Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: What are the odds of guessing someone's private key or seedphrase?
by
Winterfrost
on 04/11/2023, 01:20:51 UTC
Another way to ask this question is, what are the odds of any two people generating the same private key at any time?

The answer for this question is pretty interesting, but to make  long story short, you have a better chance of winning the lotto 9 times in a row.

Bitcoin private keys uses SHA-256, which is the number 2 to the 256 power. Which is an unfathomably large number.
If you counted all the grains of sand on planet earth and all the drops of water in all the oceans on earth, you would not even come close to that number!


More detailed explanation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eZ5DP2P5As
Certainly, the odds of correctly guessing someone's seed phrase or private key are low due to the vast array of possible combinations. This makes it highly impossible for any existing seed phrase to be generated again by chance. Even if you were given a 1000 years to leave on earth, the chances of guessing a positive seed phrase are as high as spending your entire life on earth.