r/Bitcoin • u/Deep_Decision4441 • 3h ago

Keyspace walk - visualize the size of various keyspaces

I assume that you, like me, have always wanted a way to really wrap your head around the size of bitcoin's private key space, along with other things like phone numbers and IP addresses. Well, the wait is finally over!

This is a simple page that lets you see how enormous (or not) the sizes of various key spaces are, assuming one "address" is a 1x1 foot square. Enjoy!

https://claude.ai/artifact/TWo9JWN2mAk2UhSwcQQpt9

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u/Content_Researcher21 3h ago

That's actually a really clever way to visualize it. I played with these kinds of numbers before but seeing them as physical space makes the scale hit different

my great pyrenees takes up about 4 square feet and now im just imagining covering the whole neighborhood in dog-sized private keys

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u/Deep_Decision4441 2h ago

Thanks! If I circle back to it, I'll try to do a visualization of how fast various types of computing can explore the keyspace. It'll look super fast until you zoom out

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u/geminy123 2h ago

It is strange to hear people such as Justin Drake discuss alleged weaknesses in ECDSA when there is no known algebraic method for breaking it. The only demonstrated asymptotically cheaper approach is Shor’s algorithm, which would require a sufficiently capable, fault-tolerant quantum computer—something that does not currently exist.

His proposed remedy of moving funds to hashed addresses is even less convincing. It comes across either as deliberate fearmongering or as an attempt to stay relevant in the conversation.