up with), we need 10^(38-9) = 10^29 seconds to try them all. That is approximately 3.17*10^27 years.

The universe has existed for about 13.8*10^9 years.

You see where this is going... right?

Of course, but it's the same when you're trying to bruteforce a private key. The combinations are endless, but that's not what this is all about. Nobody is trying to test all possible combinations, but find a couple that are in use and give access to active wallets. There's a quite high possibility that if you'll start picking 12 random words out of those 1626 and start messing with them in different combinations you will get a single hit. Isn't that what those "treasure hunters" are hoping for?
Why did I ask about the seeds? Because finding a single one can lead to unlocking a wallet with multiple private keys instead of a single one which the collision dudes are trying to find.

No, what they talking about (in this thread) are those neglectfully stored wallet.dat files, private key backups, paper wallet images or other forms of backups which potentially have funds.
History can tell that some people are stupid enough to store those (not only wallets but passwords and sensitive info too) directly in the internet without "hiding" the files with a disguised file name, file type, etc.

Just recently there was a case of a guy being robbed of his coins because he was storing his passwords in a gmail account and had a backup email connected with it. The backup got hacked and through it they managed to gain the password to his main account.
legendary
Activity: 2534
Merit: 6080
Self-proclaimed Genius
June 01, 2018, 02:28:59 AM
#17
Why are people still doing this, if the probability of finding a private key that is used, is almost zero?
-snip-
Yup, by brute-forcing the key, the chance to hit a collision is close to 0.0000000000000000000000000000001%. Wait,

No, what they talking about (in this thread) are those neglectfully stored wallet.dat files, private key backups, paper wallet images or other forms of backups which potentially have funds.
History can tell that some people are stupid enough to store those (not only wallets but passwords and sensitive info too) directly in the internet without "hiding" the files with a disguised file name, file type, etc.

This one for example:
Found more than 10 wallets with a positive balance without any password protection. Not entirely sure how or why you come up with the idea to put your wallet.dat in your public Dropbox folder. Those were the days...

@OP, this isn't "hacking" and... use this to display the image (the link must be the image's direct link that ends with ".png/.gif/.jpg"):
Code:
[img alt=img height=420]https://i.imgur.com/PrBSxN8.png[/img]
legendary
Activity: 3542
Merit: 1965
Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform
June 01, 2018, 01:46:20 AM
#16
Why are people still doing this, if the probability of finding a private key that is used, is almost zero? Just look at the numbers involved with this in the following thread : https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/what-are-the-chances-of-an-address-collision-and-what-happens-when-it-does-104461

There are exactly 2^160 possible addresses and 2^96 private keys and there are only 2^63 grains of sand on all of the beaches of the Earth.

The odds in definitely not in your favour.  Wink
legendary
Activity: 3290
Merit: 16489
Thick-Skinned Gang Leader and Golden Feather 2021
I then guess you are aware of the Large Bitcoin collider. At the time of writing, running at 673.11 Mkeys/s. They've found a few collisions.
No, they haven't found a collision, and they never will find one.
To prove a collision,k you need to show two different private keys that create the same address.
member
Activity: 129
Merit: 12
Did any of you try to access wallets by guessing the seed? I think it might be easier to create a program that randomly checks various seed combinations than trying to find a private key with a positive balance. As time goes by there will be so many seed combinations that a modified password guesser linked to a dictionary might do the job. And this time if you'll able to find something it might not be a single address but a bunch of them. You might even get lucky and get into a wallet owned by a treasure hunter like yourself Wink

Electrum has a dictionary size of 1626 words and uses 12 of them randomly, producing 1626^12 possible combinations, which is close to 10^38 combinations. Good luck finding a collision. It will take quite a while. Example:

If somehow could test 1 billion combinations per second (arbitrary number I just came up with), we need 10^(38-9) = 10^29 seconds to try them all. That is approximately 3.17*10^27 years.

The universe has existed for about 13.8*10^9 years.

You see where this is going... right?
legendary
Activity: 2478
Merit: 1360
Don't let others control your BTC -> self custody
Did any of you try to access wallets by guessing the seed? I think it might be easier to create a program that randomly checks various seed combinations than trying to find a private key with a positive balance. As time goes by there will be so many seed combinations that a modified password guesser linked to a dictionary might do the job. And this time if you'll able to find something it might not be a single address but a bunch of them. You might even get lucky and get into a wallet owned by a treasure hunter like yourself Wink
member
Activity: 129
Merit: 12
Nice thread, I'm a treasure hunter myself Smiley And yes, like everyone here i know is 100x time more possible i end up fucking scarlett johansson than actually finding anything by bruteforcing.

I have however, found some keys with balance using unconventional methods. Thats the key (no pun) to find private keys. Methods come and go (Bruteforced brainwallets for example). Lots of other methods are dead and so will be a lot more in the future, just a matter of innovating!

