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Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn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Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#131

Post by pas »

LikesPwsh wrote: post #94
Powdering7082 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there's no chance to stay safe when you put that kind of target on your back. Vitalik Buterin seems to be a counter example here, his net worth peaked around $1.46 billion. He has some interesting writing on how he stays secure. At one point the SHIBA token sent a huge amount of funds to his cold wallet and he details what he did to securely access those funds: https://decrypt.co/91000/ethereum-founder-vitalik-bute…

Vitalik got indirectly pwned by the infamous DAO smart contract hack, but had the social clout to pause/rollback the supposedly decentralised/immutable Blockchain. Maybe not the best example of cryptographic security.

how would anything ever be immutable if people can reassign the symbol/pointer/name?

the DAO hack happened, immutably, no one disputes it. the hashes and blocks and transactions are well-known. so there was a "schism", that explicitly validates the fact that without this large-scale cooperation, without the redefinition of what Ethereum is, it would be still be what is on that other branch. these both provide evidence for the immutably and decentralization.

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#132

Post by dools »

arcanemachiner wrote: post #90

Looks like the coins were stolen by a bot: > https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.msg64535839#... I'm not super familiar with the concept (and I'm too lazy to look into it TBH), but I think the would-be winner posted the private key before enough (any?) blocks were mined, and the thief posted a transaction with a bigger fee, and the thief's transaction was in the block that got mined.

So someone stole the prize and left some sort of calling card mocking everyone solving bitcoin puzzles?

1Jvv4yWkE9MhbuwGU66666666669sugEF 0.00000001 1YouAreSoDumbLoL666666666667K5aR4 0.00000002 1WhatWereUThinking6666666662wkqq1 0.00000003 1YouDeserveNothing6666666665sbbBC 0.00000004 1YouEpicFaiLure66666666666688GSDA 0.00000005 1BitchAssLoser66666666666669dBUVg 0.00000006 1AndEveryoneELse666666666669Vnc8C 0.00000007 1ThisisALosingGame6666666667HAZdf 0.00000008 1JustGetAReaLJob666666666665vGKVD 0.00000009 1YoureWastingTimeAndMoney664CVExC 0.00000010 1AndCausingCLimateChange6666HK8Qc 0.00000011 13zb1hQbWVsc2S7ZTZnP2G4undNNpdh5so 0.00000012 1Jvv4yWkE9MhbuwGUoqFYzDjRVQHaLWuJd 0.00000013 1FK5PjPNARQmg94n2cNHTo9417kWfXUDBQ 0.00002125

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#133

Post by GistNoesis »

arcanemachiner wrote: post #90

Looks like the coins were stolen by a bot: > https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.msg64535839#... I'm not super familiar with the concept (and I'm too lazy to look into it TBH), but I think the would-be winner posted the private key before enough (any?) blocks were mined, and the thief posted a transaction with a bigger fee, and the thief's transaction was in the block that got mined.

>posted the private key before

When you post a transaction, the public key is in the transaction (inside the field "sigscript") . With the public key known you only need 2^(66/2) checks (instead of 2^66), which can be done really fast.

So some bot watched the address, obtained the public key, computed the private key from it, and front-ran the original submitter probably with a deal from a mining pool to make sure his transaction is enforced.

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#134

Post by [deleted] »

arcanemachiner wrote: post #90

Looks like the coins were stolen by a bot: > https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.msg64535839#... I'm not super familiar with the concept (and I'm too lazy to look into it TBH), but I think the would-be winner posted the private key before enough (any?) blocks were mined, and the thief posted a transaction with a bigger fee, and the thief's transaction was in the block that got mined.

[deleted]

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#135

Post by TacticalCoder »

GistNoesis wrote: post #133
arcanemachiner wrote: post #90

Looks like the coins were stolen by a bot: > https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.msg64535839#... I'm not super familiar with the concept (and I'm too lazy to look into it TBH), but I think the would-be winner posted the private key before enough (any?) blocks were mined, and the thief posted a transaction with a bigger fee, and the thief's transaction was in the block that got mined.

>posted the private key before When you post a transaction, the public key is in the transaction (inside the field "sigscript") . With the public key known you only need 2^(66/2) checks (instead of 2^66), which can be done really fast. So some bot watched the address, obtained the public key, computed the private key from it, and front-ran the original submitter probably with a deal from a mining pool to make sure hi…

> When you post a transaction, the public key is in the transaction (inside the field "sigscript")

Is that true for every single Bitcoin transaction?

> With the public key known you only need 2^(66/2) checks (instead of 2^66), which can be done really fast.

Then how comes not all Bitcoin transactions are front-ran like that and Bitcoin is not worth zero already? 2^33 is indeed nothing: 8 billion (so I understand this can be easily cracked).

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#136

Post by mrb »

arcanemachiner wrote: post #90

Looks like the coins were stolen by a bot: > https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.msg64535839#... I'm not super familiar with the concept (and I'm too lazy to look into it TBH), but I think the would-be winner posted the private key before enough (any?) blocks were mined, and the thief posted a transaction with a bigger fee, and the thief's transaction was in the block that got mined.

