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I’m 1000+ hours into Bitcoin. There is one thing I don’t understand.

A private key is a 256-bit string.

When using a private key to login to a software wallet, or reinstalling a hardware wallet with private key or seed phrase, the private key is instantly recognized. It’s not like you only know if a private key is valid when you sign a transaction.

My point is, why couldn’t you write a script that tries 1000 combinations a second? There doesn’t seem to be a time lapse per try.

I know entropy and that there are many many many combinations. But still. What am I missing here?

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Discussion

Short Fiat 1y ago

The number of possible combinations is so large that the time and compute power that is required to find someone elses bitcoin is not cost effective.

The number is about 70 digits long.

EauRevoir 1y ago

I know, but still if JtR can do 1,5m tries a second on a gpu.

Short Fiat 1y ago

What is JtR, can you send me a link to that?

EauRevoir 10mo ago

Jack the Ripper or HashCat

Short Fiat 1y ago

That is about 31 trillion tries in a year.

So you can take 13 digits off the 70 and that is how many years it will take them to find your bitcoin

a number of years that is 57 digits long

EauRevoir 1y ago

Yeah I know. But my brain can’t comprehend that this is the private key security.