Alan McKinnon at Thursday 26 June 2008, 10:54:43 > The calculation is quite simple - measure how quickly a specific > computer can match keys. Divide this into the size of the keyspace. The > average time to brute force a key is half that value. AFAIK this still > averages out at enormous numbers of years, even at insane calculation > rates like what RoadRunner can achieve. According to Wikipedia RoadRunner is designed for 1.7 petaflops in peak. Assuming for the sake of simplicity, that decryption can be performed within a single flop: (2^256) / (1.7 * 10^15) / 2 ~= 3.5 * 10^61 In years: 3.5 * 10^61 / 3600 / 24 / 356 ~= 10^54 Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems impossible to me, to reduce this get the required amount somewhere near to the life time of a human being ;) -- Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters. (Rosa Luxemburg)