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Looks like the coins were stolen by a bot: > https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.msg64535839#msg64535839 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=13

Looks like the coins were stolen by a bot: > https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.msg64535839#msg64535839 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.

kneel 2y ago
That's not how bitcoin works
- ffsm8 2y ago
  Feel free to click on the link.
- dartos 2y ago
  That’s exactly how bitcoins works. As a miner, if I see two conflicting transactions I will prioritize the one which pays more rather than the one I saw first.
  - dheera 2y ago
    So can I avoid the attack by voluntarily paying a super high fee?
    - therein 2y ago
      Yeah unless the miner favors the other transaction for personal reasons.
    - baobabKoodaa 2y ago
      The attacker can see what fee you are offering, so they just offer higher
    - dartos 2y ago
      Assuming it’s higher than the bot can post, yes.
dools 2y ago
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
- lmz 2y ago
  That one is sending money to the address, not taking money from it.
  - pushedx 2y ago
    Exactly, the person who swiped the 6.6 BTC reward, uses the same computing power to forge some public keys so he can send a message to the guesser, sending a tiny amount of BTC to the guesser in the process.
- DoctorOetker 2y ago
  from the peanut gallery it is impossible to differentiate organizer vs thief, the organizer did invest the money to host the prize, but not the critical thinking to organize a convincing prize?
GistNoesis 2y ago
>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.
- TacticalCoder 2y ago
  > 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).
  - GistNoesis 2y ago
    >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.
    - TacticalCoder 2y ago
      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.
- ChrisClark 2y ago
  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?
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
mrb 2y ago
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 :)
- motoxpro 2y ago
  As much as this sucks, I absolutely love how the blockchain is real life version of a Dark Forest
  - nadahalli 2y ago
    You will like this 2020 classic piece by the folks at Paradigm: https://www.paradigm.xyz/2020/08/ethereum-is-a-dark-forest https://www.paradigm.xyz/2020/08/ethereum-is-a-dark-forest
    - motoxpro 2y ago
      I have read this and I LOVE it.
  - dgellow 2y ago
    As long as it isn’t used for anything in the real world, I agree. It’s a fascinating ecosystem to watch from far away. If the crypto bros get their way and integrate blockchains with the real world, that becomes a horror show
  - lelandfe 2y ago
    Broadcasting the secret and it immediately getting annihilated by some anonymous, stronger third party. Very much so.
mannyv 2y ago
So how do you test your generated key? You can't just go and submit lots of transactions. That would presumably be expensive.

kneel 2y ago

That's not how bitcoin works

ffsm8 2y ago
Feel free to click on the link.
dartos 2y ago
That’s exactly how bitcoins works. As a miner, if I see two conflicting transactions I will prioritize the one which pays more rather than the one I saw first.
- dheera 2y ago
  So can I avoid the attack by voluntarily paying a super high fee?
  - therein 2y ago
    Yeah unless the miner favors the other transaction for personal reasons.
  - baobabKoodaa 2y ago
    The attacker can see what fee you are offering, so they just offer higher
  - dartos 2y ago
    Assuming it’s higher than the bot can post, yes.

dools 2y ago

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

lmz 2y ago
That one is sending money to the address, not taking money from it.
- pushedx 2y ago
  Exactly, the person who swiped the 6.6 BTC reward, uses the same computing power to forge some public keys so he can send a message to the guesser, sending a tiny amount of BTC to the guesser in the process.
DoctorOetker 2y ago
from the peanut gallery it is impossible to differentiate organizer vs thief, the organizer did invest the money to host the prize, but not the critical thinking to organize a convincing prize?

GistNoesis 2y ago

>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.

TacticalCoder 2y ago
> 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).
- GistNoesis 2y ago
  >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.
  - TacticalCoder 2y ago
    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.
ChrisClark 2y ago
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?

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

mrb 2y ago

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 :)

motoxpro 2y ago
As much as this sucks, I absolutely love how the blockchain is real life version of a Dark Forest
- nadahalli 2y ago
  You will like this 2020 classic piece by the folks at Paradigm: https://www.paradigm.xyz/2020/08/ethereum-is-a-dark-forest https://www.paradigm.xyz/2020/08/ethereum-is-a-dark-forest
  - motoxpro 2y ago
    I have read this and I LOVE it.
- dgellow 2y ago
  As long as it isn’t used for anything in the real world, I agree. It’s a fascinating ecosystem to watch from far away. If the crypto bros get their way and integrate blockchains with the real world, that becomes a horror show
- lelandfe 2y ago
  Broadcasting the secret and it immediately getting annihilated by some anonymous, stronger third party. Very much so.

mannyv 2y ago

So how do you test your generated key? You can't just go and submit lots of transactions. That would presumably be expensive.