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Creating new bitcoin addresses (and private keys) can be done completely offline which means I can, by accident, choose a public address which was already created by someone else in the past, right? I know the possibility of choosing the same address is almost 1/∞ but, even in the Powerball there is sometimes a winner.

If not, one of these explanations must be true:

  1. I cannot choose already existing public address because the generator won't let me do this.

  2. I will create the public address as well as the private key but, when someone sends bitcoins to that address, only the first wallet which was created by someone else in the past will receive the money. And my wallet will not be even seen by the network.

  3. Or?

I couldn't find the answer for this problem hence I am asking.

Igor
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    This is not a programming question and should not be asked here. You may be able to get help on our sister site, [bitcoin.se]. – Michael Hampton Jul 17 '18 at 18:51

1 Answers1

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You will be able to spend coins, which belong to this address. And someone else also can do this. You both will see all the coins and will be able to use them. Blockchain will not allow you to spend the same money twice.

Zergatul
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  • So does it mean 1 public address will have 2 private keys? – Igor Jul 20 '18 at 10:02
  • @Igor Right. Set of private keys - 2^256, set of public addresses - 2^160. Theoretically speaking, every address have about 2^96 private keys. – Zergatul Jul 20 '18 at 10:14
  • In my opinion you also could create the same private key by accident... However this is very unlikely in the moment. In the future this might be a drawback of the blockchain technology, however digital messages could then also not longer be encrypted savely with current technology. – misanthrop Jul 20 '18 at 14:14