Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: Bitcoin puzzle transaction ~32 BTC prize to who solves it
by
kuramuqnko
on 07/08/2025, 12:41:12 UTC
Sorry, guys, but unfortunately I have to ask my question for the third time, as Im still curious. SimonNeedsBitcoin steered the conversation in a completely different direction that’s already been discussed multiple times here and whether that path is right or wrong doesn’t concern me. What SimonNeedsBitcoin decided to explain was an answer to a question I never asked. So… once again, I had like to ask my question, and if anyone can answer, I will really appreciate it. I don’t understand what difference the puzzle number makes - whether it’s #61, #71, #82, etc. And specifically, what makes the puzzles that are multiples of 5 special — like #85, #100, #105? Or in the end, since no one is giving an answer, does that just mean this thing has no significance at all?

The public keys of multiple 5 puzzles were intentionally revealed, which opens the way to the possibility of using kangaroo, which allows for a faster solution of the problem, something that is not possible with puzzles 71, 72... that do not end in 5 or 0, which makes them difficult to solve because only conventional (slow) brute force can be applied. However, if for example you solve puzzle 71 and do not use the Mara service, when sending the transaction, you are exposing its public key to the world, which will cause bots to use kangaroo and replace your transaction, taking away your prize, since the difficulty of puzzle 71 lies in the fact that the public key is hidden, but once an attempt is made to spend it and it is included in the mempool, the public key is leaked.

For this reason you should use mara Slipstream for these puzzles, because mara does not broadcast the transaction publicly, which means it does not reveal the public key until the transaction is confirmed (included in a block) and at this point, this is not reversible, so you will have collected the reward without problems.

Thank you for the answer! The explanation was simple, but I just didn't pay attention. I thought there were several puzzles with known public keys, but I hadn’t noticed that it's specifically the ones that are multiples of 5.