Quote from: sdmathis on April 25, 2015, 07:29:39 PM

Once when I first started getting into crypto, I accidentally sent sone altcoins to the wrong address and of course, that was that. The coins were gone.

That made me wonder if the following scenario is possible: Could someone create a brand new Bitcoin address and find Bitcoin sitting in his wallet if someone accidentally sent coins to that address a year or so ago? Or will coins only show up if someone sends them to the wrong address and that address already exists.

I was just curious.

If you were lucky enough to generate the address that had the bitcoins, then yes you would find bitcoins just sitting in the wallet.

However:

Quote from: molecular on November 03, 2012, 07:45:18 PM

Ok, new data, will recalc everything:

probability of getting struck by lightning in any given year: 1/280000.
probability of taking a shit at any given point in time: 1/(60*24) = 1/1440 (assuming you take a crap every day and the actual process takes 1 minute)
probability of getting struck by lightning while taking a crap in any given year: 1/(280000*1440) = 1/1.47E11 = 2.48E-9
probability of taking a crap while being in a situation where being struck by lightning can actually occur = 1/1440 = 0.25 = 1.74E-4
probability of finding a collision: 1E-65
getting hit by lightning while taking a crap for how many years in a row is equally probable as finding a collision: log(1E-65) / log(1.74E-4) = 17.3

is my math roughly correct now?

If so, I can say: "Finding a collision is about as likely as being struck by lightning while taking a crap every year for 17 years in a row".

For any reasonable understanding of the word "possible", it is not possible to find bitcoins in a truly random newly created address.

Now, if you can figure out some non-random system that someone else used to create a bitcoin address, then you could generate the same address and gain access to their bitcoins. Of course, that would be theft, and you're not a thief, are you?

Quote from: sdmathis on April 25, 2015, 07:38:27 PM

What I mean is it theoretically possible, or is there something in the code that prevents it.

No, the only thing that prevents it is the EXTREME odds against it happening.

Quote from: Don007 on April 25, 2015, 07:40:07 PM

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(a bunch of silly nonsense)
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Quote from: Amph on April 25, 2015, 07:41:42 PM

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(a bunch of silly nonsense)
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You would do well not to take advice from anybody that has an advertisement in their signature space on this forum.

The vast majority of those are people that are being paid per post to advertise with those signatures. Therefore, they'll say just about anything in a discussion thread just to increase their post count (and therefore increase their income). Generally, they know less about the topic they are discussing than the person asking the questions.