The challenge is part of a week-long educational game supported by 12 prominent partners, including Blockstream, Trezor, and BTCPay.
Wasabi Wallet, a bitcoin wallet startup, has thrown down the gauntlet, challenging Bitcoiners all across the world to “break” a bitcoin wallet and take whatever bitcoin (BTC) it contains.
The challenge, which began yesterday, is part of a global treasure hunt called “Hunting Sats” – a gamified educational bootcamp on best practises for private key preservation.
The Hunting Sats wallet has received 3,454,811 satoshis or “sats” (0.03454811 BTC) and is still growing. To claim the cash, participants from all around the world must correctly guess the wallet’s passphrase and 12-word seed phrase.
A bitcoin wallet usually includes a “seed phrase” made up of 12 to 24 random words, and it is sometimes protected by a PIN, password, or passphrase. In the event of an inadvertent loss, the seed phrase is used to “recover” or restore access to the wallet.
The practise of guessing passwords or passcodes at random to gain unauthorised access is known as “brute-forcing.”
“Hands-on learning via engaging games like Hunting Sats is a terrific method for users to learn about seed phrase security and other benefits of self-custody,” according to the announcement. “It demonstrates how brute force becomes more feasible when users divulge a portion of their seed.”
The Hunting Sats seed and password were sent to 12 partners, including well-known bitcoin organisations such as Blockstream, Trezor, and BTCPay. Each partner will publicly expose their secret word at random on Twitter, making brute-forcing simpler with each word revealed.
“The chance of breaking the wallet is nearly minimal when users work properly with their seed and retain their private key in dedicated cold storage,” according to the announcement. “One of the first stages toward self-sovereignty and self-custody is understanding these fundamental notions.”
