INVESTIGATIVE DOSSIER · RESEARCHED 03 OCT 2026
BITCOIN PUZZLE #72 · 72-BIT · OPEN

Bitcoin Puzzle #72

Still unsolved. The private key for this puzzle is an integer between 2^71 and 2^72 − 1, and whoever finds it can sweep 7.20014379 BTC from 1JTK7s9YVYywfm5XUH7RNhHJH1LshCaRFR.

How to attempt Bitcoin puzzle #72

Only the address is known, so a solver has to walk the interval: multiply the secp256k1 generator by each candidate key, hash the compressed public key with SHA-256 and RIPEMD-160, and compare with the address’s hash160. On average that is 2^70 tests, about 1.18e+21. A single high-end GPU running BitCrack or keyhunt manages roughly a billion tests per second.

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