Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn
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Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn
#2Discussion thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.msg64526037#...
Bitcoin puzzles are private keys with just a few unknown bits so that anyone can bruteforce them to collect a reward. Puzzle 66 contained 66 unknown bits and had 6.6 BTC deposited into it by the initial puzzle creator. The private key was 0x000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000002832ed74f2b5e35ee or 256 bits with mostly zeroes but 66 random ones.
The next Bitcoin puzzle, #67, has 67 unknown bits, and contains 6.7 BTC up for grabs: https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/addresses/btc/1BY8GQbnue...
The previous puzzle by order of difficulty was #64 (not #65, because see below) and was solved on 9/9/2022, so about 2 years ago. In other words, it took about 2 years of compute time to run the 2^66 bruteforcing task.
Puzzles that are multiple of 5 (#65 or #70) are special: they have twice more entropy. So that private key #65 doesn't have 65-bit of entropy but 130-bit of entropy. And the creator of the puzzle intentionally published their public key on the blockchain. When you know the public key, brutetforcing the n-bit private key only requires 2^(n/2) work. So puzzle #65 with a 130-bit key actually require bruteforcing up to only 2^65 keys.
Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn
#3Discussion thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.msg64526037#... Bitcoin puzzles are private keys with just a few unknown bits so that anyone can bruteforce them to collect a reward. Puzzle 66 contained 66 unknown bits and had 6.6 BTC deposited into it by the initial puzzle creator. The private key was 0x000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000002832ed74f2b5e35ee or 256 bits with mostly ze…
New to this puzzle! Do you have a more detailed resource to the puzzle? Is it basically brute forcing based on all public keys available on the Bitcoin blockchain? Could this be considered stealing?
Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn
#4Discussion thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.msg64526037#... Bitcoin puzzles are private keys with just a few unknown bits so that anyone can bruteforce them to collect a reward. Puzzle 66 contained 66 unknown bits and had 6.6 BTC deposited into it by the initial puzzle creator. The private key was 0x000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000002832ed74f2b5e35ee or 256 bits with mostly ze…
New to this puzzle! Do you have a more detailed resource to the puzzle? Is it basically brute forcing based on all public keys available on the Bitcoin blockchain? Could this be considered stealing?
Sure, here is a nice little presentation on the puzzle: https://rya.nc/forensic-bitcoin-cracking.html
The main discussion thread on the bitcoin forum is this but it has a low signal-to-noise ratio: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.0
There is a secondary thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5218972.0
The point of the puzzle is indeed to brute force some private keys (not public keys), but not all, as 2^256 is computationally impossible. The private keys that have been discovered so far have obviously many zeros in them, so in practice you are never going to accidentally steal from a legitimate address with actually 256 bits of entropy.
The creator of the puzzle is anonymous and never came forward (to my knowledge). The point of the puzzle is (1) to be a fun game, and (2) to be a publicly observable way of measuring current brute forcing capabilities.
Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn
#5Earlier quoted context omitted.
New to this puzzle! Do you have a more detailed resource to the puzzle? Is it basically brute forcing based on all public keys available on the Bitcoin blockchain? Could this be considered stealing?
Sure, here is a nice little presentation on the puzzle: https://rya.nc/forensic-bitcoin-cracking.html The main discussion thread on the bitcoin forum is this but it has a low signal-to-noise ratio: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.0 There is a secondary thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5218972.0 The point of the puzzle is indeed to brute force some private keys (not public keys), bu…
First, a question: is there something similar for other blockchains? And, a clarification, when I said public keys I referred to public keys that match an unknown private key but I understand now (am I correct?) that this puzzle is purely brute forcing private keys with a lot of zeroes and then matching with the addresses in the blockchain (which would be a function from the public key).
Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, here is a nice little presentation on the puzzle: https://rya.nc/forensic-bitcoin-cracking.html The main discussion thread on the bitcoin forum is this but it has a low signal-to-noise ratio: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.0 There is a secondary thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5218972.0 The point of the puzzle is indeed to brute force some private keys (not public keys), bu…
First, a question: is there something similar for other blockchains? And, a clarification, when I said public keys I referred to public keys that match an unknown private key but I understand now (am I correct?) that this puzzle is purely brute forcing private keys with a lot of zeroes and then matching with the addresses in the blockchain (which would be a function from the public key).
I don't know if other blockchains have these puzzles. You are correct thas this puzzle is brute forcing private keys with a bunch of zeroes, from which a public key can be calculated.
Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn
#7Discussion thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.msg64526037#... Bitcoin puzzles are private keys with just a few unknown bits so that anyone can bruteforce them to collect a reward. Puzzle 66 contained 66 unknown bits and had 6.6 BTC deposited into it by the initial puzzle creator. The private key was 0x000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000002832ed74f2b5e35ee or 256 bits with mostly ze…
Is this a "puzzle"? Throwing compute at brute-forcing a random number doesn't seem like solving a puzzle to me, it's basically how bitcoin works.
Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn
#8Discussion thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.msg64526037#... Bitcoin puzzles are private keys with just a few unknown bits so that anyone can bruteforce them to collect a reward. Puzzle 66 contained 66 unknown bits and had 6.6 BTC deposited into it by the initial puzzle creator. The private key was 0x000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000002832ed74f2b5e35ee or 256 bits with mostly ze…
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Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn
#9probably discussed in the bitcointalk thread, but how do we know it's not just the creator of the puzzle reclaiming his own bitcoin?
Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn
#10Discussion thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.msg64526037#... Bitcoin puzzles are private keys with just a few unknown bits so that anyone can bruteforce them to collect a reward. Puzzle 66 contained 66 unknown bits and had 6.6 BTC deposited into it by the initial puzzle creator. The private key was 0x000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000002832ed74f2b5e35ee or 256 bits with mostly ze…
Is this a "puzzle"? Throwing compute at brute-forcing a random number doesn't seem like solving a puzzle to me, it's basically how bitcoin works.
I think the puzzle idea is that, if you could figure out a weakness in the hash, you could claim it faster than the brute force approach. So each prize that's claimed "on schedule" supports the idea that there aren't any widely known shortcuts.
Obviously if you found a shortcut in the hash you might do other things first, but I think that's the idea.