In 1997, Dr. Jerry Solinas generated the seeds for the NIST elliptic curves used in modern cryptography by hashing English sentences. However, Dr. Solinas passed away in 2023, leaving behind a cryptographic mystery. To crack these hashes and solve the mystery, a group of contributors is offering a bounty of $8,192 to $12,288. If the recipient chooses, they can donate the bounty to a charity of their choice. The NIST curves are widely used in cryptography and are considered secure, despite some fears that the NSA may have intentionally chosen weak seeds. Cracking the seeds would provide insight into the rigidity of these curves.
https://words.filippo.io/dispatches/seeds-bounty/