NEEDLESPACE
The 160/#155

#155

UnsolvedKey exposed15.5 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 2154 to its square root, around 277.

Address

1AoeP37TmHdFh8uN72fu9AqgtLrUwcv2wJ

mempool.space
Key range (hex)

0x400000000000000000000000000000000000000 ~ 0x7ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

Interval size

2^154 = 2.3×10^46

Balance

15.50011600 BTC · 8 tx

snapshot from 2026-08-23

Public key (compressed)

035cd1854cae45391ca4ec428cc7e6c7d9984424b954209a8eea197b9e364c05f6

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 ≈ 1.5×10^23 (2^77)
Browser (JS, 1 thread)the search tool on this site2.7×10^11 years — 19× the age of the universe
CPU · keyhunt, 8 threads6.0×10^8 years
CPU · keyhunt, 16 threads3.0×10^8 years
GTX 106023,942,842 years
RTX 30705,985,711 years
RTX 30903,192,379 years
RTX 40901,915,427 years
RTX 50901,197,142 years
RTX 4090 × 10191,543 years
RTX 4090 × 10019,154 years
RTX 4090 × 1,000the scale of a large pool1,915 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 2^154 to around 2^77.

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 > in155.txt <<'EOF'
400000000000000000000000000000000000000
7FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
035CD1854CAE45391CA4EC428CC7E6C7D9984424B954209A8EEA197B9E364C05F6
EOF
2. Run
./kangaroo -t 8 -gpu -gpuId 0 -w save155.work -wi 300 -o found-155.txt in155.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 2^77 operations where BitCrack runs 2^154.

A reality check

On a single RTX 4090 this takes 1,915,427 years. That is not “eventually”; in most cases it means “no”. Doing it anyway means accumulating GPUs or joining a pool.