Right now i thought, for fun, to develop a script to do old school bruteforcing, shooting in the dark without any specific order, just to see what pops up.

I began by running directory.io clone on a vps, modifying it a bit to display keys so a python script can pick them up and compare it with around 2m known addresses with funds. This beta version is doing around 6000 kps (keys per second) so its quite trashy at the moment, as it does around 500m keys per day

Currently modifying it to:
use 100% cpu, its using barely 30% atm. Multiprocessing, etc.
Convert the golang script to python so it can generate/check on the fly instead of retrieving an html page with the keys
Once this is done, modify the script to become a sort of botnet/pool that can check and upload to a server once it opens in a computer.

The funniest thing is that even that way, i wont find anything Grin!!!


I then guess you are aware of the Large Bitcoin collider. At the time of writing, running at 673.11 Mkeys/s. They've found a few collisions. The odds are not in your favor, diplomatically.

Pure bruteforcing is a dead end.

Think of ways that significantly reduce entropy is my tip. There are a number of ways. People have posted a few, and I have come up with one or two methods myself. Overall however, mining is still much more profitable than going after dust* bruteforce-stylee.

* Yeah, MOST addresses with a positive balance on the blockchain contain dust, hardly worth the effort.
member
Activity: 129
Merit: 12
Forgot to mention one of my earliest methods. Worked until 2013 or so. Google:

Code:
site:dropbox.com "wallet.dat"

Found more than 10 wallets with a positive balance without any password protection. Not entirely sure how or why you come up with the idea to put your wallet.dat in your public Dropbox folder. Those were the days...
newbie
Activity: 25
Merit: 0
I found privkey hunting vulnerability when analyzed Bitcoin source code at 2010. I found new ways for vulnerabilities & bug hunting when research my own practical PoW that defends from brutforce & AI attacks. I joined to RSA-576 Factory Challange when nobody knows about crypto future.


How to learn this brute forcing method?
newbie
Activity: 24
Merit: 0
Nice thread, I'm a treasure hunter myself Smiley And yes, like everyone here i know is 100x time more possible i end up fucking scarlett johansson than actually finding anything by bruteforcing.

I have however, found some keys with balance using unconventional methods. Thats the key (no pun) to find private keys. Methods come and go (Bruteforced brainwallets for example). Lots of other methods are dead and so will be a lot more in the future, just a matter of innovating!

Right now i thought, for fun, to develop a script to do old school bruteforcing, shooting in the dark without any specific order, just to see what pops up.

I began by running directory.io clone on a vps, modifying it a bit to display keys so a python script can pick them up and compare it with around 2m known addresses with funds. This beta version is doing around 6000 kps (keys per second) so its quite trashy at the moment, as it does around 500m keys per day

Currently modifying it to:
use 100% cpu, its using barely 30% atm. Multiprocessing, etc.
Convert the golang script to python so it can generate/check on the fly instead of retrieving an html page with the keys
Once this is done, modify the script to become a sort of botnet/pool that can check and upload to a server once it opens in a computer.

The funniest thing is that even that way, i wont find anything Grin!!!
member
Activity: 129
Merit: 12
Yes - BE CAREFUL - never use privkeys found online!

