History & origins — lotterypzl

The Bitcoin Puzzle began on January 15, 2015 with a single transaction sending 32.896 BTC to 256 addresses. No announcement, no instructions — just a cryptographic breadcrumb waiting to be found.

Discovery

In December 2015, BitcoinTalk user Bulista discovered the puzzle transaction while experimenting with a brute-force bot. User amaclin had previously noted the unusual transaction. By the time the community organized, puzzles 1–50 were already solved.

The original BitcoinTalk discovery thread remains the earliest public record of the puzzle's existence.

The creator reveals

On April 27, 2017, user saatoshi_rising posted on BitcoinTalk claiming to be the creator. They wrote:

"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."

The claim was verified by on-chain actions: in July 2017, funds from addresses #161–256 were moved to lower-range addresses, exactly as saatoshi_rising described.

Full timeline

2015-01-15

Genesis transaction. 32.896 BTC sent to 256 addresses. View on chain →

2015-12-27

Bulista discovers the puzzle. BitcoinTalk thread launched. Puzzles 1–50 already solved.

2017-04-27

saatoshi_rising claims authorship. Profile — only 1 post, 32 merit, last active June 2019.

2017-07-11

Funds consolidated. Addresses #161–256 emptied into #53–160, increasing rewards 10×.

2019-05-31

Public key reveals. Creator sends 1000-satoshi transactions from addresses #65, #70, #75, #80, #85, #90, #95, #100, #105, #110, #115, #120, #125, #130, #135, #140, #145, #150, #155, #160. These outgoing transactions expose the public keys, enabling kangaroo/BSGS attacks.

2023-04-16

10× reward increase. 872.19 BTC sent to puzzle addresses. Puzzle 66: 0.66 → 6.6 BTC. Puzzle 160: 16 BTC. View transaction →

2023

RetiredCoder breakthrough. Solves puzzles 120 and 125 using GPU Pollard's kangaroo on revealed public keys.

2024-09-12

Puzzle 66 solved and stolen. Finder broadcasts to public mempool; bots derive the key and RBF the transaction. Reddit discussion →

2025-02-21

Puzzle 67 solved by Kowala. Mined via private channel, bypassing public mempool.

2025-04-06

Puzzle 68 solved by Kowala. 1 quintillion+ keys scanned. Also mined privately.

2025-04-30

Puzzle 69 solved — and stolen. Position at 0.72% of range. Public broadcast → replaced multiple times → "15g7XH" steals the prize.

Now

82 solved, 78 remaining. Puzzle 71 is the lowest brute-force target. Puzzle 135 is the primary kangaroo target. ~916 BTC still locked.