No private key was posted too early. What happened is the person who spent all the computing power to brute force the 66 bits broadcasted, naively, a transaction to send the 6.6 BTC reward to his wallet. However, when doing so, the public key is by design revealed on the blockchain. Someone's bot whose sole purpose is to steal this puzzles rewards was monitoring the blockchain and spotted the transaction before it got confirmed (on average confirmations occur every 10 minutes), then it processed the now known public key from which the private key can be recovered in 2^33 operations (2^(n/2)), then crafted another transaction to send the reward to his wallet, with a higher fee, so his transaction got confirmed, instead of the discoverer's lower-fee transaction.

This is a well-known attack. The discoverer was sophisticated enough to brute force, but not enough to know about this risk :)

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#137

Post by vessenes »

LikesPwsh wrote: post #94
Powdering7082 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there's no chance to stay safe when you put that kind of target on your back. Vitalik Buterin seems to be a counter example here, his net worth peaked around $1.46 billion. He has some interesting writing on how he stays secure. At one point the SHIBA token sent a huge amount of funds to his cold wallet and he details what he did to securely access those funds: https://decrypt.co/91000/ethereum-founder-vitalik-bute…

Vitalik got indirectly pwned by the infamous DAO smart contract hack, but had the social clout to pause/rollback the supposedly decentralised/immutable Blockchain. Maybe not the best example of cryptographic security.

This is not an accurate summary of what happened with TheDAO. Source: I publicized the attack vector for TheDAO here on HN.

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#138

Post by GistNoesis »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #135
GistNoesis wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>posted the private key before When you post a transaction, the public key is in the transaction (inside the field "sigscript") . With the public key known you only need 2^(66/2) checks (instead of 2^66), which can be done really fast. So some bot watched the address, obtained the public key, computed the private key from it, and front-ran the original submitter probably with a deal from a mining pool to make sure hi…

> When you post a transaction, the public key is in the transaction (inside the field "sigscript") Is that true for every single Bitcoin transaction? > With the public key known you only need 2^(66/2) checks (instead of 2^66), which can be done really fast. Then how comes not all Bitcoin transactions are front-ran like that and Bitcoin is not worth zero already? 2^33 is indeed nothing: 8 billion (so I understand this…

>Is that true for every single Bitcoin transaction

I think so, for outgoing transaction (aka to remove from the address), it's kind of needed to verify the signature.

The 2^66 is only for this game where only 66 bits were left unknown. In the general case obtaining the private key from the public key is much longer.

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#139

Post by ChrisClark »

GistNoesis wrote: post #133
arcanemachiner wrote: post #90

Looks like the coins were stolen by a bot: > https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.msg64535839#... I'm not super familiar with the concept (and I'm too lazy to look into it TBH), but I think the would-be winner posted the private key before enough (any?) blocks were mined, and the thief posted a transaction with a bigger fee, and the thief's transaction was in the block that got mined.

>posted the private key before When you post a transaction, the public key is in the transaction (inside the field "sigscript") . With the public key known you only need 2^(66/2) checks (instead of 2^66), which can be done really fast. So some bot watched the address, obtained the public key, computed the private key from it, and front-ran the original submitter probably with a deal from a mining pool to make sure hi…

Edit: I see it's because I'm this instance there was less entropy, I guess a normal transaction has a lot more bits to guess

Why doesn't this happen with every large transaction then? Someone tries to move 10 BTC, instantly stolen?

Basically you're saying that every single Bitcoin transaction can be stolen "really fast".

Am I missing a step here?

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#140

Post by TacticalCoder »

LikesPwsh wrote: post #94
Powdering7082 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there's no chance to stay safe when you put that kind of target on your back. Vitalik Buterin seems to be a counter example here, his net worth peaked around $1.46 billion. He has some interesting writing on how he stays secure. At one point the SHIBA token sent a huge amount of funds to his cold wallet and he details what he did to securely access those funds: https://decrypt.co/91000/ethereum-founder-vitalik-bute…

Vitalik got indirectly pwned by the infamous DAO smart contract hack, but had the social clout to pause/rollback the supposedly decentralised/immutable Blockchain. Maybe not the best example of cryptographic security.

> ... but had the social clout to pause/rollback the supposedly decentralised/immutable Blockchain

Vitalik (and all DAO ETH hodlers) luckboxed in that the ETHs locked in the DAO, although "stolen", couldn't be withdrawn by the attacker before a few weeks.

There has been zero pause and zero rollback. Most people don't understand that: by chance the stolen funds were inaccessible to the attacker for a few weeks.

What Vitalik did is he forked (soft fork) the ETH blockchain to modify the rules. That soft fork happened before the cooldown period expired, so the attacker never got to access his funds.

Some members of the community said "adding new rules is against the spirit of decentralization, so we keep using the old chain". The old chain was named "Ethereum classic" while the forked chain kept the name "Ethereum".

But there's been no rollback.

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