What I don't understand, hopefully someone is still reading it here: The hint says this:
>> First output: take random number from 2^0 upto 2^1-1, use it as private key
>> Second output: take random number from 2^1 upto 2^2-1, use it as private key
>> Third output: take random number from 2^2 upto 2^3-1, use it as private key
To me it sounds like that wallet #10 has a range from 2^9 to 2^10 - 1 - so you don't actually need to check previous bits. But somehow it seems like everyone is crawling through the whole range of possible private key. Doesn't make sense, does it? Am I missing something?
What do you mean by previous bits? Where are you seeing how "everyone is crawling"?
With each puzzle, you know that the top bit is 1, and nothing else. Every bit below that is unknown, and you need to go through the whole range of n-1 bits. Puzzle #10 has 9 bits to guess, because it's between 10_0000_0000 and 11_1111_1111. Puzzle #66 has 65 bits to guess. If someone says 66 unknown bits they've misspoken.
yeah, thats what i meant, just to make clear "how" I am thinking it: It's just iterating through integers from n to k and calculating secp256k1, sha-256 and ripemd. So:
>> Puzzle #10 has 9 bits to guess, because it's between 10_0000_0000 and 11_1111_1111
means that I don't have to start at 0000 0000 0000 ... everytime, I can actually start at 2^5 and look up to 2^6 - 1, for example for the 6th address.
>> First output: take random number from 2^0 upto 2^1-1, use it as private key >> Second output: take random number from 2^1 upto 2^2-1, use it as private key >> Third output: take random number from 2^2 upto 2^3-1, use it as private key
To me it sounds like that wallet #10 has a range from 2^9 to 2^10 - 1 - so you don't actually need to check previous bits. But somehow it seems like everyone is crawling through the whole range of possible private key. Doesn't make sense, does it? Am I missing something?