Actually, in the U.S. it is 3 - 5 years (depending on the state), but the money goes to the state.

Not ugly. Plain and simple. I think that is a lot better then a fancy GUI. Great project btw!

Bad moderators are moderators with no enemies.

That said, bad moderators might have too many enemies, too. I do not believe that is the case here, however.

I will try one more time.

This is the algorithm for "bute forcing" a public/private key pair:

    a) Key_public = G, Key_private = 1
    b) Is Key_pubic the key we are looking for?
    c) If yes Key_private is the one you are looking for so quit
    d) else Key_public = Key_pubic + G, Key_private = Key_private + 1
    e) goto b)

Note the following:

The operation Key_pubic + G requires many mathematical steps
If you are looking for a Bitcoin address you have to do even more mathematical steps on each trial to hash the public key three times

Now consider this much easier problem, just Key_private = Key_private + 1

Imagine a physical device which simply counts the numbers from 1 to n where n is the largest possible private key, a simple 256 bit counter.  That is all it does is count.  It is only the simplest part of the algorithm described above.
This counter can be made using any possible future technology, it just has to obey the laws of physics and thermodynamics.

This perfect device will count a fast a physically possible using the lowest physically possible amount of energy to do it. 

How long would it take to just count from 1 to n? 

How much energy would it take?

BTW n = FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFE BAAEDCE6 AF48A03B BFD25E8C D0364141 

Why do you think so? To claim the coins, you need to post a transaction with the solution. There would be no other way (except the possible retraction) to access the coins.

If it does not matter if the solution is visible in public, you might do it using a bitcoin script, so there would be no external system involved except for the blockchain.
For the example problem of factoring a large number, you might send the bounty in a transaction with a script that checks whether the product of two (or more) input numbers is actually the target number. If you want to be able to retract the bounty in case no solution is found within some time, you can construct the scriptPubKey such that it is a combination of the factor checking code with the normal scriptPubKey logic.
When someone finds a solution, he would post a transaction claiming the bounty and signed with his solution.

Onkel Paul

I was going to write the order of operations to be made on paper, then I got to RIPEMD-160. No way someone can complete the process (EC generation, EC point conversion, RIPEMD-160 hashing, SHA-256 hashing, base58 conversion and address building) and remain sane.

You would need something like 100-200 pages of paper with boxes printed of them to help you complete the operations, and many many hours...

Creating a Bitcoin client that fully implements the network protocol is extremely difficult. Bitcoin-Qt is the only known safe implementation of a full node. Some other projects attempt to compete, but it is not recommended to use such software for anything serious. (Lightweight clients like Electrum and MultiBit are OK.)

Estimating things with the lifetime of universe makes no sense besides measuring capabilities of the current technology. Advances in mathematics/computing will make these calculations feasible after decades at most. By the time Bitcoin (in one form or another) will adopt new algorithms.