eternity 2

recently, gunjan and I bought eternity 2 and having 256 pieces that need to be put together, it has 256! combinations out of which (presumably) only one is correct.

now 256! =

85781777534284265411908227168123262515778152027948561985965565037726945255
3147589377440291360451408450375885342336584306157196834693696475322289288
49742602567963733256336878644267520762679456018796886797152114330770207752
66464514647091873261008328763257028189807736717814541702505230186084953190
68138257481070252817559459476987034665712738139286205234756808218860701203
61108315209350194743710910172696826286160626366243502284094419140842461593
6000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

(this is calculated by using my math library I wrote coz I had nothing better to do - of course you realize calculations on large numbers - thousands of digits long, require alternative approach since integers and other variables can only take so much. the program is available here - *the program might still have some bugs in division but multiplication and factorial work fine)

which is a humble 507 digit long number. 10^507 approx= 2^1700.

so this problem reduces to an AES-cracking problem with key space = 1700 bits.

now cracking AES-1024 itself is "computationally infeasible" so 1700 bit would require some commitment I reckon. anyways, the puzzle would be good jigsaw to put on the wall once the solution is eventually made public :D

the puzzle has a healthy bounty of 2mn USD after which one doesn't need to work much I reckon. However, it would be nice to get the money in advance so that I can put my life on hold to solve the puzzle in the first place :D