Such as these 100 privkeys I just generated with vanitygen

Code:
5JeytVw1hq6hE5zced4wBY2TVbNpEwHcZGrkeGqJrdCTaEJXZsg
5Jm4tdnKky6gK5osSydiZWBuvWGbtuHBsZfhpmgopTXKRLrfEEw
5KNhJtFqav8XjWRK9VEBThctsJq4V21Ezep1SZfQoiGUCYyjRzd
5JjDSABTLchtT6NFRvwSBxsT4w2KEhhKixFP4JsHAVL5tVbsdwo
5JPwK3V2EqxqLDb2RMhMNeAPksS6xAVbA1wNpcSravHrPVe9dm3
5JWeKSM9iTNWgRjDasp6PJdktbfEAcrLtrQvA6WXS7hGWwExkM1
5KZJRf9fc8LBMhH1oqYXTExSXb9UorrunXAHe99xKz3hYRfVQ1q
5Jf4oAvgHcgvkKRQF9cQ7eBL9eMACyyzEXnpWWfufDkEHYSpJgB
5JzJutUnYq1yaoQC8npnj2k5qLQvzvhZ9CE2HtyZdGaZGojDJgJ
5KDnWdGGMJeaSWgLH18Un9dXat475pzTrtQTWmAnYGMiLFzxoZ8
5JsLSmdLBEQuFgsVzC9UyFh1MWUSpVcAc2GQbXaUFhLi9dMekg5
5JBAWEPbkQn9YRwXA8FyhE4nkwMGRBEyi2aPEyDnV14TNMSXn5z
5Hvor55FMYvx7ZBkEZ7R1Uv3YGKA4BU2VpbX3wY6zrFKRVVpQKv
5Ht4NaBjoMgdfxWX82urvwv4pzeuuJSHCycBRK6SdPXq13kioUe
5KEYmhsHxZtbR1uaD2KwCJ13NRrCA5CUVmUva8jGFpHPSmuenVT
5KNkteUtW15h5YjdkNh2dHQCKCVUpm6vyBaMaf9EHpvQ8GtyhoG
5JQCMK5QD8Y5JNcmvV4DLiMQJUvmXxGPuYYu4iEvgtU2xezNr6o
5KHPUxAzzjBobxjjsCmfdNzZF9d5rGQ1AZznRj7NNiiGmDbKMKb
5HqQubsY7TQJSCBW3F738fd44koJgL4UKU7FvUmhqSeroDeoqFp
5JhRexTt9PeSkyjhXKKzgKhcvQpmJHRHPpK6MS71hfVcjGqiTrG
5HpHzxdMheMg6nJaEnvmo4VoS1oUWJfywXBiK2WvjQD2U76Dboi
5Js8QrSrGhtSyDf341xwxsqSvp9DcvY8csx3YtnMLkN2VnjicwC
5HveWQB9UX4HV4vxZSQxKqekz3kEZpuGKjbGrju8ZyLJr7p5t55
5HzpQkwJRfeCpcCdorw2woJGhkyE574LhV9YQpn9WLgrfbQWRTm
5JzoA3iSnq8ny81UxnxpURqsYkPVuBDujAtswTF2QawxmRQ4tDt
5JJF2KF7tqqEDNwcJvZqZVY5comFFhkTnh3o7bDYTHiUY53ZLcr
5J2CKaQLDmtJigrFxPaEvHMGVPb1sGHpy3VA3jQyKYzF6dsFarr
5J2NthCxVeA8DS2urvchLkjuZ2isM48LbzDmDKcm2WHFJTTj2Me
5JzRyVggiWNvTPMATNDMNE5jnzDG4LCYpuh3hsy4qDhRyWwoJBu
5KarZxWkGRmVLkUwCFZLynpw6u93iHbxb7H1DqzSbeam9uXZ2Cn
5KPi7rRioN3kCMJe9C8m13ZucuaSaCvEjXPEzFmsEwwPLtfdeU9
5JGb4AhLHh2cSzfNhrj1idgt4YkcixCuyeBU6oQh2PGQVHBYe5d
