Huge respect for cracking it—amazing work!
To the entire community: as we all know, there are no magic tricks, shortcuts, or secret exploits here. It’s now clear that pure brute force is the only way forward.
With that in mind, it feels like the puzzle journey has reached its end for many of us. Competing against someone with over 2,000+ powerful GPUs (and counting!) just isn't realistic.
Huge respect for what? For using a program he probably didn’t even code and GPUs he doesn’t even own? I call this: script kiddies with resources.
I doubt this was the purpose of this puzzle, and I think the journey has indeed ended for them while it’s just begun for participants with higher IQs and fewer resources.
Time will tell!
P.S. There’s no frustration in this post. I was never a participant in the puzzle. But I do find the cocky posts about bruteforcing so hilarious. You’ve missed the entire point!