Quote Originally Posted by Deal View Post
Quote Originally Posted by sonatine View Post


This stops being accurate when you reach a certain level of mathematical complexity; a "hash collision" is where two diverse collection of values produce the same output, or for the purpose of bitcoin validation, ostensibly produce a bc hash that passes muster.

This is how the counterfeit Microsoft certificates were generated for Stuxnet, for example. Supposedly it took $80million worth of hardware running for some years to accomplish, plus a lot of crypto theory that was probably classified by the time it ended up on a whiteboard. But less complicated algorithms require significantly fewer computational resources to 'counterfeit' using collisions.

That said; if you or anyone else tells me this doesnt apply to bitcoins, Im in no position to assume you arent right.
I see your point. You are not questioning the ceiling of unique bitcoins, that is a mathematical certainty, but if there is a theoretical way to counterfeit a bitcoin. I can't say with certainty. We can assume that they best criminal minds are working hard on the problem though.
The argument could be made that the best criminal minds have migrated to the shorter path between two points and simply set up bitcoin exchange sites.