An Anthropic AI model traced five seeds for NIST elliptic curves, supplied by the NSA in the late 1990s, to an ordinary random-number generator fed with 1997 and 1998 timestamps, in under 30 minutes. The finding makes a hidden NSA backdoor less likely and requires no action from NIST curve users, though questions remain about how some elements were chosen. Bitcoin was not affected because it uses secp256k1, a simpler curve with little room to hide a weakness, though sufficiently powerful quantum computers could eventually pose a separate threat. The 25-year puzzle had a bounty that started at $12,288 and could rise past $36,000 if donated to charity.
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