Some of us owe the EFF money!

Trei, Peter (ptrei@securitydynamics.com)
Wed, 22 Jul 1998 13:18:28 -0400

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Remember this? EFF won this one as well.

I'll be mailing my 288 bits ($36) in a day or so.

Peter Trei
----------------------------------------------

> Forwarded-from: Matt Blaze <mab@crypto.com>

The prize for solving the ``better DES challenge'' has grown to almost
$500 and continues to rise daily. Here's the list of prize pledges I have
as of June 27; the current pot stands at 3984 bits (US $498.00). I hope
to have a web page up sometime next week (on www.crypto.com) with the
latest challenge status. (This will be the last update via email, unless
someone solves the challenge or pledges some huge prize or some such).

DATE Name Email Bits Pledged
============================================================================
6/22/97 Matt Blaze mab@crypto.com 56 bits
6/23 AT&T Labs (via mab) mab@research.att.com 56
6/24 Steve Gibbons steve@wyrm.AZTech.Net 56
6/24 Bill Stewart stewarts@ix.netcom.com 112
6/24 Peter Trei trei@process.com 288
6/24 Jim Thompson jim@hosaka.SmallWorks.COM 512
6/25 Adam Shostack adam@homeport.org 512
6/25 Eric Blossom eb@comsec.com 1024
6/26 Jamie Lawrence jal@acm.org 56
6/26 Bill Frantz frantz@netcom.com 512
6/27 Jon Leonard jleonard@divcom.umop-ap.com 800
                                                                =========
GRAND TOTAL (Bits) 3984
GRAND TOTAL (USD) $498.00

Tell your friends! Note that the pot seems to be growing roughly
exponentially. If this keeps up, I may join the search myself...

[Unfortunately, due to singularly inexcusable incompetence on the part
of my soon-to-be-former ISP (PSINet), mail to me was bouncing last week
so I may have missed some of the ``Better DES Challenge'' pledge mail.
If you pledged a prize and aren't on the list above, please resend.]

Official rules attached below for reference.

- -matt

N.B. The ``bit'' is an archaic unit of currency equal to 1/8 of a US
dollar (hence, ``pieces of eight,'' ``two bits,'', etc.). It seems an
appropriate measure for prizes in key-cracking contests.

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