Bitcoin puzzle transaction ~32 BTC prize to who solves it

[sxiclub]

I'm confused on this part, so the first TX was done by the person who found the private key. Even with RBF, how was this TX replaced with another unless the other person who replaced it also had the private key?

The first outgoing transaction in a wallet exposes its public key on the blockchain. A bot scanning the movements of the address puzzles below 85 can calculate the private key from the public key using Pollard's Kangaroo and replace the transaction in a few seconds. You can be absolutely certain that there are currently active bots scanning unsolved puzzles below 85, waiting for some unsuspecting user to solve them and execute a public transaction. That's why the use of Mara Slipstream has been discussed so much in this thread.

[kTimesG]

If that's the case, I originally intended to divide the scope of question 135 into several small areas to scan separately, but this would be ineffective.
A better approach may be for all GPUs to simultaneously scan the 134 bit range, then save the program's DP data for unified comparison, which may be more efficient.

Seems like 2026 will again be the year humanity rediscovers fire and reinvents the round wheel.

In other words, you are correct, but these things were already known for at least 30 years, and repeated inhere hundreds of times already.

Bram: why are you so sure RC is on #135? If he wanted to crack it, it would have been solved already, and we don't have any status updates from him.

You can be absolutely certain that there are currently active bots scanning unsolved puzzles below 85, waiting for some unsuspecting user to solve them and execute a public transaction.

Just 85 bits tops? Maybe for the script kiddies who would only use a single machine to solve the ECDLP, from scratch. I'm gonna remind you the estimated cost of breaking a 100 bits ECDLP, which is less than 2 dollars. 110 bits? 60ish dollars. Now, just because there isn't some GitHub repo that can do this in less than 10 minutes, it doesn't make it impossible to be in existence.

[ee1234ee]

Seems like 2026 will again be the year humanity rediscovers fire and reinvents the round wheel.

In other words, you are correct, but these things were already known for at least 30 years, and repeated inhere hundreds of times already.

Bram: why are you so sure RC is on #135? If he wanted to crack it, it would have been solved already, and we don't have any status updates from him.

Friend, could you please provide specific and substantial content every time you speak, instead of always telling a few funny jokes. Thank you

For example, how to quickly compare the DP data of all GPUs when multiple GPUs are scanning a range of 134 bits simultaneously?

The people who come to this forum have different times, and some content may not be accessible to everyone.

[kTimesG]

Friend, could you please provide specific and substantial content every time you speak, instead of always telling a few funny jokes. Thank you

For example, how to quickly compare the DP data of all GPUs when multiple GPUs are scanning a range of 134 bits simultaneously?

What substantial content do you want? Each GPU finds DPs (from different walks), those get collected centrally, and the matching is performed.

If you want actual code, write it yourself. Bram explained already how it can be done, so why repeat something which was already posted less than 24 hours ago?

Hint: it's not 10 lines of Python, it's about building an entire distributed software architecture and solving hundreds of different issues which have very less to do with the basic algorithm.

[Bram24732]

Bram: why are you so sure RC is on #135? If he wanted to crack it, it would have been solved already, and we don't have any status updates from him.

I recall reading back then that he was working on it and hoping a match by the end of 2025 ?
Can’t find this message again but I’m hangover and on my phone so maybe I missed it.
If he’s not on it and you’re not on it I could probably break it quite quickly

[ArtificialLove]

Hi everybody,

I have a question: If I had two addresses which were relatively close [Note below] and their beginning and ending characters matched the puzzle, does that mean I am close?
I don't have decent hardware, just randomly doing random searches on my laptop, should I buy a 5090?

* It's several thousand trillions I guess, I can check the exact distance if that matters, and as for characters, the last four, and the first four and five are identical to 71.



Thanks!

[fixedpaul]

If I had two addresses which were relatively close [Note below] and their beginning and ending characters matched the puzzle, does that mean I am close?

No

[ArtificialLove]

If I had two addresses which were relatively close [Note below] and their beginning and ending characters matched the puzzle, does that mean I am close?

No

How come? I mean, how can one be sure?

[nomachine]

How come? I mean, how can one be sure?

