So you're telling me there's a chance?
lol yeah. it's just a little above 1 / 2**70 for every time you do a H160 and check for a match.
"A little above" meaning insignificantly close to 1, since there's the additional (almost zero) chance that, besides the creator's private key, there might be other keys hashing to the same address. We can't know that, but if does affect the chances (as minimal as it does).
It's also 100% if you ultimately intend to scan all 2**70 keys (assuming the creator isn't trolling).
No, I get it. The thing is, people have solved these keys. Yes, they were smaller ranges and some of the pub keys are already known but as you said, assuming the creator isn't trolling, they will continue to be solved one way or another. I think its just a matter of who wants to dedicate their time/resources to the problem long enough to be successful.
I agree this may be a naive/ignorant way for me to look at it but that's how I'm choosing to perceive it.