Krackpot Challenges Users to Crack Weakened Bitcoin Puzzle

A new browser-based game called Krackpot has launched, challenging participants to find the private key controlling one of Bitcoin's longest-running public cryptographic challenges. The challenge, known as Bitcoin Puzzle #71, is intentionally weakened and has a significantly reduced keyspace compared to standard Bitcoin private keys.

The puzzle was created in 2015 as part of a demonstration of the difficulty of searching large private-key ranges. It currently holds approximately 7.1018 BTC at address 1PWo3JeB9jrGwfHDNpdGK54CRas7fsVzXU, and remains unsolved.

Krackpot allows participants to use their local GPU power to search the puzzle's restricted keyspace without requiring a dedicated application or account. The game estimates that one gaming GPU would require roughly 830,000 years before expecting a successful hit, while one million comparable GPUs searching continuously would bring the estimate down to around one year.

The developer, Simon Males, built Krackpot partly as a demonstration of the difference between deliberately reduced cryptographic puzzles and accidental key-generation failures. The game does not charge an entry fee or require participants to pool their computing resources, and offers 6 BTC to anyone whose graphics card finds the private key.