[shaftway]

> No, because usually the private key is around 256 bits, so you need to compute 2^255 hops on average to find the key.

So if my key is 255 bits long, then don't I need to do the 255 2^255 hops anyway to actually decrypt something? And in running 2^255 hops, wouldn't I have also cracked the key if it was any number less than that?

> bigger keys also result in longer encryption/decryption times.

So, there's a reasonable upper bound for the key length? Does that mean 256 bits aren't reasonable, and wouldn't this reasonable upper bound be more brute forceable?

[curyous]

You don't need to do that many hops when using your own key, because you can double it repeatedly. ie instead of adding 1 256 times to get 256, you just double it 8 times.