Topic: ARG Puzzle with 3.5 BTC Private Key Prize, Game Over - page 10. (Read 99417 times)

Now that this is over I wanted to remind people that there's a treasure hunt at mathgate.info:
http://mathgate.info/treasurehunt.php
There are a lot of treasures ranging from 1 mbit to 1 bitcoin, so it's less winner-take-all.

I know a lot of people worked very hard on this puzzle and are disappointed that they didn't get the treasure, or even part of it. I thought of a way to alleviate this a little while also helping me out with a little market research as well.

It's clear to me from this monster thread that the idea of a treasure hunt that leads to a bitcoin private key can be a popular idea. This is also what's happening at mathgate.info, but the "search" simply involves finding a certain formal mathematical proof. I'm happy for the OP that her treasure hunt went so well, but I'm wondering why there's not more action in the mathgate.info treasure hunt. It seems to me that you are the people to ask.

I have 0.4 bitcoins to give away. The first 4 users who have at least 3 posts in this thread will get 0.1 bitcoins if you post a reason that you are not taking part in the mathgate.info treasure hunt. (If you are taking part in the mathgate.info treasure hunt, then you've probably already found 0.1 bitcoins there anyway.) I'll skip responses that are clearly intended as jokes. It's the first 4 users with reasonable responses that will get 0.1 bitcoins each.

I have 0.4 bitcoins to give away. The first 4 users who have at least 3 posts in this thread will get 0.1 bitcoins if you post a reason that you are not taking part in the mathgate.info treasure hunt. (If you are taking part in the mathgate.info treasure hunt, then you've probably already found 0.1 bitcoins there anyway.) I'll skip responses that are clearly intended as jokes. It's the first 4 users with reasonable responses that will get 0.1 bitcoins each.

Now that this is over I wanted to remind people that there's a treasure hunt at mathgate.info:
http://mathgate.info/treasurehunt.php
There are a lot of treasures ranging from 1 mbit to 1 bitcoin, so it's less winner-take-all.

I know a lot of people worked very hard on this puzzle and are disappointed that they didn't get the treasure, or even part of it. I thought of a way to alleviate this a little while also helping me out with a little market research as well.

It's clear to me from this monster thread that the idea of a treasure hunt that leads to a bitcoin private key can be a popular idea. This is also what's happening at mathgate.info, but the "search" simply involves finding a certain formal mathematical proof. I'm happy for the OP that her treasure hunt went so well, but I'm wondering why there's not more action in the mathgate.info treasure hunt. It seems to me that you are the people to ask.

I have 0.4 bitcoins to give away. The first 4 users who have at least 3 posts in this thread will get 0.1 bitcoins if you post a reason that you are not taking part in the mathgate.info treasure hunt. (If you are taking part in the mathgate.info treasure hunt, then you've probably already found 0.1 bitcoins there anyway.) I'll skip responses that are clearly intended as jokes. It's the first 4 users with reasonable responses that will get 0.1 bitcoins each.

Now that this is over I wanted to remind people that there's a treasure hunt at mathgate.info:
http://mathgate.info/treasurehunt.php
There are a lot of treasures ranging from 1 mbit to 1 bitcoin, so it's less winner-take-all.

I know a lot of people worked very hard on this puzzle and are disappointed that they didn't get the treasure, or even part of it. I thought of a way to alleviate this a little while also helping me out with a little market research as well.

It's clear to me from this monster thread that the idea of a treasure hunt that leads to a bitcoin private key can be a popular idea. This is also what's happening at mathgate.info, but the "search" simply involves finding a certain formal mathematical proof. I'm happy for the OP that her treasure hunt went so well, but I'm wondering why there's not more action in the mathgate.info treasure hunt. It seems to me that you are the people to ask.

I have 0.4 bitcoins to give away. The first 4 users who have at least 3 posts in this thread will get 0.1 bitcoins if you post a reason that you are not taking part in the mathgate.info treasure hunt. (If you are taking part in the mathgate.info treasure hunt, then you've probably already found 0.1 bitcoins there anyway.) I'll skip responses that are clearly intended as jokes. It's the first 4 users with reasonable responses that will get 0.1 bitcoins each.

Now that this is over I wanted to remind people that there's a treasure hunt at mathgate.info:
http://mathgate.info/treasurehunt.php
There are a lot of treasures ranging from 1 mbit to 1 bitcoin, so it's less winner-take-all.

I know a lot of people worked very hard on this puzzle and are disappointed that they didn't get the treasure, or even part of it. I thought of a way to alleviate this a little while also helping me out with a little market research as well.

It's clear to me from this monster thread that the idea of a treasure hunt that leads to a bitcoin private key can be a popular idea. This is also what's happening at mathgate.info, but the "search" simply involves finding a certain formal mathematical proof. I'm happy for the OP that her treasure hunt went so well, but I'm wondering why there's not more action in the mathgate.info treasure hunt. It seems to me that you are the people to ask.

I have 0.4 bitcoins to give away. The first 4 users who have at least 3 posts in this thread will get 0.1 bitcoins if you post a reason that you are not taking part in the mathgate.info treasure hunt. (If you are taking part in the mathgate.info treasure hunt, then you've probably already found 0.1 bitcoins there anyway.) I'll skip responses that are clearly intended as jokes. It's the first 4 users with reasonable responses that will get 0.1 bitcoins each.

Well that's an underwhelming solution.

IMO, OP made an error in the string then fixed it with hints. There was nothing in the puzzle to indicate that we should make that one letter uppercase. I was expecting an error might to happen during a step or two along the way due to complexity of some of the puzzles... but for us to get an error in the string that led to the private key? Wow indeed.

Several of us would have had this within an hour of it being posted if it had been correct. I used the correct cypher shifts (and a lot of wrong ones), I just didn't magically intuit to make one letter upper case.

All that said, I had a lot of fun during most of the run. It's had its ups and downs, but mostly ups.

See you on the flip side.

It makes no sense to fucking anybody that wasn't force fed the solution by the OP.

You get "6EQUJ5", turn it into integers using the pattern in Crops.jpg.


You change the w to a W in the string (who the would have thought of that?)


You shift the key in Wow.jpg by the numbers sequentially, looping once you run out

Actually she did. The OP posted a picture that said "DO NOT BRUTE FORCE" as one of the rules of the ARG so it's pretty insufferable to make brute forcing one of the key goals of a task.

Well I hope one of the savants at Unfiction solved it as punishment for this not being a real ARG (they said that when I linked this topic in #unfiction). I look forward to the next bullshit bitcoin "game" that nobody but savants can solve.

So we should have used brute-capitalization-of-ws?
I think the shifting over the 2nd string was clever, but the wW thing... disappointing i must say.
Lame end but nice journey.

Anyway i want to thank OP for these 2 intense weeks, and all the others that joined this adventure from the beginning.
I learned a lot and met a lot of very skilled people who i would definitely help in a next time.
Congratulations to the winner, whoever it was.


EDIT: got a weird response signal from outer space, done the usual: binary, morse, 2xsha, wW fix, and... it's another link to Again.7z.

Yes, but we've had the explicit information to NOT brute force it.

Love, sidekick.