5Jm7bSCn1kyypfNh36vmZ3oKQq9mQJ5qRBcSyUEDT7pYcBs2598
5JNWRqb4gtEkWtzdLrQ6khXgeuz3bcyoGSxpzX7D644baRxVbwb
5KfFVaZJecQAXMTupY7GxPuqvVXK2H3HacWxgcSdhNSTS1iACRm
5JB9n2c2F3d8WXRXprkodbUVkKqdL7FrDkLYyswcgH7HmpApsBM
5JQdRnEvzhNekAA3auywRpA2Y6b1Ba6jV1bfeQHAph4W7MVCK9k
5HpHdbrhzhWLW9uzfFd5xJN9NuMRunfWBnKFYdgs5NXozgJdAkL
5KiGiWTJZ4YetSS6Hgc7MQPMdDpjuo2yHAAm47uJM1ehmCrXuCw
5HzXLfk2hVAQSvYmtnCW9wziKTYNCBJzSUjN815UbgF6FH4xZuE
5KYdibaVuZqRx9ZHbPNFtKGWEaHMfZb13N25aELXjUYNhVNreQ4
5JyyWA15uG4d5ew342QLiicvYXzmviMES92K6uZo1nXzb1esSfB
5KJCGuPxyJwujDZ1UAuzmpKbT1NnqfdDDGjwpzSRRgCrJpLdviR
5KM4MTH9RSnvQEkqdvL1M3ePgH9Vn4uXh3QDeU2dYKSmjmRvpS1
5K8szo8kHyMPyNgmkdd11gbmBf5DMNyyy8PpQx32nErUzkcKYPJ
5KejwvTVym3Do13QY8zo36s5FW3VjK4WW4KCHrE8HGJUEmQGjjm
5Jx5TDzDUqdyw672sVuibEVkSpM1ui8LnvCthKTJWsFKgiitCxn
5KEki6RBNq7pgPJrgQcQZPGUmemp5SeAq4VWitL3Ht1sVC9m9UA
5HzXYknY9oEvvXwV6GRLNVHUYYc8YukcDDeBsqV4PFEFxJdBR9a
5KVeeDiLw4TJ5oqdokv3mb8BnRwGnXDZLGZcgBsMhqnH6xcLLcD
5K1cY5F3MKaPS9PNKU1VzfYs9ykw7dMQ1xfoz3CGXMjAsEL2rzj
5JB1kCRLgVbtoth6oUnjf5SUGRUCCvpd7a7pvGZHy4bZgbACLTp
5KGhwKx4mQtC6C9wUVgXyJmr8o6UJgjtswEeuSbezqeT8WbbM5d
5JCHtjzFkb14j3XRcF9eXnTdtSGFWc8wSacfwGmrPDze9zCTJJo
5JavkrN4vBXJiegLZiz919sYqHSFU5b99JEQXaZtfxybYmr8fDJ
5JBf2sriYPu658qSzmDARvdcS41FhPhkXiKpjCKjjsd6o9Sr7yo
5JF98c82DxGpXnRQz8aRTXdarTc8ANSCYZYkupjVi5mKrrvnmqc
5HwXEYPopuNyZAC1up8WmrjbLuuybNmWsuWz4Z9fjBUNcEH8VmK
5JSfWYAg4umccmTUKqe2JcHZHswvLUyFWfAJW6y8kERdcV1LeX3
5JHKLjozpc7sniv2mqYKXmpSR8SdAxhSSXdvzf3smKrFfJzWxKd
5KW3WX42TabBvBGxkhG85Kt6pG6WFJwJoUdL4MnHsfVz7WT7GE9
5Hsot2GTx9TsX1dHoZZy6J7f4c6vHxSX88g8cf5UdV8xmrJKJAJ
5JADZ8JcfMWVLnMv6Pg8HaNeZVMRxJSfbzEqJLfZeFxva7Sj7yP
5JncG8SYMeoCEmq2xgczZQ1wcxvDHaajkors2NhJWW9kaDextvy
5J1EpaFhg9STRRCNGeTPEqVAkgEpBEpnDvL4yjKCLZmUrL6koGA
5JgQGkfVrUL393jSC7V6DPHYRPWXRjLaA762j8z9ytkAzXMzMJ9
