Satoshi wrote:
SHA-256 is very strong. It's not like the incremental step from MD5 to SHA1. It can last several decades unless there's some massive breakthrough attack.
But he did not transfer the early mined coins to SHA-256/RIPEMD addresses. It would change the structure of the prize competition.
* 100% sure that it is a prize competition
* 100% sure that you can solve it only with the blockchain
* still trying to solve it
* one day someone will solve it