Programmer solves 20-year-old cryptographic puzzle

A cryptographic puzzle designed by Ron Rivest back in 1999 has been prematurely solved by a self-taught Belgian programmer named Bernard Fabrot.

The puzzle was actually a part of a time capsule which wasn’t meant to be opened for another 35 years - as that was the amount of time estimated to crack the puzzle, Wired reported. Fabrot used his home desktop and took three-and-a-half years to solve the puzzle.

The puzzle involved finding the number that results from running a squaring operation nearly 80 trillion times and multiple mathematical operations as per instructions to arrive at a number that can be translated into a short congratulatory phrase. The phrase will be revealed at the opening of the time capsule on May 15.