5J2Ds2ZVv6rdXjyLHAgzodUnMs2aR61gy3tg5iAaBdqRZZTvx86
5JtZkrByk3ccvxZLRA6tgtjpvXCT8FdpEFTX5tYz5q8KomFjkne
5K1LRqVU2hAkKYGoUeNLFNvTjuZykLX3tZf9x41htCa7R14omXY
5JXfjXV9B4FfSHLvZyNfesCbC6d87MuW2rx381eofyhaMEPZ1Cd
5KfUuPpo53GrRsSvygUWmkPZ3J8EXoRKN9ExjGYsTMYMAvBYvCg
5Hveoq5gMLExqDbPCkVh2RBLHVT5W6gw9qxjwai9EnGYE8h6nGs
5J2LiX4enLqmJ4ggagoFqKVMHa8xAEC2kxeY6fVMCEoevWyjtvh
5JUa3VA9MLPfL4gC3SJzkVfTwxmTipEdkJWN8Cw1xsY5QsgPaMe
5KfkxCHoAE9QUo6C9QkVDm1YtyyqscKk2aggppJzKhZi5nnmm6C
5JwU6zMzB2HJmhVuxLasNY7a5AVQRqthGWZRi3FPEbsdnFL77nA
5JsnDp3iwAj5SMRQW2R6rGXo65fkgZfW5CJxCtUJ1k16fjTWPsR
5Jt8T2wmk4kbjHqcpx8us2Hmt389Kc3STJ3ACo7mzEGobhZVKjz
5KR9M8nrq9QLormw6oDcBGbi8Wz3vUxpUWYPK9rXicfM2izUGr5
5JGvsAegX2QAPKFd1xvFF6Ecdiv9NoBEfjPczaFhbJfnGUJBbdw
5JGZUqod4VwSNKPG377NpgRMhak2hCDkfZT9G7orSh2i8uA8JWB
5JoLfoyppR5r2NWkHhNkUc9j1rMSA5rJPBqHMiakzgnX3dDQnNi
5JgJym1FdjQ5qfqB5BtuXT8kidPtQkMyAmqJJ6Qz53mdcUjz6K6
5J9MYgcVbJcByphAXK8W3GySnX8caN7VvBupkbVpmepUXHngVP7
5JVpauRhmAxKTbtgvNWtfdD17KZNLL4SeaAcP9Aev4nd8K6x9mU
5JPt7hu7wZLAyuehtTJz7CuKq5EMpJeLMtQMrAPDncq9EQ7Y24D
5JtCC7G6mbu3Vr6rHmm7xd3J9paA6XeB193UVP6p4Rj7xjhPKE6
5HxVv7SoELLXKVvv9KoQK3fWCLqMeCtt5kYNsBVc7iD7pwCuwmm
5J9CFUq6pNknegdzDHBLAfDmjsaRGgwWk7mPALT4Mb1YeH4kiu1
5JCMLM7uKtb6f5Lpjm8TnhLHQcdwETT3YxLDQF51gcbw7BSshMT
5HvoS26VazhVmvstpVx93GmaJ34KRks6QAvxX9B5rpQSLhixU8h
5K4936kXj9H1fFpNTZNskWZNnU2qRb44SSh6AzuUz3KYaAnJ6k3
5HuBaUbRHqArVMBeeqwtpgQPDUVth2wgZWNwHNfTroyPztEWpVw
5JT5eNJLKDVWgGpaDZvjgDogLMHQAHoqtkQy5LbR4rcV7CD9wQ1
5KCx3SzL4ReEGoxTNibkNX9uvUy9hZhfJC1wtPvJXyk9fy1vgG5
5JjcjZM2gaPnuemWpdQnwgfDwSzENLQGScgsEjsP7z9jvwfjg4B
5JQuh6ShRkwGQtbAfzGEFSEZB1LDQrR35Lb71vjTuRu5sUNJjKG
5JVv4pZqBJvEbXqLEeoDb4MVsXZPMgs4G1wURzJdAKxbx6BCTCb
5JYuJVeP965cLCocC8znYFafGWdeEx5Tae2Ry7HmXJSp4qrjF2y
5K72pjfqkU5DJfniG8PKWYLgHTBcNFjHUCvNgUitbRABvoNpcFy

