Is it possible to spend bitcoins from private key 0?

Question

In [1]: from bitcoin import *

In [2]: privtoaddr(0)
Out[2]: '16QaFeudRUt8NYy2yzjm3BMvG4xBbAsBFM'

On blockchain.info, there is 0.01 BTC unspent in this address. Is it possible to spend the bitcoins? If not, why?

Answer 1

While 0 is not a valid element to use as a private key, and as such whatever public key that your software generated which was then hashed to the address is also not a valid public key, the address 16QaFeudRUt8NYy2yzjm3BMvG4xBbAsBFM itself might be a hash of some other valid public key. Since the scriptpubkey for this address only cares for a public key that is hashed to this specific address, and a valid signature for it, there might exist some unknown valid private key that fits for spending the funds sent to the address.

We will probably never know if such a key exist.