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Topic: Re: How many possibly bitcoin addresses are there exactly? And how long does it... (Read 422 times)

newbie
Activity: 51
Merit: 0
In this world there never gonna be lack of bitcoin adresses. Wink
newbie
Activity: 4
Merit: 0
Didn't you know? All the private keys got leaked on this site: http://directory.io/  Roll Eyes Bitcoin has been hacked!

Now we wait for search engines to index it, then you can search by Bitcoin public address and find the private key.


legendary
Activity: 1162
Merit: 1007
More than atoms in the universe
That is not correct, not even close.
The estimated number of atoms in the observable universe (10^80) is 71 million trillion trillion times greater than 2^160.

Interestingly, 10^80 ~= 2^266.  So if ECDSA public keys were just hashed by SHA256 (and not hashed again with RIPEMD-160 to shorten the address string) then the total number of possible addresses would be comparable to the estimated number of atoms in the observable universe.  

legendary
Activity: 3472
Merit: 4801
A infinite number, I'm guessing? Since Bitcoin addresses aren't physical, but digital? I don't think a accurate number can be assumed, due to the likelihood of another popping up every second.

Not infinite.

There are only 2160 possible different bitcoin addresses since they are based on a 160 bit hash.

Of course, if in some extremely unlikely event the people of the future should decide that 1,461,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 addresses aren't enough, they could create a new address type that used some other hash function.
legendary
Activity: 3472
Merit: 4801
Just doing some pencil and paper math here. I was originally wondering if Bitcoin ever were to see the type of transaction volume that Visa sees, say, something like 300,000,000 transactions per day, would the lack of available bitcoin addresses ever be a problem. If a new address were to be used for every transaction, then it would still take roughly 2^40 days before we used all of the 2^160 addresses. I obtained this number by dividing the total number of bitcoin addresses (2^160) by the number of bitcoin addresses created per day (300 million), which comes out to roughly 2^40 addresses. So even without expanding the number of addresses, we won't have to worry for another trillion years.

2160 / 300,000,000 = 4.87 X 1039

240 = 1.1 X 1012

I'm pretty sure that 1039 is MUCH larger than 1012

You're probably looking at something more like 2131 days.
hero member
Activity: 644
Merit: 500
A infinite number, I'm guessing? Since Bitcoin addresses aren't physical, but digital? I don't think a accurate number can be assumed, due to the likelihood of another popping up every second.
newbie
Activity: 8
Merit: 0
Just doing some pencil and paper math here. I was originally wondering if Bitcoin ever were to see the type of transaction volume that Visa sees, say, something like 300,000,000 transactions per day, would the lack of available bitcoin addresses ever be a problem. If a new address were to be used for every transaction, then it would still take roughly 2^40 days before we used all of the 2^160 addresses. I obtained this number by dividing the total number of bitcoin addresses (2^160) by the number of bitcoin addresses created per day (300 million), which comes out to roughly 2^40 addresses. So even without expanding the number of addresses, we won't have to worry for another trillion years.
legendary
Activity: 1610
Merit: 1000
Well hello there!
minimum size of a molecule is 2 atoms; diatomic molecules. So it's definitely >2
The mean is greater than 2, but not the median, which is a more appropriate average. (A molecule with 2.1 atoms is certainly non-average. Wink)
Particle man particle man...particle man hates Obese 2.1 molecule man!!
legendary
Activity: 1386
Merit: 1053
Please do not PM me loan requests!
minimum size of a molecule is 2 atoms; diatomic molecules. So it's definitely >2
The mean is greater than 2, but not the median, which is a more appropriate average. (A molecule with 2.1 atoms is certainly non-average. Wink)
The mean would probably be 2.00001 ish. Don't cite me, I'm a bitcoiner not a molecular physicist.
legendary
Activity: 4542
Merit: 3393
Vile Vixen and Miss Bitcointalk 2021-2023
minimum size of a molecule is 2 atoms; diatomic molecules. So it's definitely >2
The mean is greater than 2, but not the median, which is a more appropriate average. (A molecule with 2.1 atoms is certainly non-average. Wink)
newbie
Activity: 42
Merit: 0
Way too much to even think about it.
legendary
Activity: 2324
Merit: 1125


I think you're being sarcastic. What's the average for a molecule? 3?


You think? :|
hero member
Activity: 490
Merit: 500
thimo the dev
More than atoms in the universe
That is not correct, not even close.
The estimated number of atoms in the observable universe (10^80) is 71 million trillion trillion times greater than 2^160.

Molecules?
Yes, because the average molecule contains more than 71 million trillion trillion atoms. Roll Eyes

I think you're being sarcastic. What's the average for a molecule? 3?
More like 2.
minimum size of a molecule is 2 atoms; diatomic molecules. So it's definitely >2
legendary
Activity: 4542
Merit: 3393
Vile Vixen and Miss Bitcointalk 2021-2023
More than atoms in the universe
That is not correct, not even close.
The estimated number of atoms in the observable universe (10^80) is 71 million trillion trillion times greater than 2^160.

Molecules?
Yes, because the average molecule contains more than 71 million trillion trillion atoms. Roll Eyes

I think you're being sarcastic. What's the average for a molecule? 3?
More like 2.
legendary
Activity: 2912
Merit: 1060
More than atoms in the universe
That is not correct, not even close.
The estimated number of atoms in the observable universe (10^80) is 71 million trillion trillion times greater than 2^160.

Molecules?
Yes, because the average molecule contains more than 71 million trillion trillion atoms. Roll Eyes

I think you're being sarcastic. What's the average for a molecule? 3?
legendary
Activity: 4542
Merit: 3393
Vile Vixen and Miss Bitcointalk 2021-2023
More than atoms in the universe
That is not correct, not even close.
The estimated number of atoms in the observable universe (10^80) is 71 million trillion trillion times greater than 2^160.

Molecules?
Yes, because the average molecule contains more than 71 million trillion trillion atoms. Roll Eyes
legendary
Activity: 2912
Merit: 1060
More than atoms in the universe
That is not correct, not even close.
The estimated number of atoms in the observable universe (10^80) is 71 million trillion trillion times greater than 2^160.

Molecules?
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