People are wired to hunt for patterns.Spotting stuff like 2:3, 4:7, and whatever else feels like there's some kinda order there. Wrong gut feelings from stuff that's not random.Like databases, file systems, tricks, or compression, those all got built-in structure.But crypto key spaces? They're made on purpose to have zero patterns. Bitcoin's whole safety gig relies on smashing any shortcuts like that. If Bitcoin private keys had some bias, like certain hex starts or spots being more common...Then:You could crack all keys easy. Address clashes would show up everywhere. Cash would get stolen left and right on a huge scale.secp256k1 would be trashed as broken.The whole crypto nerd world would be flipping out.None of that's going down. This thing's been hammered since 2009 by governments, math whizzes, GPU setups, chip makers, and haters trying to break it.

[GinnyBanzz]

I'm confused on this part, so the first TX was done by the person who found the private key. Even with RBF, how was this TX replaced with another unless the other person who replaced it also had the private key?

The first outgoing transaction in a wallet exposes its public key on the blockchain. A bot scanning the movements of the address puzzles below 85 can calculate the private key from the public key using Pollard's Kangaroo and replace the transaction in a few seconds. You can be absolutely certain that there are currently active bots scanning unsolved puzzles below 85, waiting for some unsuspecting user to solve them and execute a public transaction. That's why the use of Mara Slipstream has been discussed so much in this thread.

Thank you, so i assume using pollards kangaroo mean that if someone has the address and the public key, and assuming less than 80 bits of the key are missing, its very trivial for someone with enough computing power to get the rest of the key?

On the off chance I'm the luckiest man alive and find the key for puzzle 71 for example, how can I prevent this from happening?

[ArtificialLove]

How come? I mean, how can one be sure?

People are wired to hunt for patterns.Spotting stuff like 2:3, 4:7, and whatever else feels like there's some kinda order there. Wrong gut feelings from stuff that's not random.Like databases, file systems, tricks, or compression, those all got built-in structure.But crypto key spaces? They're made on purpose to have zero patterns. Bitcoin's whole safety gig relies on smashing any shortcuts like that. If Bitcoin private keys had some bias, like certain hex starts or spots being more common...Then:You could crack all keys easy. Address clashes would show up everywhere. Cash would get stolen left and right on a huge scale.secp256k1 would be trashed as broken.The whole crypto nerd world would be flipping out.None of that's going down. This thing's been hammered since 2009 by governments, math whizzes, GPU setups, chip makers, and haters trying to break it.

I'm not the one who talked about "2:3" etc.
You're right, there is no pattern so to speak but however, there must be a reason behind this, I mean for two addresses to be so similar.
Their hexadecimal numbers share the first two characters too, so not that far away from one another like I explained. So, who knows I guess there can be a third and that third (or who knows a fourth, fifth, who knows...) can be the one.
I've a gut feeling that this is it and it happened so randomly which is amazing, but then again, I need someone guiding me here a little bit, should I get a 5090 and scan the whole entire space between the two? What if some luckier fella finds it tonight?
What would you people do if you had these and you didn't have such similarity anywhere else so far?
They're like this (I've replaced the parts that don't matter not because I thought I shouldn't share the whole thing)

Code:

1PWo__________________________VzXU
1PWo3J________________________VzXU

Thanks!

[kTimesG]

If I had two addresses which were relatively close [Note below] and their beginning and ending characters matched the puzzle, does that mean I am close?

No

How come? I mean, how can one be sure?

It's called basic 1st grade math and a bunch of theorems proven since the 17th century.

The kind of things that some people here ignore completely, though the logic that accompanies them mostly belong into a neurologist's thesis on mental illness.

[GinnyBanzz]

Sorry if this has been answered, but can someone explain how easy or hard it is using pollards kangaroo algorithim when public key + wallet address is known and only 70 bits are missing? Chatgpt is leading me to believe that even with this information, and a top tier rig, it would still take some time to crack, which would be slower than sending the wallet funds to a new wallet with a high fee for quick confirmation.

So why are people here also saying that if i was to crack puzzle 71, and publish the transaction to move the funds, that it could be stolen within seconds? what am i missing?

[Cricktor]

On the off chance I'm the luckiest man alive and find the key for puzzle 71 for example, how can I prevent this from happening?

This has been discussed numerous times here. Search for "slipstream" in this thread and find the answer yourself. Hint: you use a known service where you can broadcast your withdrawal transaction to a non-public mempool.

What's your memory problem? You cited a post of me today, where this service was clearly mentioned and where the solver of puzzles #67 and #68 exactly used this service to be safe from stealing bots.

This is not a kindergarten topic here. Too often I have big doubts...

...