Even though none of them have been used - ever, chances are very high you will be robbed instantly, just because I posted them here.
legendary
Activity: 3290
Merit: 16489
Thick-Skinned Gang Leader and Golden Feather 2021
try importing them in for example Electrum
BE CAREFUL! If you accidentally use that wallet later on, someone else can access your funds!

I once found a privkey that had held close to 530 BTC only a month earlier. In one way I'm glad the funds had been transferred before I came in. In one way not.
How did you find that key? Of course, anybody can just post private keys, and I've done that in the past (see here to add a few to your collection). If they're used and you don't care anymore, it's not that special to share it.
member
Activity: 129
Merit: 12
My fellow crypto hackers. I've been into finding BTC private keys for a little more than a year. I have slightly less than 18k private keys in my own database.
That's interesting. What are the sources of your private keys ? How do you come across them ? What do you do if you find a key with addresses with some notable amount of bitcoins ?

The vast majority of the privkeys I've discovered are NOT from brainwallets (i.e. weak SHA256 hashes). Image search for QR-codes was nice for a while though, but those days are over. I have a couple of other techniques that I'm fairly sure anyone else hasn't thought of.
I know you wouldn't share but makes me a little insecure if you have established 'ways' to discover private keys online.

Anyways.... I was thinking maybe someone here has the same hobby as I do? Care to hook up and share some thoughts and strategies?
Me too.I'm a rookie though.Started collecting private keys just 2 minutes back.

It's difficult to talk in general terms about my sources of private keys. I'm not sniffing networks or breaking into other peoples' machines. Nothing illegal. It's more math than  networks, if that makes any sense. And I did mention one of my early methods in the first post - searching for images of QR-codes. In 2014, people would post pictures of their paper wallets on Instagram. Don't do that.

I have so far never had access to a private key with a life-changing balance on it. The vast majority have a zero balance (but all have been active on the blockchain and MAY therefore be used again), and say 1-2% have some dust in them. I've never moved funds from any of them. But honestly, if I stumble over a privkey gives me access to say 50 BTC or more, I don't know what I'm gonna do. They say whoever has the privkey owns the coins.... quite a moral dilemma.

I once found a privkey that had held close to 530 BTC only a month earlier. In one way I'm glad the funds had been transferred before I came in. In one way not.

Hoping to connect with others like me. I'm sure you're out there. I'm not entirely sure what we're gonna do Smiley
legendary
Activity: 1988
Merit: 1317
Get your game girl
My fellow crypto hackers. I've been into finding BTC private keys for a little more than a year. I have slightly less than 18k private keys in my own database.
That's interesting. What are the sources of your private keys ? How do you come across them ? What do you do if you find a key with addresses with some notable amount of bitcoins ?

The vast majority of the privkeys I've discovered are NOT from brainwallets (i.e. weak SHA256 hashes). Image search for QR-codes was nice for a while though, but those days are over. I have a couple of other techniques that I'm fairly sure anyone else hasn't thought of.
I know you wouldn't share but makes me a little insecure if you have established 'ways' to discover private keys online.

