Developer Hacks Bitcoin Wallet & Explains Importance of Mnemonics
John Cantrell, a programmer involved in Bitcoin and Lightning Network venture, has disclosed that he had succeeded in hacking a Bitcoin address.
His revelation, nevertheless, received multiple responses with several concluding Bitcoin to as insecure.
Cantrell, who believes that people have misunderstood the operation, provided additional details and guaranteed people that even though the wallet has been hacked, Bitcoin remains safe and not looted.
As per Cantrell, Bitcoins held in a wallet created from a 12-word mnemonic is safe. The only rationale for hacking the Bitcoin wallet was the wallet’s owner openly exposed eight words of the 12-word mnemonic seed. He detailed:
“It would take the same system that brute forced the last 4 words of his mnemonic 837 quintillion millennium to brute force all possible 12 word mnemonics […] if you know as few as 5 words. To brute force all 12 words (just to break even on your $100B investment, assuming you can actually liquidate all the BTC) still takes 422 TRILLION YEARS.”
I got a lot of great feedback and questions after posting my article about brute forcing yesterday
I wanted to address a question that came up over and over again because I think a lot of people extrapolated what I did to the false conclusion that Bitcoin isn't safe or secure /0
— John Cantrell (@JohnCantrell97) June 19, 2020
The only way Bitcoin is not safe is when seed words are disclosed. He finished argument by writing “Your bitcoin is safe. 2^128 is a REALLY big number. Just don’t let anyone near your seed words.”
AuthorKelly Cromley
Kelly is our in house crytpto researcher, delving into the stories which matter from blockchains being used in the real world to new ico coming out.
