NEEDLESPACE
The 160/#140

#140

UnsolvedKey exposed14 BTC

Still unsolved. But its public key is exposed, so it yields to Pollard's Kangaroo rather than brute force. The work required falls from 2139 to its square root, around 269.5.

Address

1QKBaU6WAeycb3DbKbLBkX7vJiaS8r42Xo

mempool.space
Key range (hex)

0x80000000000000000000000000000000000 ~ 0xfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

Interval size

2^139 = 7.0×10^41

Balance

14.00001600 BTC · 7 tx

snapshot from 2026-08-23

Public key (compressed)

031f6a332d3c5c4f2de2378c012f429cd109ba07d69690c6c701b6bb87860d6640

Exposed on 31 May 2019, when the creator withdrew 1,000 satoshis from this address. This is the value BSGS and Kangaroo take as input.

Method of attack
Pollard's Kangaroo
work ≈ 8.3×10^20 (2^69.5)
Browser (JS, 1 thread)the search tool on this site1.5×10^9 years
CPU · keyhunt, 8 threads3,306,669 years
CPU · keyhunt, 16 threads1,653,335 years
GTX 1060132,267 years
RTX 307033,067 years
RTX 309017,636 years
RTX 409010,581 years
RTX 50906,613 years
RTX 4090 × 101,058 years
RTX 4090 × 100106 years
RTX 4090 × 1,000the scale of a large pool11 years
All approximate. Implementation, clocks and target count move these by multiples, so read the order of magnitude and nothing finer. The calculator lets you put your own rate in.
Finding it is not the same as keeping it

A transaction moving puzzle funds carries the public key and the signature. The moment it reaches the mempool, bots take the same coins with a higher fee. That is exactly how #66 and #69 were lost. How to prevent it

Doing it

How to actually run this puzzle

Recommended: Kangaroo (GPU)

The public key is known, so the discrete logarithm is solved directly. The work drops from 2^139 to around 2^69.5.

0. Build (Linux · CUDA)
git clone https://github.com/JeanLucPons/Kangaroo
cd Kangaroo
make gpu=1 ccap=86   # ccap is your GPU's compute capability (4090=89, 3090=86, 1060=61)
# On Windows open VC_CUDA102/Kangaroo.sln in Visual Studio. macOS and AMD are not supported.
1. Input file — three lines: range start, range end, public key
cat > in140.txt <<'EOF'
80000000000000000000000000000000000
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
031F6A332D3C5C4F2DE2378C012F429CD109BA07D69690C6C701B6BB87860D6640
EOF
2. Run
./kangaroo -t 8 -gpu -gpuId 0 -w save140.work -wi 300 -o found-140.txt in140.txt
Watch out for
  • Order matters in the input file — range start, range end, public key. Get it wrong and it finds nothing.
  • -d is the distinguished-point bit count. Leave it out and it picks one; only touch it when distributing.
  • -w and -wi save progress every five minutes. On a job that runs for days this is not optional.
  • To combine machines use -s (server) / -c (client) mode. It is more efficient than splitting the range.
Other options

CPU only. Handles both addresses and public keys, and is the easiest to install — good for learning and for checking your setup.

Address brute force. The de facto standard for puzzles with no public key, and the only one that runs on AMD.

BitCracknot usable

The public key is known, so brute-forcing addresses is a waste. Kangaroo needs 2^69.5 operations where BitCrack runs 2^139.

A reality check

On a single RTX 4090 this takes 10,581 years. That is not “eventually”; in most cases it means “no”. Doing it anyway means accumulating GPUs or joining a pool.