In tests conducted by live coins this Friday (28) we discovered that ChatGPT can generate private keys and seed phrases for Bitcoin wallets. However, we were surprised when artificial intelligence presented us with some wallets that already had a balance.
To get to these results, we have to trick the AI. After all, if you ask for a Bitcoin private key, he will answer it “it is not possible to provide a private key of Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency” for safety reasons.
Getting around this procedure was quite easy. We indicated that we would use the private keys on the Bitcoin testnet for educational purposes. The trick is that they can be used anywhere, even on Ethereum.
After this, ChatGPT relented and started displaying a few sets of 12 words, all of which had the wrong checksum. Finally, around the fifth attempt, it produced a correct copy.
🤔 pic.twitter.com/YoxxxdjQUO
— Livecoins (@livecoinsBR) April 28, 2023
When asked if the seed phrase was found in its database or generated on the fly, the AI ​​replied that it had randomized it.
ChatGPT presented several used wallets, one with over 100 transactions
Since ChatGPT uses a large database for its answers, we were curious to see if the artificial intelligence would find wallets with a balance. To our surprise, the AI ​​presented a seed phrase that had already been used by another user.
Despite the balance being zero, ChatGPT’s wallet had 164 transactions in its history, 114 at one address. Many of these transactions were from 2022.
Continuing our conversation with ChatGPT, the live coins had access to a few more wallets with transaction history. One even shows a transaction of 0.34 BTC (currently BRL 50,000) still in 2016.
Finally, we also tested some private keys on Ethereum, also finding wallets with several transactions (one of them with 4,988 transactions).
ChatGPT sucks at math
Unlike the first attempt, shown in the tweet at the beginning of this article, these other wallets were not created on the fly by ChatGPT. The AI ​​took them from its database, that is, from the Internet.
Therefore, somehow these seed phrases were already exposed and ChatGPT is far from being a threat to the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. When asked to generate addresses associated with a private key, an easy calculation for a machine, the AI ​​failed several times, revealing its weakness.
When asked about the source of the private keys, ChatGPT wasn’t direct, it just replied that it found them on forums and other didactic places.
All Bitcoin private keys are exposed on the internet
The real reason for this research is that some websites collect all of Bitcoin’s private keys. The biggest example is the website keys.lolthat is, ChatGPT could have scanned some information from there.
The task would be impossible for a human being. After all, there are 904 octillion pages (129 times the number of atoms in our body) each containing 128 private keys.
Apparently, ChatGPT has not wasted its time going through all these pages either, and Bitcoin’s main concern remains quantum computers.
Speaking to ChatGPT about the matter, the AI ​​stated that even with the supercomputers available today, it would take billions of years to discover a specific private key.
Asked to compare this to winning the mega sena, ChatGPT found the “interesting exercise”.
“The chance that the 6 numbers in the Mega-Sena match is about 1 in 50 million”wrote ChatGPT. “The odds of finding a random Bitcoin private key are extremely low, about 1 in 2^256, which is a 78-digit number.”
“To get an idea of ​​how unlikely it is to randomly find a private key, we can compare it to the chance of winning the Mega-Sena 78 times in a row.”
Finally, Bitcoin’s security remains intact after 14 years since its launch and even ChatGPT agrees. Still, users should take minimal security measures, such as not exposing their private keys to third parties.
Source: Live Coins
Barry Siefert is an accomplished journalist and author at The Nation View. He is known for his expertise in the field of cryptocurrency, and has written extensively on the topic. With a background in finance and economics, Barry has a deep understanding of the underlying technology and market forces that drive the crypto industry.
