Sorry for digging up an old thread but how can we be certain that this many bitcoin addresses exist if we are not able to generate and store them?
A bitcoin address is simply a number between 0 and 1.46X10
48 represented in base 58 with a version number pre-pended and a checksum appended.
We know they all exist in the same way that we know that all the numbers between 0 and 1.46X10
48 exist even though we are not able to generate and store them. That's the power of mathematics.
(
In reality, I'm not sure that it's been proven yet that all possible values between 0 and 1.46X1048 can be generated by the RIPEMD-160 hash function. As such, while the addresses "exist", it is possible that some of those addresses have no associated private key and therefore any bitcoins sent to them may not ever be spendable)
Are most bitcoin addresses just theoretical?
In the same way that most numbers that nobody has ever counted to are just theoretical.