So 1: LBC started before the puzzle wallets where a thing.
are you sure about that?
puzzle transaction was created in 2015-01-15 18:07:14 (block 339085)
Bulista created thread
Bitcoin puzzle transaction ~32 BTC prize to who solves it in December 28, 2015
I'm sure there are earlier threads discussing the puzzle but that thread stands out the most
rico666 created thread
Collision "Attack" feasibility study in July 17, 2016
and then he started this thread in August 02, 2016
and a few data from LBC site:
the earliest find on
Pool Trophies page
2016-09-26 15:37:20 GMT
The pool found a private key to f92044c7924e5525c61207972c253c9fc9f086f7 (1PiFuqGpG8yGM5v6rNHWS3TjsG6awgEGA1) as 0x6bd3b27c591. At the time of the find, there were 0 BTC on that address. This is #43 of the puzzle transaction.
from
LBC FAQ page under
Notable Dates section
2016-08-10: pool inception - roughly 0.15 Mkeys/s
16 Jul/Aug: stand-alone experiments, then client and pool development
2016-07-28: standalone client: 36bits searched