Bitcoin Puzzle Database
Track the status of active and solved transactional puzzle addresses.
Description
In 2015, in order to show the hugeness of the private key space (or maybe just for fun), someone created a "puzzle" where he chose keys in a certain smaller space and sent increasing amounts to each of those keys like this:
2^0 ≤ random key < 2^1 — 0.001 BTC 2^1 ≤ random key < 2^2 — 0.002 BTC 2^2 ≤ random key < 2^3 — 0.003 BTC ... 2^255 ≤ random key < 2^256 — 0.256 BTC (total 32.896 BTC)
"A few words about the puzzle. There is no pattern. It is just consecutive keys from a deterministic wallet (masked with leading 000...0001 to set difficulty). It is simply a crude measuring instrument, of the cracking strength of the community."— saatoshi_rising on BitcoinTalk
First #1–70 and #75, #80, #85, #90, #95, #100, #105, #110, #115, #120, #125, #130 private keys have already been cracked.
History
- 2015-01-15: A transaction was created containing a transfer transaction for 256 different Bitcoin addresses.
- 2017-07-11: Funds from addresses #161—256 were moved (tx) to the same number of addresses of the lower range – thus increasing the amount of funds on them.
- 2019-05-31: The creator of the "puzzles" creates outgoing transaction with the value of 1000 satoshi for addresses #65, #70, #75, #80, #85, #90, #95, #100, #105, #110, #115, #120, #125, #130, #135, #140, #145, #150, #155, #160 with the aim of probably comparing the difficulty of finding a private key for the address from which such a transaction was carried out, and one that there is no transaction.
- 2023-04-16: Somebody (maybe the owner) increased (tx) the unsolved puzzles prizes again by x10. Now the puzzle #66 prize is 6.6 BTC, #67 is 6.7 BTC and so on... puzzle #160 prize is 16 BTC.
- 2024-09-12: Puzzle #66 (6.6 BTC) was solved by 1Jvv4y (tx1) but the original spending transaction was replaced by bc1qpk (tx2) spending only 5.94 BTC. Finally, another address 15XVN6 took the rest of the prize: 0.66 BTC (tx3).
- 2025-02-21: Puzzle #67 (6.7 BTC) was solved by bc1qfk and the transaction was mined bypassing the public mempool to avoid interception as in the case of puzzle #66.
- 2025-04-06: Puzzle #68 (6.8 BTC) was solved by bc1qfw and the transaction was mined bypassing the public mempool to avoid interception as in the case of puzzle #66.
- 2025-04-30: Puzzle #69 (6.9 BTC) was solved by bc1qlp in less than one month, likely due to its position at the very beginning of the search range (0.72%). However, the original transaction (tx1) was publicly broadcast, leading to it being replaced multiple times (tx2, tx3). Ultimately, 15g7XH managed to steal the prize (tx4).
Solution
In order to solve the puzzle, you must iterate over the specific private key space and check each private key for balance. The narrower the key space, the greater the chance of finding the private key. Currently, it is better to focus on solving puzzle #71 (due to its narrower key space) or #135 (utilizing the Baby-step giant-step or Pollard's kangaroo algorithm because of the exposed public key).