Re: Bitcoin challange transaction: ~100 BTC total bounty to solvers!
By the way, isn't it kinda scary that a few keys in 80 and 90 bit ranges were already found? Many users have passwords with less bits of security, and passwords also aren't random, so bruteforce can be optimized. Or am I missing something, and those keys were cracked with some algorithm rather than brute force?
So, I did it and it takes 2.5 ms for me to calculate an address from a raw private key
They were bruteforced it just so happened that they were found, it's luck, just someone started close enought. There are different algos for password cracking words-list attacks for example. There's a way this puzzle is usefull, for one it proves there's no time travelers, for two it shows how secure bitcoin and other 256 bit keys are. I would choose not to generate addresses at all just sweep all the range that you go by, it would save time.if you want to have fun, you can program something. i did that a while ago in c# for small ones as a "challenge" to my skills knowing there is no other reward.
So, I did it and it takes 2.5 ms for me to calculate an address from a raw private key