At 04:01 PM 12/9/97 -0600, Jim Choate wrote:
Certicom estimates the difficulty of the warmup exercises thus:
Using a network of 3000 computers, it is expected that the 79-bit exercise could be solved in a matter of hours, the 89-bit in a matter of days, and the 97-bit in a matter of weeks.
Harley and Baisley applied 6 computers to ECCp-79 and solved it in a bit under 10 days, which would have amounted to less than half an hour had they had 3000 machines to throw at the problem.
In that case, 240 bit keys, as used by Pegwit and Kong, should take 70 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 years on a network of three thousand computers, assuming that the scaling law claimed by Certicom holds true. --------------------------------------------------------------------- We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of the kind of animals that we are. True law derives from this right, not from the arbitrary power of the state. http://www.jim.com/jamesd/