Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: Bitcoin challenge transaction: ~100 BTC total bounty to solvers!
by
almightyruler
on 19/09/2019, 02:09:32 UTC
This "another" key works as well. Try to check it in bitcoin address generator, or try to import this file into your wallet. You will receive the access to the same address of wallet #62 lol )

Maximum value for secp256k1 is:

FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFE BAAEDCE6 AF48A03B BFD25E8C D0364141

Your key is above this value:

FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFE BAAEDCE6 AF48A03B F60FB2AB 8647ED2F

Some software will correctly reject this out of range value, but others will just overflow and wrap max+1 to 0.

The result of F60FB2AB 8647ED2F minus BFD25E8C D0364141 is 363D541E B611ABEE, which is the "proper" key. That's why your key works: when wrapped around it ends up being the same calculated value.

(If this was a clever joke, sorry that I spoiled it. Smiley )