5 ms·

No way to recover the Bitcoins?

by taigeair 13y ago

josephagoss 13y ago
You could run vanitygen to guess the private key to any Bitcoin address. It might take a few billion years.
- hnha 13y ago
  It could also take just one day if you are lucky. It impossible to predict, just like the future of bitcoin.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - dontblink 13y ago
    Equivalent of a bitcoin lottery?
    - josephagoss 13y ago
      If you want to play the Bitcoin lottery, it's a far better idea to focus your computing power on solo mining. You have far more chance guessing a 25 bitcoin block than getting a valid private key.
- mrmagoo312 13y ago
  Time to find a billion computers to run it on
etix 13y ago
No way if you lost your wallet.dat
otoburb 13y ago
Not without knowing the private key for the bitcoin address in question.
skriticos2 13y ago
No. If you delete the wallet, the contained Bitcoins make poof. You basically delete the private key and won't be able to sign a transaction with it ever.
- mcherm 13y ago
  It's like what happens when your wallet gets burned in a fire. That cash is gone forever.
  - JohnTHaller 13y ago
    Correct. Except most of us don't keep all our money in our wallet or under our mattress. We keep it in a bank. Which is insured by the federal government. Bitcoin is akin to keeping all your money in a big bag in a single location if you don't back it your digital wallet offsite.
    - dllthomas 13y ago
      That is the local effect, which is the same for cash vs bitcoin and different for deposit vs bitcoin (though of course there is nothing preventing bitcoin-denominated deposits). The global effect for bitcoin is more like nuking a bit of gold - you have reduced the total supply permanently - whereas for cash we can just print more.
  - tedunangst 13y ago
    Except it can be reprinted. The cash is gone, but the total money supply is not irreversibly reduced.
  - kens 13y ago
    Actually the Bureau of Engraving and Printing will replace damaged or destroyed US currency if they can determine to their satisfaction how much has been destroyed. They replace over $30 million of currency yearly. The most common causes of mutilation are are fire, water, chemicals, explosives; animal, insect or rodent damage; and petrification or deterioration by burying. See http://moneyfactory.gov/uscurrency/damagedcurrency.html http://moneyfactory.gov/uscurrency/damagedcurrency.html There's also an article with some interesting stories: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/06/2001-06-03-money.htm http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/06/2001-06-0... [I'm not intending this as an argument about Bitcoin, but as something people might find interesting.]
mkramlich 13y ago
Correct. And this is one of many reasons why it will become increasingly important to beef up the security and robustness of the Bitcoin network and ecosystem. It has some of the same failure modes as traditional bank/government-backed currency. But it also has a set of a different kind of failure modes that should also be minimized or mitigated.

No way to recover the Bitcoins?

josephagoss 13y ago

You could run vanitygen to guess the private key to any Bitcoin address. It might take a few billion years.

hnha 13y ago
It could also take just one day if you are lucky. It impossible to predict, just like the future of bitcoin.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- dontblink 13y ago
  Equivalent of a bitcoin lottery?
  - josephagoss 13y ago
    If you want to play the Bitcoin lottery, it's a far better idea to focus your computing power on solo mining. You have far more chance guessing a 25 bitcoin block than getting a valid private key.
mrmagoo312 13y ago
Time to find a billion computers to run it on

etix 13y ago

No way if you lost your wallet.dat

otoburb 13y ago

Not without knowing the private key for the bitcoin address in question.

skriticos2 13y ago

No. If you delete the wallet, the contained Bitcoins make poof. You basically delete the private key and won't be able to sign a transaction with it ever.

mcherm 13y ago
It's like what happens when your wallet gets burned in a fire. That cash is gone forever.
- JohnTHaller 13y ago
  Correct. Except most of us don't keep all our money in our wallet or under our mattress. We keep it in a bank. Which is insured by the federal government. Bitcoin is akin to keeping all your money in a big bag in a single location if you don't back it your digital wallet offsite.
  - dllthomas 13y ago
    That is the local effect, which is the same for cash vs bitcoin and different for deposit vs bitcoin (though of course there is nothing preventing bitcoin-denominated deposits). The global effect for bitcoin is more like nuking a bit of gold - you have reduced the total supply permanently - whereas for cash we can just print more.
- tedunangst 13y ago
  Except it can be reprinted. The cash is gone, but the total money supply is not irreversibly reduced.
- kens 13y ago
  Actually the Bureau of Engraving and Printing will replace damaged or destroyed US currency if they can determine to their satisfaction how much has been destroyed. They replace over $30 million of currency yearly. The most common causes of mutilation are are fire, water, chemicals, explosives; animal, insect or rodent damage; and petrification or deterioration by burying. See http://moneyfactory.gov/uscurrency/damagedcurrency.html http://moneyfactory.gov/uscurrency/damagedcurrency.html There's also an article with some interesting stories: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/06/2001-06-03-money.htm http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/06/2001-06-0... [I'm not intending this as an argument about Bitcoin, but as something people might find interesting.]

mkramlich 13y ago

Correct. And this is one of many reasons why it will become increasingly important to beef up the security and robustness of the Bitcoin network and ecosystem. It has some of the same failure modes as traditional bank/government-backed currency. But it also has a set of a different kind of failure modes that should also be minimized or mitigated.