Claude cracks a 25-year-old NSA cryptography mystery with $36,864 bounty in under 30 minutes
jradoff · x · 2026-10-18
A 25-year-old NSA cryptography challenge carrying a $36,864 bounty was solved by Claude in under 30 minutes. Notably, Claude kept interrogating itself along the way—asking whether it was suspicious that something so obvious went undiscovered for 25 years, and even wondering if it was inside a simulation—before concluding "it's a real discovery."
Related event: Claude Cracks 25-Year NIST Elliptic Curve Seed Mystery in 30 Minutes(28 posts)→
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