Anyways.... I was thinking maybe someone here has the same hobby as I do? Care to hook up and share some thoughts and strategies?
Me too.I'm a rookie though.Started collecting private keys just 2 minutes back.
jr. member
Activity: 35
Merit: 2
I found privkey hunting vulnerability when analyzed Bitcoin source code at 2010. I found new ways for vulnerabilities & bug hunting when research my own practical PoW that defends from brutforce & AI attacks. I joined to RSA-576 Factory Challange when nobody knows about crypto future.
jr. member
Activity: 30
Merit: 3
As a company, we obviously hit all aspects of BTC, and we have had a great amount of success with collision.  We run these for our investors and we have a strong set of rules about importing the funds, but we have seen more than 1000 BTC in wallets that we found using private key harvesting, so it is a viable method, although morality is a nice sidebar for the use of these techniques.
copper member
Activity: 193
Merit: 255
Click "+Merit" top-right corner
Ah, we need to connect. Been doing this for a while too. Our database is bigger than yours. Also only with active privkey/address pairs.

Here are 50 privkeys from our database as proof:

Code:
5HqjFMbKYBDkNaMWh28kTDVdVDS92iGMUaYaqZfD6BgtBiJdDEp
5JEqF9q616S2J8wvkqWiS5kRYXQ3bPQZeaGRLQnbLWNjhXgupV8
5KkbVvfdZgo81Ed5cmaUnSoV9rZUUH5Pme64SvyhFMciRNWw7Br
5JugjZ9dkx2iw4BcwaSGTrsjWBDjSUj8UFBT1EAdfeDwr3qAM1C
5KAqTDTh1MMNUzKYEUzbsraCuqoyoSPXsceuvLNpGuG8KsWS5hT
5KTWLvEt5kUbuncgsDbpiD1wVHpgUt5mwkBf33nzPz8HqYtpWZk
5Jk2kCcR2USW1bz7KrTUdFnQFumeF8r75D2FP4hQox15DjJJHh5
5KDL68EydtbEcaruSzjoF6AgULSc65Xr1nYLMPmjt1y49Jt89Ac
5K7pEPzAy2UCRiqwsvYsC2mmW71L7zVG375d91xVV3JFGKaK95a
5JwhBgLg4Q4ibeQX1WHg7QeSiAMr1g8iDdUmPq7a4rhcqNCHfrS
5KGfoYwfC5bTwq5ikrh2ogSSMF6wAaFrhey4XKBR3oDgjkNfx8U
5J41txQF7LnZfbM8hyjhtWajQURS2cW6MRXJsBFZ31ioRapQXgd
5JTrV63hLLJBYJK6RTJAeeMaAiT8J6ALkZiXipEKqDqML2pnexm
5KBw8geEmZvxQy7QEXCN3HQQ4xQHiRXHPNwxisfXo3DrYTb13o1
5Jkh8RtZfSyibW7Fg9ghvyWFPLpAY9HuJrYM4ZCrPV2xVfFB6sS
5JbNL4aoR47MTi1JHqvaLvmyZLB6inzEu47EyoCq5PKkuVmCtot
5HzZLc7c5fDqdgpeqtt18Cxf8B4eFeGQ75mv41TtvXfjib7TuPy
5J8Pm1bTSP6vKcSCM86eUGjJzwp6mnMDuntnGkdE1ppTuWtScMz
5KV3TmCe8y3HEvTgMw3HKBsFQL6bqy6aNJq2XUp2axwZypGN1d4
5Kj7J6FYUAWFGf99no2yekFsQtE1SoPMTZAd9UzcPxmS9W3M1C9
5KADagUo4C61iiU6zu9CepXVLQ15zr2xbQqEo87eSM3tBhgX8bS
5J1tKVe5U5p7kb9CWzoNTKtvTDfGW6y4JaghwasG4tYpShS7446
5JdxDxp2nnXuwW1MbHEFTtzMJK3b7h8Zr3DuS97C8ygh5mXam1K
5KgcjryBVuU1bZ2ipxo3vc1nT7NfTn4VWxy2rjBzDwGdV9UuM9D
5JoyWcjc4sRvpf7jbGDX24eXjMbbQSSnp5tNtzRbzs2ih8sJe9r
5KEtzcrzEB5S1sMuwxugHhN8nwRkL3rMQ9FNWMRkZ92zhL88bzK
5JE9GXzBjy2Ji3qnpCtfe9jWVHfKDuuDYKFVDaT8AWZfQvwCo1S
5J4PwYT4MuVbgPL5Ghu3mTPHa7975zDmLgyX3xdyx9Wuv3Fp7dB
5HqQU9fwJtkhuka7Y3uV8c31r7J8ArsyBLU56gPiEgMtRuQoQ5y
5KQ16mAE1nhtbisWzKxZKmcJmeob66ExqyyaP84Sj73JiHptd7L
5KK4fARR1vH4su1G9EshGMREXqaKsSjyCATq2xjymkzMuRqsBi8
5K17KnGFxwkj26cSWfpVPWyYcwqy7RD8SJcQB7PXDXt1gfKy5AF
5JXCQxsFutYNWY27PJvLQbBYng7B1rxka2bJnNJfrQcfVMdGo61
5KjURv4rjxXmRNXQNLD8x1AvZgX4HnPd5WwikfrbR2jawDHygTX
5KgpLmHnBnpNoeWD375pKcZGZbubGJkHpbhmLzhJGDoiF9hW18Q
5KQsJWxRkBfV7yVXZcT8omgMQzwXYr2NwrD3ZodZNyvhFzQWjfk
5KSTzQyGc5ekPrvtW1B5w3pVJ93ssP5QRsckpCMtpMsr4o3MWTS
5JyteyL2geGfoXNi1tW9Uwpc2H5XhDuZmUcmetdnuyeJiSycXmu
5J8ZdKTSQbo8r32JnQu334cyUjvJiXuq3Z2UMt5si9HYK8yeWYH
5JEYp28eKpBeqaGHHyf4VsCzbC9q6DFrerjmQewKq5KQx3q3QRE
5KMGY6oNUwS23HbRt9gFGZBZb9jXfEAJhV1UR1xGzuHdkC4BJ6o
5Jj9Du5iZtdePsze1NZG76LMC2ya2P1qMEYMxUtMh9P6wXicy2N
5KdS3ZRkUvGPsS3fmormqpY7nNxhmioXe7hEDdwHHgE2PKgSd43
5Jov1JmwLbedz4HkiqtkM952gqyHf2kjivh8v3qUEDJ2G4KmHda
5JLrkmZYtR779HprB4phTAHLCsLsCCLoC6zFGGiSSJ7SGpvEbcP
5Hyz2Ud7g3DiihuggCWmUYHLcj3XHFqmZdcYPZTHyVB6k7MEjyF
5J13KY5KG2EKW2RZt3Gt8oGc6dutAdZ1vTFjZbzFTcLNvqxxV8J
5JF7SHQfMEFh47PpLapF9K5aD1J1Za8x1VE5MhF1jYah64ZGb4n
5HpHagTD47SzTgAmpFPK1oo2iV93SHaEvrDMkyzrxubAU3ezcmG
5HusZ9HBQochkGzmLDfoNUdvAGv7f1LA6GMWgTHu7fwx9dAgqdL

