Can Private Keys Exceed N in Bitcoin?

Hey everyone, quick question. I saw on a site that private keys can technically be larger than N and still work... is that true?

Yeah, it can work, but it's a messy situation. If you stick to values between 1 and N-1, you'll have unique keys. Going over just complicates things for no reason.

Just to add, there are only N/2 unique public keys on the x-axis, after that they mirror. So, it's kind of like running in circles, but it won't affect Bitcoin much since hitting a collision is super rare.

Remember, just because you can derive a public key from a private key outside the valid range doesn’t mean it's useful. Good wallets should reject those keys anyway.

Tried with the Testnet and it won't accept those invalid keys. Good way to test without risking real coins.

Totally agree. BIP32 and BIP39 don’t even bother with mod N; they just discard invalid keys. It’s pretty much an illusion beyond N.

The mod N thing is really just for software that generates keys randomly. It's way safer to generate a random 256-bit number than to mess around with RNGs.

Exactly. Using mod N to generate keys can lead to biases. It's better to use rejection sampling for security. Don’t trust software that uses biased methods.