Quote from: DannyHamilton on April 30, 2014, 11:52:57 AM

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2¹⁶⁰ is approximately 1.5 * 10⁴⁸
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Ah yes, 1 in 2¹⁶⁰ needs to be compared.

Well since we allready have 2.142 * 10⁴³ water molecules in the pacific and ~ double that (approx 4.28 * 10⁴³) in all oceans, we just need 10 ⁵ times of all of earths oceans

But thats not a nice comparisson. How about "Earth's volume is approximately 1,083,210,000,000 km³" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volume_of_the_Earth

Thats approx. 1,083 * 10¹² km³, lets just see how low we need to go with the unit till we hit 10⁴⁸

1,083 * 10¹²km³ = 1,083 * 10¹²*10¹⁸ mm³ ... hmm 10¹⁸ more to go the particles/molecules might fit, but lets take something else.

According to this site http://htwins.net/scale2/

the known universe is approx 10²⁷ m (diameter) so we just need to find something has an diameter of ~ 10^-21 m...

While zooming in @ 10^-16,3 i noticed "length shorter than this are not confirmed", well lets keep going...

10^-21 has nothing, but @ 10^-22 there is a Top Quark. So lets just take 10 of those

So getting the correct private key to a given public address is like hitting a specific wall of 10*10 top quarks from the edge of the observable universe.

This assumes that the observeable universe is flat, which makes it easier to imagine.

Quote from: zetaray on April 30, 2014, 09:23:56 AM

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this is a worrying thought.
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Is it still? If your answer is yes, please visit the page I linked above and play with it a bit. I allready though 2¹⁶⁰ is big, but this...

Edit: After thinking about this for a while, I think I made a big mistake. The problem is that the Information given is a diameter which has 1 dimension. So instead of thinking about the observeable universe as a big disc youd have to think about it as a line, which I dont like tbh. I will edit this again later with a better 3d comparission (as the fraction of a drop of water in the ocean was).

Edit2:

Lets do this proper now

We need to find something with approx 1.5 * 10⁴⁸m³ in order for 1m³ to be equivalent to 1 in 2¹⁶⁰

http://htwins.net/scale2/
Gives us diameters of pretty much anything. E.g. the observeable universe (OU) has a diameter of approx 9.3 * 10²⁸m. This gives the OU a Volume of:

V_OU = 1/6 * pi * (9.3 * 10²⁸)³ ~ 4.2*10⁸⁶

Thats way bigger than we need. So in order to find something with a volume of approx 1.5 * 10⁴⁸ we can take the same formula but this time we let the diameter be unknown. Since this forum is not supporting latex commands Ill spare you the details.

1.5 * 10⁴⁸ = 1/6 * pi * d³ is equiv. to d = 1.4 * 10¹⁶

which gives us the "Rotten Egg Nebula", "Raw Egg Nebula" or "Calabash Nebula" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calabash_Nebula

In this nebular I have hidden a ball with diameter ~ 1.24 meter and you have to find it.

Im not sure I like this comparisson better, but at least the numbers add up.

Last Edit (promise):

Earth has a diameter of 1.27 * 10⁷m which gives it a volume of 1.07 * 10²¹m³
So in order for the comparisson to hold up we need something with a volume of 7.13*10^-28m³ or a diameter of approx 1.11 * 10^-9m.
According to http://htwins.net/scale2/ a single water molecule has a diameter of 2.8*10^-10m, thats close but a little to small. But a buckyball* has a diamter of 1*10^-9m. The water molecule might be a better comparisson though.

Thats the last one. I like it. 1 in 2¹⁶⁰ is like finding a single buckyball in the whole earth.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminsterfullerene