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Board Beginners & Help
Re: The size of the private and public key sets, and collisions
by
odolvlobo
on 10/06/2014, 22:49:25 UTC
There are 2256 public/private key pairs. There are 2160 bitcoin addresses. So, for each bitcoin address, there are 296 public/private key pairs that produce it.

To find the private key for a particular bitcoin address, you may still have to search up to 2256-296+1 private keys because you don't know which ones give duplicate addresses. However, assuming everything is randomly distributed, the probability of any private key generating a particular address is still 1/2160.

I make the distinction, because it is possible that you could try all private keys from 1 to 2160 and still not find a match. It is possible for all of the 296 keys for that address to lie somewhere in the range from 2160 to 2256-1.

#1 is not necessarily correct.
#2 is correct.

Also, remember that 2256 >> 2160 >> 296