Читать книгу The only reason why you don`t own Bitcoin is that you don`t know enough about it… - - Страница 7

We’ve talked quite a bit about Bitcoin but still haven’t figured out why keeping money in this digital currency is so secure.

Bitcoin uses 12, 15, 18, 21, or 24 words as standard options for generating a seed phrase. The most common and recommended length of a seed phrase is 12 words. These words are chosen from a predefined list of vocabulary words known as the BIP39 (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 39) dictionary. Using a seed phrase allows wallets and their private keys to be recovered and recreated if the device is lost or damaged. 5,444,517,870,770,770,735,735,974,381,410,031,699,376 (five and a half quintillion) unique seed phrases can be generated from a list of 2,048 words in length, using a minimum of 12 words in each seed phrase.

To understand – if some person wants to guess your phrase, he will have to go through 680,564,733,842,966,996 combinations.

Assuming his server will process one variant per second, he has to live 21,598,892 years or use 21 million computers for an entire year! With such a resource, there is no need or logic in searching for someone else’s wallet, as you can spend resources on mining new BTC. This calculation is made for a seed phrase of 12 words, but I couldn’t even write a 24-word seed phrase calculation. Otherwise, the resulting number would take up half a page!

Example of a keyword phrase (seed phrase):

«dynamic modify glow puzzle primary ivory chair tank spray whisper echo timber.»

Example of a public address:

1BvBMSEYstWetqTFn5Au4m4GFg7xJaNVN2

Add to this Bitcoin’s code as a program consists of 77,000 lines. The 70,000 lines are written in the programming language C++. In addition, the length of the chain in the Bitcoin blockchain has exceeded 710,000 blocks. To guess the bitcoin phrase to crack all the blocks will take over 38 nonillion years because the system has acquired a reliable cryptographic hashing algorithm – SHA-256. And that’s another reason why no one has been able to crack Bitcoin yet.

Not everyone has heard of SHA-256, but in my opinion, it is one of the greatest American inventions of the 21st century. Developed by the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2001, SHA-256 is a secure hashing algorithm used in the iPhone to hash data, including the unique facial characteristics many of you use to unlock your phone.

I won’t bore you with the details, but SHA-256 has never been broken or compromised, making Bitcoin one of the most secure protocols in the world. That is why it was decided to create a digital asset based on it. In 2010, SHA-256 was said to «have the potential to last several decades unless a large-scale breakout attack occurs.» That is good news, as Bitcoin was designed to be mined and stored for the next 140 years, maybe even longer.

Remember that there is currently no hardware capable of damaging Bitcoin. The only thing that can damage it is the «51% Attack», in which an attacker captures more than half of the network’s mining capacity.

The 51% attack is a potent threat to blockchain networks, including Bitcoin. It occurs when a single participant or group of blockchain participants control more than 50% of the network’s computing power. It means they can manipulate the transaction validation process and create fake transactions.

In theory, a 51% attack allows an attacker to perform the following actions:

– Transaction Veto. The attacker can reject or cancel certain transactions that they deem undesirable. It can cause a loss of trust in the network and reduce its integrity.

– Double Spending. An attacker can conduct double spending, meaning he can spend the same bitcoins twice. He can cancel transactions that have already been made and use the same bitcoins for new payments.

However, the 51% Attack requires significant computing power to implement successfully, making it complex and expensive. Despite the possibility of a 51% Attack, it is unlikely in the case of Bitcoin, something on the level of a myth, if you will.

Perhaps mining will change hands, and one owner will gain control of 51% of the hash rate. But in this case, he is unlikely to jeopardize his business, as not only the network’s credibility would collapse but also all of his profits. It is all the more important to consider that this has happened many times in history if it makes sense. Just look at the distribution of miners across all the world’s mining companies (Figure 13). It would be enough for the two top players to collude and launch a 51% Attack, but they don’t, and for good reason.