We didn't include the juiciest ones here, but there are a couple of tx from the end of last year.

And we - on the other hand - are able to insert images  Wink Using the privkeys our list above gives:



We agree that Electrum is the wallet of choice for these matters.

Sooo...... where do we go from here?

First of all, there has to be more people here who are into this kinds of research. Make some noise! Or silently join us Smiley
member
Activity: 129
Merit: 12
My fellow crypto hackers. I've been into finding BTC private keys for a little more than a year. I have slightly less than 18k private keys in my own database.

As some sort of proof, here are 50 privkeys - try importing them in for example Electrum

Code:
L3wtCheT3Tvchz6WxsQgVmYopxDKBMxXKC1UpLnVJzEFi34maKLx
KzGk41jwqyoqJN3Rsbv2jDUKQBWYfMLnAke3F89U5oWwf3cauWP3
KxyHuRb7SaTkj36ynts6S58EtFYWDkwcLc3E5WpSdJkcVwgyFgaS
5KkjcrNnP1avWB5g2PimyreVdX5FN8e91UsyerK7z5pGcf6WCYD
5KknpBbehjZ4DRBStfMyd68VNP63rtFHusYaNuDqaE78N948ALf
5KkkZ48EaBs5gmY7W8pAb1cu1KHXVPH4xujT6vmyuYR4WyZ4tmn
5KkmcE7NJTSF9As6we7upSkX9dFxBq9eZNXvfNtyyaKmSbG9hUz
KyEq2YmegzAtz4ADyVowX3fqpvXUinPuTjSknsp218U2zY1Qmi5G
KyfaCbfHkzToiBpawkT1ik3TjQjFfaztgyDyzRHmgGEyz7dTArU4
L4G94NBReR1ZwRkdMSLP41nKXiooLxF9u6YVGp1uPe1eDVeN7qB4
5KkmYchw1wBKCzdY7G7tc5WF6WY5PkCmZxHXi9kYfHfyEWqY1gp
L3uSFVXSUretVNDccCBDPjLSSneCcXaeZPTfe9FS9s3SKAYfdeL6
5Kkjh1TrXpfPQGiEMcptaGBLf8h1KUbtn3n86dmqUoVqPfEfb1P
5KknEJnLyFiGgbUE6ciiGHMQez7o1zW4hMo4VZLpkdSsowuUgPQ
5KkhJ2is3EW8H56n6AvgqT1kWqWh6YhM4KM7ttfjdzrw1qJRyju
KyKQRUE38VFV6iVuX4yJ7GCGrRiquhTSoV3BLmLvCqF6RPXan67Q
5KkkCDvzfsxwTF4NQWsPNdd5ZkcgcGviZWevvQqfYp3ex45VypG
5Kko7c8fGKVSChc8PWJnzEFxXwVTvWJHZVUg8nyGmy3U9DXRMPp
L49HFoB1iFEvzXQn1agpggYGENHTW3khEL4rRArYrcWQcm1iXw4n
L4bSP2b1tBvwnuMrDoZm4vziWhrbzwBtwrsVwmPJqTDUWxCXJH6q
KyAFnDsPNN7DypKeS1wsT6Qzx9A3qGd53uWNeCuvCDjumYEPkoPj
5KkgzEYsJbifwJuqxTPSgkUGstYwX5HKPFucrM776qCwoMdwt59
5KkjenRdxoneEU8Mi8QvRFNuA6jPuiV7Wn9mVobsJiRB2uDXYsN
5Kkg2t2deWnTZrrSRG9jSByMDFKBxQvtYmPd5mycR6DFZHtiQjY
L4XnHhvLC1b4ag9L2PM9kRicQxUoYT1Q36PQ21YtLNkrAdWZNos6
KzK4uyoSm7Bdf3p91P4zVhS4cM4Pq87oCegWf4DcPrqiUDsLfDDt
KyhAKoDY9bfS8ckz2GapefFZfCKMgYTTb1FV2uH3LW2UjvY4xQTM
L3iDb3whFacS3pXFtcJfFLrxpBdJPHL5hUezgMAyYhPzEQhixgKN
5KkgNphSWbFy1r4Eobq1Pbb8kcG1geUpasi597T317HGhP8pYBe
Ky593tmxMTKEs9RjWvZ7bPMNa86wpsxm6di3X48kj4qpPaAj1ygs
5Kkk3dG43gJGHm4SaFC4qRGF7MYG4ShZZ8ESDSiKti1nu71v6Z5
5KkmVdDfTg2QnsMPcyqzbLLX7bZJx4nJATRyLJ9WXy6zDvYwaTR
5KkhGSzfoEaaYdKKeJuq3A7tmPzQdGYxZT2rm71XCAezxn8j6cT
5KkhgqewuqUTXSXZK4oTDi6rg4MHLssE5bh14oZH9NDRrwVdRvJ
KyUYJCbdvkdqWv7csuNHKWsGDcCi5YVXFaP2kfXtDpDNhykCuF6h
5KkmnJwzHL3kTWd8SAkssLmB2yRgUyYoA8X6jn73yfRxHVJYsru
5Kki22dZ3p9mLHvamV9mozC6ypUpq9ZSBa977eaYnec4EdkTLae
5KkhmdqyvaQwuhQ1cfQJCm1xfW4NXV6iDVRuRmVhXMPzGoMEm2s
5KkgASK9mPUrLAogFXZ9cMkxdkP1LNPEoFDVY2FfT64wBQs3fox
Kxk1JRsf6x1aUzN4Gff8ByFX3Jn7XP4NknGZoV6ovaEEVVJF5txf
L4QXUpcMgLC3NxrHgA9EpwAd5pRAkJfh2TvhYATXTW9fgnJuCWRn
Kxntb6r9WjUSJvajfKPWDrJvMVake5J4hBwEd5c4iGepHTbwqi8r
Kxx7AQStazNq2bhBb9nMpfZCKcdvrmKaEtUFskzcmAtVU94Y1jj4
KzedceVxZmamK3KwjpHisZkL7FWUmZnBMZQJTzAWzwbE7zwquaMd
L4rK1yDtCWekvXuE6oXD9jCYfFNV2cWRpVuPLBcCU2z8TrisoyY1
5Kkg7F7nvwy8uKtQsaKZWr9FGPMnM4Vs9nf7LuBXRdxUGZyMAtm
5KkizbG8giTgVgMgS9t1XMHNnxoUEEa2WkB8e1EoArYsqUoGDku
5KkjX2EQbKW1kJk9tRvgvbKcWxjhSicy2DUirQZSzTJ4M9Vd3UD
5KkhNgCMwzjEF7sCWXfKx7v7DHtthU3Jk6jmHHx5AaFnErA3Dzp
5KkmMUpsjKB3gKWzvDA1gsbDFsLFE5Z9H3JRsNSdVSsNFeyJU8D

...and you will get something like (sorry, seems like I don't have the required rank to embed images):

https://imgur.com/a/NwN6ZWA

The vast majority of the privkeys I've discovered are NOT from brainwallets (i.e. weak SHA256 hashes). Image search for QR-codes was nice for a while though, but those days are over. I have a couple of other techniques that I'm fairly sure anyone else hasn't thought of.

Every privkey in my database corresponds to a BTC address with at least two transactions on the blockchain. I throw away all "empty" privkeys.

I have a large Bitcoin Core wallet containing all my discovered privkeys. Five smaller transactions happened within the past week.

Anyways.... I was thinking maybe someone here has the same hobby as I do? Care to hook up and share some thoughts and strategies?
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