If you are not an early adopter but you are nevertheless hoping to money in on bitcoin, there is a way to win $ 200,000 worth of the currency.
Nonetheless, you will want to be the 21st century equivalent of Alan Turing to pull it off.
Telegram, a super safe messaging service developed by two Russian entrepreneurs, is supplying a $ 200,000 prize in bitcoin to any person who manages to beat its encryption protocol. This is generally their way of saying that it is virtually not possible to crack.
To prove their point, Telegram developers Pavel and Nikolai Durov have began sending private messages containing an email address. Anybody who cracks the code and manages to study the address can claim his or hers prize by sending an email to the address. The organization’s site states:
“Telegram backer, Pavel Durov, will give $ 200,000 in BTC to the 1st individual to break Telegram’ encrypted protocol. Starting right now, every day Paul (+79112317383) will be sending a message containing a secret e mail address to Nick (+79218944725). In order to prove that Telegram crypto was indeed deciphered and claim your prize, send an e-mail to the secret email address from Paul’s message.”
To make certain that spammers do not claim the prize, the message should contain the whole text of the intercepted message, the applicant’s address and a detailed explanation of the attack.
White hat controversy
Supplying prizes to white hat hackers who participate in penetration testing is nothing new, but supplying such a prize in bitcoin is a 1st.
Nevertheless, some in the white hat community dislike the notion. A lively discussion erupted on Hacker News, featuring a lot of critical comments from ethical hackers, like josephlord, who saw the Telegram crypto contest as a publicity stunt devised by individuals with a “blindness and an arrogance that could prove fatal”.
Some argued that it could be possible to read the message without having actually breaking the protocol.
Of course, a substantial prize is up for grabs, so if these claims are true, those generating them must have no trouble choosing up an simple $ 200,000.
Flawed review or attainable PR coup?
Telegram announced the competitors after some queries have been raised about its security. The developers had been rapid to deny such claims, namely an analysis by security professional Geoffroy Couprie.
Both Pavel and Nikolai Durov insist Couprie’s review was inaccurate and fundamentally flawed. The brothers then decided to put their funds where their mouth is and supply the $ 200,000 prize.
If Couprie or 1 of his supporters wins it, they will be vindicated. If not, the Durov’s will score a PR coup.
Just in case the fortunate winner, if there ever is one particular, decides not to claim the prize in bitcoins, Pavel Durov says he will be willing to pay in dollars.
On a side note, the Russian Federal Guard Service (FSO) which is the Russian equivalent of the US Secret Service, has apparently reverted to typewriters for some applications.
According to official procurement documents published in July, the FSO is preparing to invest 486,000 roubles on electric typewriters.
They may be noisy and impractical, but they also happen to be totally unhackable.
View Telegram Provides $ 200k in Bitcoin for Cracking its Encrypted Messages on CoinDesk.
Telegram Offers $200k in Bitcoin for Cracking its Encrypted Messages
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