The sibling comments are all correct that you're special-pleading the criterion that a puzzle create something of value.
But, as it happens, this one does: it offers economic incentive to develop more efficient attacks on elliptic curves. The curve Bitcoin uses isn't widely used outside of it, but that doesn't mean that an efficient attack on Secp256k1 wouldn't apply elsewhere.
Is this modest as positive externalities go? Probably yes. Could someone with a better attack on the curve just empty wallets? Not necessarily, and probably not: the point of the puzzle is that the entropy has been deliberately reduced to make it crackable with brute force, so, say someone worked out a factor of four improvement: that isn't going to get you into the Genesis Wallet, but it substantially lowers the price of claiming some of the puzzles.
Also, being a cryptographer and being a thief are unrelated professions. Some people might be inclined to both, but I would guess that most are not.
But, as it happens, this one does: it offers economic incentive to develop more efficient attacks on elliptic curves. The curve Bitcoin uses isn't widely used outside of it, but that doesn't mean that an efficient attack on Secp256k1 wouldn't apply elsewhere.
Is this modest as positive externalities go? Probably yes. Could someone with a better attack on the curve just empty wallets? Not necessarily, and probably not: the point of the puzzle is that the entropy has been deliberately reduced to make it crackable with brute force, so, say someone worked out a factor of four improvement: that isn't going to get you into the Genesis Wallet, but it substantially lowers the price of claiming some of the puzzles.
Also, being a cryptographer and being a thief are unrelated professions. Some people might be inclined to both, but I would guess that most are not.