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Topic: The Bitcoin Black Hole - page 2. (Read 7178 times)

newbie
Activity: 29
Merit: 0
June 23, 2011, 11:13:50 AM
#8
http://blockexplorer.com/address/1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE

Pretty sure no one has the private key to that.

It already got 0.021 BTC.

How do you go about designing an adress like that? I guess you need a few characters at the end to make it pass the verification, but is there a tool to determine them?
legendary
Activity: 980
Merit: 1004
Firstbits: Compromised. Thanks, Android!
June 23, 2011, 11:13:07 AM
#7
Just choose any random address.  The chances of anyone having the private key to it are extremely low.

True, but it's the publicly known-to-be-unrecoverable nature of the address that I'm looking at.

If someone just pops up and says "I'm giving this blood money to The People of The World!", displays a bitcoin address, and publicly sends a bunch of bitcoins to it, is it really unrecoverable? Or is the address from his wallet, with the act being just a publicity stunt? (Not that actually doing it wouldn't be....)
legendary
Activity: 980
Merit: 1004
Firstbits: Compromised. Thanks, Android!
June 23, 2011, 11:07:27 AM
#6
What use would it serve? You might as well say lets increase the value of gold by loading a bunch onto a rocket ship and shooting it into the sun.

A few years ago, there was a lady running for office in New Hampshire. Being of the voluntaryist persuasion, she had planned on donating her paycheck back to the residents of the area where she was running (I don't remember how.) She was basically told she couldn't do that, and that if she tried or even kept talking about it, she'd be arrested... buying votes, or some such.

I had thought that a "fair" way for someone wanting to do that... to take wealth and distribute it to others without actually handing them a check... would be to publicly buy bitcoins, then publicly destroy them. Granted, the wealth would only be redistributed to others holding (or acquiring in the future) bitcoins, and wouldn't exactly double the value of a bitcoin (unless you acquire and destroy 3 million or so.) But it might have served the purposes of the above-mentioned candidate without landing her in jail.

It's just a thought experiment, really. I was wondering if such a publicly-known unrecoverable address could be created.
newbie
Activity: 56
Merit: 0
June 23, 2011, 11:04:56 AM
#5
MtGox could store their coins there for additional security
newbie
Activity: 42
Merit: 0
June 23, 2011, 11:03:18 AM
#4
Just choose any random address.  The chances of anyone having the private key to it are extremely low.
sr. member
Activity: 308
Merit: 250
June 23, 2011, 11:02:45 AM
#3
http://blockexplorer.com/address/1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE

Pretty sure no one has the private key to that.
newbie
Activity: 56
Merit: 0
June 23, 2011, 11:02:10 AM
#2
whatever use this serves....I don't think so. addresses are hashes of public keys.
noone knows whether a private key to that public key exists.
legendary
Activity: 980
Merit: 1004
Firstbits: Compromised. Thanks, Android!
June 23, 2011, 10:57:13 AM
#1
So, I've been reading some threads, and thinking about unrecoverable bitcoins. It lead me to a thought, which leads me to a question for the bitcoin community:

Is it possible to publicly create a bitcoin address, such that neither the participants to the creation, nor the observers, have (nor can deduce) the private key that would match the address?

Anyone can just create a new wallet, copy the first address, trash the wallet, then send bitcoins to the address. Burn your money if you wish, ho-hum. But a public address like that, known by all to be an unrecoverable pit... this actually has a use or two.

Thoughts?
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