A bot with a single GPU can do it in seconds and you can't predict when the next block will be mined. Recently I've seen blocks that took an hour to be mined, even almost 90min. It's rare, but it happens. If you have a solution for puzzle #71, you don't want to gamble with your withdrawal.

Try it out yourself, you might learn something. Take a private key, mask off parts so that it is similar to puzzle #71, compute the public key, feed it into RCKangaroo or whatever you prefer and see how fast a solution pops out. There you have your answers.

[nomachine]

....mental illness.

Yo, brother, I feel you, loud and clear, but that don’t make folks crazy. Good people got time to kill, retired vets, hardworking souls takin’ a breather, or just plain curious. They peek around, tryin’ to spot a glitch in Bitcoin or somethin’, it’s that God-given spark of wonder, not a sickness. Humans been wired to chase patterns, hunt truth in His creation, even if that keyspace ain’t playin’ fair. 

[GinnyBanzz]

On the off chance I'm the luckiest man alive and find the key for puzzle 71 for example, how can I prevent this from happening?

This has been discussed numerous times here. Search for "slipstream" in this thread and find the answer yourself. Hint: you use a known service where you can broadcast your withdrawal transaction to a non-public mempool.

What's your memory problem? You cited a post of me today, where this service was clearly mentioned and where the solver of puzzles #67 and #68 exactly used this service to be safe from stealing bots.

This is not a kindergarten topic here. Too often I have big doubts...

...

A bot with a single GPU can do it in seconds and you can't predict when the next block will be mined. Recently I've seen blocks that took an hour to be mined, even almost 90min. It's rare, but it happens. If you have a solution for puzzle #71, you don't want to gamble with your withdrawal.

Thank you, I did google the service you named, but wasnt too sure what I was looking at.

Chatgpt is leading me to believe the reality is quite different. Are you saying a single GPU could solve the private key if the wallet address is known, the public key is known, and they know the 71 bit range of where the key is? Chatgpt seems to think it would take a lot longer than seconds. It stated to solve it there would be around 48 billion EC operations required, and a decent GPU doing kangaroo algo is still in the low millions.

[Cricktor]

Why do you think LLMs are superior to human minds or expert knowledge? You're a lost case if you follow ChatGPT blindly.

I repeat: try it our yourself. Best and satisfying way to learn something.

[Akito S. M. Hosana]

....mental illness.

Yo, brother, I feel you, loud and clear, but that don’t make folks crazy. Good people got time to kill, retired vets, hardworking souls takin’ a breather, or just plain curious. They peek around, tryin’ to spot a glitch in Bitcoin or somethin’, it’s that God-given spark of wonder, not a sickness. Humans been wired to chase patterns, hunt truth in His creation, even if that keyspace ain’t playin’ fair. 

But in my case, it's gone a bit further; I've got a diagnosis from a neurologist for persecution mania, which sometimes amps up that spark into something that feels more like a wildfire. Doesn't make the wonder any less real, just means I gotta navigate it carefully. 

[GinnyBanzz]

Why do you think LLMs are superior to human minds or expert knowledge? You're a lost case if you follow ChatGPT blindly.

I repeat: try it our yourself. Best and satisfying way to learn something.

I'm not following it blindly, nor would I follow a random person on a forum blindly. Since you're unable to elaborate I'll assume you don't know what you're talking about.

[whistle307194]

While everyone is busy finding right way to get the prize maybe we should ask are these puzzle legitimate first?

Let's say I got the access to a single, found by me puzzle address and I will withdraw all btc's with an exchange into my bank acc - cash, and okay I managed to move coins physically but I think there is no clear saying that "whoever can crack it - coins belongs to this person" by the creator so at this point I cannot make it automatically legal because the puzzle is famous.

So the real question is did the person who posted (saatoshi_rising) the challenge actually control the coins when puzzle was made?...

I don't want to have frozen bank acc and sit in jail because the ownership could be questioned though-.-''

Don't get me wrong, but what is the first thing you do when you have ~half mill in your hands - you don't wait a micro second trying to verify if this is legal - looks yes but not enough clear statement so far. You just simply move coins to your wallet and likely to an exchange to cash them out and then what?

I don't know about you guys but I would likely want to purchase something using my bank acc, be transparent, legal you know...

If this cannot be enough explained then that increases risk of seizure to 100%, now is 20-30 likely.

What is the point of having such funds and not be able to use it legally?


saatoshi_rising - if you ever read this, we need you NOW.