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If you guys like solving brute forcing games, you can solve this series of puzzles to win prizes totaling about 970 BTC (45 million USD): https://bitcointalk.or
by mrb 3y ago
If you guys like solving brute forcing games, you can solve this series of puzzles to win prizes totaling about 970 BTC (45 million USD): https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5218972.0 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5218972.0
For example the next unsolved puzzle in the series is #66 which is a Bitcoin private key with 66 unknown random bits. If you crack it you win 6.6 BTC (300 000 USD). It goes all the way to #160 which has a 16.0 BTC prize.
Puzzle numbers multiple of 5 (#65 #70 #75 etc) have had their public key published in a transaction on the blockchain, so it's possible to take some shortcuts such as the Pollard's kangaroo ECDLP solver. The next unsolved "multiple of 5" is #130 with a 13.0 BTC prize (600 000 USD). You need approximately 2^65 operations to solve it.
The most recent win was puzzle #125 solved on 2023-07-09 by an anonymous person who collected the 12.5 BTC. One can see their tx here: https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/addresses/btc/1PXAyUB8ZoH3WD8n5zoAthYjN15yN5CVq5 https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/addresses/btc/1PXAyUB8Zo... They probably used 200-300 GPUs for about 2-4 months to crack it, based on the known performance of existing ECDLP solvers such as https://github.com/JeanLucPons/Kangaroo https://github.com/JeanLucPons/Kangaroo
- meowtimemania 3y agodoes anyone know about how much money was spent on compute to solve puzzle #125? I am curious if they made a profit.
- mrb 3y agoOh, yes they did. 200-300 GPUs for about 2-4 months at an average $0.10/kWh has a TCO of $100k-200k. 12.5 BTC was worth $375k back when it was solved. So definitely profitable—they would have made around $175k-275k, and end up with essentially free GPUs at the end. Puzzle #130 requires about 5.7 times more work (2**2.5) than #125, but BTC has doubled since they solved #125. They have the GPUs already, so opex (electricity, etc) will be their main expense. And even at $0.10/kWh which is pretty average they will also turn a profit solving #130. I estimate anywhere from $30k to $150k in electricity, for a prize of $600k.
- quickthrower2 3y agoTerrible for the environment.
- mrb 3y agoDisagree. These puzzles directly benefit scientific research as the output is more efficient open source brute forcing tools (such as this ECDLP solver: https://github.com/JeanLucPons/Kangaroo https://github.com/JeanLucPons/Kangaroo) which the cryptographic community benefit from.
- pcfreak30 3y agoUsing energy is not "terrible for the environment". if it was, stop using your computer, Xbox, and phone. Dictating proper usage of energy is no better than dictating "proper" speech. Oh, and while I support not completely burning our planet, the idea of "going green" is basically as extreme as BTC Maxis saying the USD is going to end tomorrow. But for me in the end, I still value my rights and freedoms over the planet. And... that idea apparently pisses a lot of people off.
- quickthrower2 3y agoThat is some mental gymnastics. I turned my air conditioner on today while making a coffee. That is one thing. Rich people puzzle games burning $200k of electricity which is probably like 100 suburban mcmansions use in a year is a another.
- mrb 3y agoGlobally, unnecessary air conditioning use is wasting orders of magnitude more electricity than a few people solving these puzzles.