In the Crypto World, the gaming policy of earning money (like P2E games) is very common. This format attracts new users, the project is gaining activity, and the crypto space becomes more popular.
Recently, a new global mystery has appeared in the network: someone is offering 969 BTC to anyone who can find the right key to the wallet in which they are stored. Or rather, not to one, but to 75 different crypto wallets protected by private keys. The game is called Bitcoin Puzzle.
The creator of Bitcoin Puzzle
The developer of Bitcoin Puzzle wished to remain anonymous. In 2015, he made his first public appearance by staking 32.9 BTC across 256 addresses. The distribution of coins took place as follows:
- the first address received 0.001 BTC,
- second got 0.002 BTC,
- third had 0.003 BTC, etc.
- the last one got 0.256 BTC.
Bitcointalk users noticed these transactions and identified a pattern — private keys to addresses in binary format started with zeros, the number of which gradually decreased.
In April 2022, the anonymous creator of the game increased the final reward for completing the game to 969 BTC (which is approximately $29 million at today's exchange rate). According to the KeysFinder.Net, 75 puzzles (from #66 to #160) with balances from 6.6 BTC to 16 BTC have not been cracked yet.
What is the meaning of the Bitcoin Puzzle?
From all of the above, a completely logical question follows – why did someone come up with all of this? What is the point of a treasure hunt today?
The fact is that, as in the case of P2E games, the creators of such "entertainment" get their benefits. The crypto community came to the conclusion that in this way the developer of Bitcoin Puzzle decided to demonstrate to the whole world how huge the space of private keys of the Bitcoin network is. Moreover, it is a great example of how the security system of crypto wallets works.
The creator of Bitcoin Puzzle gave crypto enthusiasts a chance to pretend to be hackers. He made it possible for users to live on the “dark” side of the Crypto World. Lucky enough, for a successful hack, participants of the Bitcoin Puzzle do not receive a lawsuit for theft, but a generous reward.
How is it going?
After its release in 2015, the project gained great interest among users. During the first day of operation of Bitcoin Puzzle, 29 addresses were hacked. But then things got more difficult. For example, it took 2 weeks for enthusiasts to pick up the key to address number 40. Number 47 took 7 months to crack, while the 64th address was hacked only after 5 years! It will be interesting to find out if the players will have time to reveal all the addresses before the end of the Bitcoin emission.
Users from all over the world have joined the big game. There is still a heated discussion on the forums about the personality of the Bitcoin Puzzle creator, the logic of his actions, as well as patterns that can help in unraveling the keys. Crypto enthusiasts with great technical capabilities are developing special programs for automatic selection of keys.
Team work makes the dream work
At some point, crypto enthusiasts came to the conclusion that by joint efforts, solving the Bitcoin Puzzle would be much faster, easier and more efficient. Based on these thoughts, the 66 Bit Collective pool was created. The participants are working on checking the keys for 66 addresses. In case of successful selection, the winnings will be divided among the pool participants in accordance with the number of keys they verified.
Despite the fact that it takes years to reveal the keys, the interest in the game does not disappear. On the one hand, players are attracted by the amount of the reward, which covers all the time and effort spent. On the other hand, excitement works. The community of Bitcoin Puzzle has several hundred people connected by one global goal – to win.
Conclusion
At the moment, Bitcoin Puzzle is the only game of such kind. Rewarded key picking has already been done in the history of cryptocurrencies, but it was called security testing and was carried out on a much smaller scale. Why are there no analogues? True, creating such a game is quite simple. But is it really needed now, until all the tricks of the Bitcoin Puzzle have been solved?
If you want to learn more interesting facts about crypto then check out our blog! You might like our articles “Crypto Dust Attacks Explained” and “Curve Finance Offers Reward For Information About Hacker”.
