I study bitcoin and don't exactly understand that how new wallet generate? The documentation write below sentence: "For generate new wallet, first search that there is no such wallet" How we can found that the new wallet didn't generate before? What is complexity of search?
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Documentation for what wallet service or software? Do you have a link to said documentation?– Pieter WuilleOct 16, 2018 at 1:13
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The bitcoin.org documentation– R. Jalaei SalahiOct 16, 2018 at 1:14
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3Please update your question with an actual link.– Pieter WuilleOct 16, 2018 at 1:18
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The phrase you quoted exists only in your question - it is not a quotation from any documentation indexed by Google.– RedGrittyBrickOct 16, 2018 at 10:58
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1 Answer
I study bitcoin and don't exactly understand that how new wallet generate?
I think you mean address, not wallet. A wallet is a software application that manages your addresses, and let's you view/spend the Bitcoin associated with them.
Address
A Bitcoin Address is a shortened form of Bitcoin script that locks the funds associated to it. In order to spend the funds, you must provide the necessary input to the script so that it equates to true when the script is executed by nodes on the Bitcoin network. This usually includes a signature of the transaction by the private key associated to the address. Here's an example of a Pay-to-Public-Key Hash (P2PKH) address:
P2PKH
16JrGhLx5bcBSA34kew9V6Mufa4aXhFe9X
Steps to generate the address:
- Generate a random 32 byte private key. For example (do not use this):
a966eb6058f8ec9f47074a2faadd3dab42e2c60ed05bc34d39d6c0e1d32b8bdf - Calculate it's corresponding public key using
secp256k1elliptic curve023cba1f4d12d1ce0bced725373769b2262c6daa97be6a0588cfec8ce1a5f0bd09 - Calculate the
hash = RIPEMD160(SHA256(public-key)):3a38d44d6a0c8d0bb84e0232cc632b7e48c72e0e - Encode
Base58Check(hash):16JrGhLx5bcBSA34kew9V6Mufa4aXhFe9X
See How to Generate a Bitcoin Address
How we can found that the new wallet didn't generate before? What is complexity of search?
You want to make sure you don't use a private key that someone else might have. There is no way to search all the addresses that might be known because only addresses that have received coins are on the blockchain. Also, many addresses can be derived from the same key pair using different scripts, so you can't be sure you don't have a duplicate just by checking the address.
Since a private key can be nearly any 32 byte number, there are on the order of 10^70 possibilities. You will never have a collision with another key as long as you choose a sufficiently random source for key generation. This is the most important thing to remember. For example, don't use a Brainwallet or any other low entropy source to generate a private key because it makes it easier for someone to guess.
