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Topic: ARG Puzzle with 3.5 BTC Private Key Prize, Game Over - page 10. (Read 99503 times)

full member
Activity: 183
Merit: 100
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 am not taking part because I was unaware that it was happening.

Edit: I clicked on the link and my eyes exploded. Add that to the list of reasons I'm not participating.
newbie
Activity: 28
Merit: 0
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'm not taking part because I wasn't aware of it, nor do I have the energy at 4am to do anything other than say blerg. Blerg.

I had a lot of fun here. And I do enjoy thought experiments Smiley

Time to move on and get some sleep!
newbie
Activity: 18
Merit: 0
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 generally enjoy the mathematical problems, but the site is just a pain to navigate through. It gives me a bad impression.

-erik
newbie
Activity: 5
Merit: 0
I'm not taking part because the math lingo is too intimidating.

address: 187dAwrLyuaoVHG7aTk6zjNRi3f8xVMH2j
newbie
Activity: 14
Merit: 0
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 find the website in general isn't that well designed. It's difficult on my eyes to properly read the large amount of text displayed without them feeling strained due to how everything is formatted. Having yellow as a background doesn't help either. Navigating it properly as well isn't that easy either Sad.
legendary
Activity: 3038
Merit: 1032
RIP Mommy
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.


Not taking part because...

A child psychologist said I had a "genius" IQ when I was in elementary school (according to my mom; I have partial childhood amnesia), but I could not hack honors maths in middle school despite having spent the previous grade in GATE. After getting my only non-A up til then because of honors, I transferred to "regular math" second semester and stayed there until I graduated HS a year early (independent study) with 3.85 GPA. Was it the teacher? Despite him transferring to an alternative education school in the district the next year, I doubt it was his teaching style entirely; at least some of my peers got As, IIRC, and they weren't savants. My final independent study teacher specialized in math, and very patiently tutored me so I could legitimately score As (while other subjects required little to no discussion).

I opted out of any college degrees (with concomitant general ed requirements) in favor of certification, in part because I can't hack the most low-level college maths.

I took an online IQ test when I was in high school and got 126 (according to my saved text file from back then), but when it comes to maths, I feel retarded.
member
Activity: 72
Merit: 10
Well for those of us who worked day and night, whether we unlocked something or not.


In case of generosity, Break Glass [ 1FfgWkzXHiCJ7k6HxuzK7Uu85PX3WThPFV ]
member
Activity: 75
Merit: 10

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.

I agree.  It looks like an error to me.  I think the puzzle should be solvable without the lowercase to uppercase clue.  In any case, we can all sleep now.
member
Activity: 112
Merit: 10

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.

Code:
6EQUJ5 = (decoded) = 6,14,26,30,19,5

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

Code:
z69JZqlJn862D1ndx7oLVEMmVOlP1ze[W]EeUCrsI7Roahzpeny7P

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

Code:
5KZnsvrXDcP7JFD7GCuZvifrbcBtK4kAe8nHx6ibktgvPJxs4Lp

...

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.
legendary
Activity: 3038
Merit: 1032
RIP Mommy
Remember, non-savants, whenever you play a bitcoin "game"...
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=the+cake+is+a+lie




member
Activity: 86
Merit: 10
Yes, but we've had the explicit information to NOT brute force it.

I don't remember seeing explicit OP info not to, just a post or two about a general rule. I stopped myself a few times because of those postings... error on my part Wink

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.



Ahh thanks. I saw this a few days late.
sr. member
Activity: 644
Merit: 250
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.

gatekeeper solved it! (thats what everyone says)
legendary
Activity: 3038
Merit: 1032
RIP Mommy
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.
sr. member
Activity: 644
Merit: 250
So we should have used brute-capitalization-of-ws? Sad
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.

next time with some reverse engeneering please!  Grin
sr. member
Activity: 345
Merit: 500
So we should have used brute-capitalization-of-ws? Sad
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.

EDIT2: the W thing was a fix for a mistake. Could have ended up much worse or not at all. I would have done it all again, no regrets.
hero member
Activity: 854
Merit: 500
Nope..
When does the next one start?   Grin
newbie
Activity: 22
Merit: 0
Great, the last hint I needed dropped when my time zone sleeps.

Good game everybody, I hope you had as much fun as I did.
member
Activity: 86
Merit: 10
Yes, but we've had the explicit information to NOT brute force it.

I don't remember seeing explicit OP info not to, just a post or two about a general rule. I stopped myself a few times because of those postings... error on my part Wink

I was just bummed to find that the posters (me included) were all stuck until a clue from the OP. This happened a few times. Maybe he/she just wanted to be involved throughout the hunt. I get it I guess.

At any rate, it was fun to think through for the most part. As far as I know this is the OP's first puzzle like this? At least I can archive this directory and move on with my life Wink
sr. member
Activity: 644
Merit: 250
@gatekeeper you better would have hide your 1500BTC

why didnt you transfered it into some empty wallet?

how solve that puzzle?  Grin
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