Unless many of you just believe it was bruteforce with dumb luck.
Brute-force is always a luck. No matter if you start at the beginning, the end or random.
They're all doing the classic stuff — strip, rstrip, and the usual.
Nope. They do convert from private key to h160, not just strip, rstrip.
but not exactly the way I want. Still, I'll take a closer look. The program I have in mind is something like BSGS, but without a public key. Also, I had generated the first 36 bits of puzzle number 69 using AI, but someone else found the solution before I could reach it.