A recent client asked us: Is it possible for cryptocurrency wallet addresses to collide with others?
The short answer: Yes, but you might not be that "lucky"!
Here’s a detailed breakdown of how wallet addresses work and why duplication is astronomically unlikely.
How Wallet Addresses Are Generated
Private Key Creation
- A wallet address begins with a 64-digit hexadecimal private key, generated using elliptic curve algebra (a cryptographic function).
Public Key Derivation
- The same elliptic curve formula produces a 128-digit hexadecimal public key from the private key.
— Wait, isn’t my wallet address shorter? Hold on, we’re getting there!
Wallet Address Formation
- Ethereum uses a hash function (Keccak-256) to compress the public key into a 40-digit hexadecimal string, prefixed with "0x" (totaling 42 characters).
Simplified Summary:
- Private key: 64 hex digits
- Public key: 128 hex digits
- Wallet address: 40 hex digits (distinct from the public key)
The Odds of Duplication
Each hexadecimal digit has 16 possible values (0–9, A-F). With 40 digits in a wallet address, the total number of possible addresses is:
16^40 = 1,461,501,637,330,902,918,203,684,832,716,283,019,655,932,542,976
The chance of two addresses colliding? Roughly 1 in 1.46 × 10^48. For perspective:
- It’s like winning the lottery millions of times in a row.
- The universe’s estimated number of atoms is 10^80—address space is comparably vast.
👉 Learn how blockchain security works
FAQs
Q: Has a wallet address collision ever happened?
A: No verified cases exist due to the near-zero probability.
Q: Should I worry about someone guessing my private key?
A: Practically impossible. Brute-forcing a 64-digit hex key would take billions of years.
Q: Are shorter addresses (e.g., ENS domains) less secure?
A: No—they map to standard 42-character addresses, maintaining the same cryptographic security.
Q: Can two people generate the same private key?
A: Theoretically yes, but the odds are so low it’s never occurred naturally.
👉 Explore trusted crypto wallets
Key Takeaways
- Wallet addresses are derived from mathematically irreversible processes.
- Duplication is statistically implausible—focus on securing your private key instead!
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