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RC5-72 Clients Available on distributed.net

Posted by michael on from the get-cracking dept.

Yoda2 writes "From the distributed.net site... 'The RC5-72 project is now officially up and running, as of 03-Dec-2002! You will need to download a new client in order to participate. Our FAQ-O-matic has been updated with the beginnings of a new RC5-72 section.' Also, there is a $10,000 prize for the winner, but as with the other RC5 projects, the owner of the computer that finds the key does not get all of the money."

2 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This is a waste of time by GGardner · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'd like to see the cost of electricity to power all those cycles, and compare it to the $10,000 prize.

  2. Don't forget Optimum Slackitude by Crag · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The principle of Optimum Slackitude points out that because of Moore's Law, the overall cost in time or money can be decreased by waiting to being. If current numbers predict 12 years to exhaust the keyspace, and we wait 18 months to start, then that first 18 months worth of effort will have to be made up at the end, but 12 years later computers will be 2^8 or 256 times faster. That first 18 months worth of effort will only take 2-3 days to make up at the end of the project.

    I think that's probably what people object to about starting this project now instead of in a couple years.