NIST Elliptic Curve Seed Mystery Solved: Bounty Claimed, Conspiracy Debunked
The NIST Elliptic Curves Seeds Bounty Has Been Claimed
The NIST elliptic curve seeds were generated using the drand48 random number generator seeded with timestamps from 1997–98, not hashed sentences as long believed. Anthropic researchers claimed the $36,864 bounty and donated it to Let's Encrypt. The finding rules out NSA manipulation and reinforces confidence in the curves.
This week’s findings completely rule out the technique described by Bernstein and Lange.