Join the Everything2 team at distributed.net and maybe even make money for yourself!

For the past 5 years or so, the cryptography company RSA has sponsored a contest to crack the RC5 algorithm. A message is encrypted with a particular key, and the first person to determine the key wins $10,000.

Two RC5 cracking contests have been beaten so far. The 56-bit key contest was completed in 1997, and the 64-bit key was found last year, both by a company called distributed.net.

Distributed.net runs several computer projects that are easily broken down into simple tasks done by different machines. Repeatedly testing cryptographic keys is one of them, and a new task has just started. D.net recently started their work on RC5-72.

THAT COULD MEAN CASH FOR YOU AND E2!

If a distributed.net user finds the right key, that user takes home $1000, and another $1000 go to that user's team, with the rest going to non-profit organizations and future d.net projects.

Running the distributed.net software requires very little after configuration. It's not a screen saver, and it gets out of the way of any other programs trying to run at the same time. The only CPU time given to d.net is the stuff you weren't using anyway.

If you want to join, first go to www.distributed.net and download a client. You will need to be running one of the following operating systems (this may change over time):

• Windows 95, NT, 98, 2K, or XP on x86
• Mac OS X or Darwin on a PowerPC
• OS/2 on x86
• Linux on x86, PowerPC, ARM, Sparc, or PlayStation2 PLEASE NOTE The version of dnetc that comes with Debian 3.0 (woody) is TOO OLD FOR RC5-72. Don't use apt-get for it! (Byzantine says the Debian-unstable version is new enough)
• BSD/OS on x86
• FreeBSD
• NetBSD on Sparc or MIPSEL
• OpenBSD on x86 or Sparc
• Solaris on Sparc or x86
• IRIX
• QNX
• RiscOS on ARM

Be sure to configure your client by following =nerochiaro='s instructions below.

Other OS's and architectures can join the Everything2 team, but not in the paying contests.

Once you have a client, you must complete some work in order to show up on the stats page. Once you have submitted work, wait until midnight UTC.

Then, go to http://stats.distributed.net/projects.php?project_id=8 and search for your email address (the one in the configure options). Once you get to your personal page, click on the "Email my password" link.

You should then go to the Everything2 team page. You can search for this in the team section, or simply go to http://stats.distributed.net/team/tmsummary.php?project_id=8&team=35018431. Click on the "I want to join this team!" link and follow the instructions.

Team members so far
1. 00100
2. 3Suns
3. 409
4. =nerochiaro=
5. adamk
6. Albert Herring
7. Alienof2000
8. AndrewATF
9. Anml4ixoye
10. arieh
11. arrogantsob
12. Awe
13. bishopred1
14. BrianShader
15. Brontosaurus
16. BrooksMarlin
17. caknuck
18. carnun
19. Carthag
20. Catchpole
21. cethiesus
22. Chark
23. chinakow
24. corwin
25. Cow of Doom
26. czeano
27. dafydd
28. dann
29. Danoot
30. DarkSarkas
31. dazura
32. dido
33. Disco Jesus
34. dokool
35. drinkypoo
36. drseudo
37. elem_125
38. eponymous
39. Ferenczy
40. fondue
41. Fungus
42. Golem
43. GoodKingNerdnor
44. Gordian
45. gounthar
46. gwenllian
47. Habakkuk
48. HamsterMan
49. Heisenberg
50. hotthamir
51. isogolem
52. izubachi
53. jaubertmoniker
54. l00dd00d
55. Lennon
56. littleblackgecko
57. loquacious
58. masked
59. mirv
60. mkb
61. NickABusey
62. nine9
63. No Springs
64. NotFabio and the USNA Beowulf cluster
65. novasoy
66. nuclear
67. Orange Julius
68. Orpheum
69. panamaus
70. patseal
71. QXZ
72. Rameriez
73. renderer
74. sekicho
75. Senso
76. Servo5678
77. Shanoyu
78. SharQ
79. Snicker Furfoot
80. sublies
81. TehBesto
82. TenMinJoe
83. teos
84. tes
85. TGCid
86. The Custodian
87. Triften
88. turboke
89. VT_hawkeye
90. weasello
91. Wntrmute
92. wonko
93. wrinkly
94. xdjio
95. yerricde
96. Yonder
97. zoinksbear

the RC5-72 contest is pointless, unwinnable and wasteful.

Pointless

Unwinnable

Another way to look at the situation: buying a lottery coupon for $1, with a possible yield of $1,000,000 if you get 7 right, has an expectation of $1 * 6.5e-8 * 1e6 = $0.01. However, the odds of the key being found today are 0.000127%, and of the 1392922 blocks completed 8744 (0.63%) were done by the E2 team. The odds of E2 receiving the price money tomorrow are thus 1.01e-12, or 0.000000001%. That's a lotta zeros.

But hey, you never know. With a prize money of $10000 in the offering, we need to have a 'bet' of less than $0.000000001 ($1e-10) per day to beat the odds of the lottery. But processor power is free, right?

Wasteful

To illustrate, a standard Pentium III, without the requisite array of cooling fans, sucks down around 30W when running at full speed. Run that sucker for 24 hours, and you've run up a bill of 0.72 kilowatt-hours, or about 3.6¢ assuming 5¢/kW/H.

Conclusions

...it would be 36,000,000,000 times more efficient to buy a lottery ticket each day. Then again, 3.6¢ a day adds up to $13.14 a year, so why not donate the sum directly?

...you might want to try folding proteins (folding.stanford.edu), finding a cure for cancer (www.ud.com), looking for Sierpinski numbers (www.seventeenorbust.com), or even optimal Golomb rulers (www.distributed.net/ogr/).

References