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Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn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Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#141

Post by lmz »

dools wrote: post #132
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 1…

That one is sending money to the address, not taking money from it.

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#142

Post by TacticalCoder »

GistNoesis wrote: post #138
TacticalCoder wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Ah gotcha, that's what I missed. Thanks for your explanation. For a regular address, even with the public key, if there are 256 unknown bits it'd be 2^128, which is statistically unlikely to be solvable.

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#143

Post by anothernewdude »

mapt wrote: post #74
Maken wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone developed a solution to integer factorization, I'm sure they would be after larger prices than mere 400k in crypto. A practical application of this puzzle could be to have an estimation of how long it takes to break a public key by conventional means. The moment one of these prices can be claimed in mere months you know it's time to double the size of the Bitcoin public keys.

If you want to prove that somebody has the ability to pick locks in order to protect your valuables, you leave the prize sitting on the kitchen table (at 66 bits of entropy) behind your relatively easy front door lock, not in a secure vault with triple redundant mechanisms. Somebody with the solution is going to be able to claim the money in far, far less computing time than they could claim a larger prize by breakin…

Except they don't need to take it now, just before anyone else does.

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#144

Post by motoxpro »

mrb wrote: post #136
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 go…

As much as this sucks, I absolutely love how the blockchain is real life version of a Dark Forest

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#145

Post by [deleted] »

mrb wrote: post #136
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 go…

[deleted]

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#146

Post by Stagnant »

ChrisClark wrote: post #139
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…

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?

It is based on the fact that the upper range limit of the private key used in the puzzle is known. A securely generated private key would not be vulnerable even if its public key is known.

The second post on this thread[0] has a helpful chart that makes it easier to understand.

0: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5218972.0

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

#147

Post by Terr_ »

mrb wrote: post #136
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 go…

This is another useful example to have handy against the canard: "You're only skeptical of cryptocurrencies/blockchain because you haven't learned enough about how they work."

I believe the correlation is the other way around... at least once you get past some early local maxima near "people who don't understand how money can be in a computer."

P.S.: To digress (rant) a bit: The linchpin is whether your system needs to allow anybody to create and control any number of new participant-nodes at any time. That fundamental requirement is actually very rare, and it's also the root causing a cascading tree of workarounds, compromises, inefficiencies, and risks.

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

#148

Post by fernandopj »

mrb wrote: post #136
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 go…

But how could he have avoided this attack? I'm only familiar with Bitcoin's blockchain on a begginner level. But I assume the only way would be to avoid revealing the answer key (public) when sending the transaction to get the reward?

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

#149

Post by thrtythreeforty »

mrb wrote: post #136
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 go…

What is the less-naive way to claim this type of puzzle?

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

#150

Post by mrb »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #123
n2d4 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those curious, the reason why a public key lets you find a private key more efficiently is Pollard's rho algorithm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollard%27s_rho_algorithm_for_...

These keys are based on elliptic curves rather than products of primes, aren't they?

Yes, specifically secp256k1
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