I may be reading this wrong and my theory may be without merit -- but it seems to me, given the replacement transaction was less than 18 seconds behind the original, it implies the creator of the replacement transaction ALREADY had the private key and did not need to the public key to run Pollard's kangaroo against it. Wouldn't it have taken a little longer than 18 seconds to find the key and replace the transaction? And isn't it ironic that the creator of the replacement transaction left exactly .66 BTC behind (for puzzle #66), instead of sweeping the entire thing? Who would have had the private key already and not used it? Who would leave behind exactly .66 BTC? Is it possible it was the creator of the puzzle clawing back the lion share and leaving the original amount? Anyone else have thoughts about this?
2024-09-12: puzzle #66 (6.60126013 BTC) was solved by 1Jvv4yWkE9MhbuwGUoqFYzDjRVQHaLWuJd (tx) but the original spending transaction was replaced by bc1qpkp47q5cucrvnyepsdnjcv2kzyav5ze0ta7n67 (tx) spending only 5.93923605 BTC. Another address 15XVN6hFkzGdUTY1XcsYKXxRezjARwyBQx took the rest of the prize: 0.66100387 BTC (tx).
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Hello, I noticed something.
66. Wallet transfer time: 9/13/2024, 01:59:39
Your message: 09/13/2024, 01:57:12
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You should normalize timestamps to UTC for universal comparability. Block #861068 which contained the first withdrawal tx
57a88f47e4c0...6e9ae7fc2f5f has a block timestamp of 2024-09-12T22:59:39Z (the suffix Z for Zulu means it's UTC). And one of my own nodes saw this block at precisely 2024-09-12T22:59:57Z ("Saw new header" announcement) and UpdateTip a second later.
Common blockchain explorers like mempool.space or bitcoinexplorer.org show block and transaction timestamps in your browser's local timezone per default (for bitcoinexplorer.org you can configure it to display in UTC which is nice), while blockchair.com displays it in UTC per default AFAIR.
If you draw conclusions based on wrong data (unknowingly?), you spread false and flawed assumptions. Sort of a disease in these internet times when too many people spread any BS unquestioned...