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Topic: ARG Puzzle with 3.5 BTC Private Key Prize, Game Over - page 69. (Read 99514 times)

hero member
Activity: 1582
Merit: 502
IMHO this means OP concluded she messed-up something, probably being slightly vague with 'Hint.jpg'. I think we concluded too few things from the 'Bit Sha' phrase and she is going to give us some hint what does it refer to. Actually, we concluded 0 things from it, with everybody concentrating on the 7:51 part. My gut feeling it has something to do with cryptography. If you look at the retrospect we had used no knowledge of cryptography, which is a bit odd for a Bitcoin-related puzzle.

I don't think OP messed anything up.

I will agree with this.

Maybe she thought it was easy enough for us to find so didn't give more clues, so now she has to think of something... Huh

member
Activity: 112
Merit: 10
Nothing new, but more tips for image fun:

The tiled background is 200x200. Create a duplicate layer then making it a "difference" with the underlying layer. shift it sideways or vertically by 200 px at a time, and you'll see some interesting stuff, all of which has already been posted here. zzzz.

Hmmm...If you shift characters in 'bit' back one position and reverse, you get 'sha'.

huh, cool!
member
Activity: 75
Merit: 10
Hmmm...If you shift characters in 'bit' back one position and reverse, you get 'sha'.


abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
 1      2          3
6      5          4
member
Activity: 72
Merit: 10
Pixel by pixel analysis of the Hint image shows only one oddball. pixel 11 down, 29 across, is red. No other pixel in this image matches that color.

Other than that. I'm like a tree cut down. Stumped.
hero member
Activity: 854
Merit: 500
Nope..
Just out of dumb curiosity, what time is "tea" time in the UK?  I can't help but think of the damn cat staring at the "clock" (time) and I can't move beyond it.
member
Activity: 75
Merit: 10
If you flip the image (unmodified) horizontally, you can see there are two or three rows of what look like letters and numbers.

To me, the top row looks like B 5 B 5 B 5 B (or maybe B 3 B 3 B 3 B)

I can't make out what the next two (or one) are.  

Anyone else see this?
sr. member
Activity: 585
Merit: 250
I think this is a stereogram.
I saw how the background repeated so I assumed it was a stereogram. I can't see a 3D image though, only a flat wall. But, I think the blue face spells out something.
It looks like 2919 or something. Actually, the eyes look a bit like two two's.

I'm not so sure about the stereogram idea.  The fact that a full image was behind the pattern would suggest to me that it couldn't be a stereogram (also i did just try crossing my eyes at it and nothing stood out) The overlaid pattern image seems to repeat itself perfectly so I would assume it is just the same image tiled..


EDIT:  I rotated the image on it's side then ran it through http://magiceye.ecksdee.co.uk/  ... So, although it doesn't show anything 3d it did actually reveal the background image.  idk what to make of it!

EDIT 2: thinking about it more, if this was just a tiled pattern this stereograph solver would just completely remove the noise when it is doubled up as it has done.... So i'm still pretty sure it isnt a stereogram image.

Here is the outputted image. http://imgur.com/aXUBeFr

jr. member
Activity: 43
Merit: 10


Update 6/28:

Do not rely solely on Users for solves, double check solves for user errors: #checkuser404

OP made no mistakes.

Portrait is a "shared start point." Google is your friend.
 
confirmed:

- Public Address has been solved: 1HXUobwcB19cGDrghuh42HDdJdJvrJUEra

- Embedded morse code has been solved: "They cannot attack what they do not see"

Update 6/29

- Message decoder has been discovered.

Moving forward: old blockchain hints are no longer relevant.

Update 6/30

- Contra code has been solved.

- IP address has been discovered.

- Server has been accessed.

- MC QR code challenge has been solved.

- "Onion.7z" has been discovered and unlocked.

7/1

New hint will be released within 24 hrs

Wow! that was a huge price. But its so hard just like other promos out there.
Btw good luck to all of you guys.
legendary
Activity: 1540
Merit: 1001
Crypto since 2014
I think this is a stereogram.

I saw how the background repeated so I assumed it was a stereogram. I can't see a 3D image though, only a flat wall. But, I think the blue face spells out something.

It looks like 2919 or something. Actually, the eyes look a bit like two two's.

Almost half off topic: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-cjXmoPGH2uo/T1eRegLPAMI/AAAAAAAAFcw/nK26hAVL8Yo/s655/mona-lisa-ponte-buriano.jpg
sr. member
Activity: 585
Merit: 250
Ah ok... The riddle was also removed from the OP so I'd assume it was solved or no longer needed too!  I guess we will just have to live with no clues until tomorrow!  

Looking at the bridge theory it is pretty clear you are on to something.  

I was thinking the only way you could get that curved stone arch (the bit that looks like a smile) to appear above the two smaller arches and the correct way up is if you have printed the image on both sides of a sheet of paper and fold it in a specific way.   Maybe someone wants to play with that idea.



EDIT: Same poster also mentioned stone henge.. I had also thought about this.  Stone henge has some significance with summer/winter solstice, ie longest/shortest day of the year... and as someone else already pointed out, week 51, day 7 is 21st December which could be what the 7:51 signifies .
hero member
Activity: 854
Merit: 500
Nope..
Page 50 - 51...

member
Activity: 112
Merit: 10
Going way back here.... I never understood how the clue 'Contra' related the link [Suspicious link removed]/mindthecraft  , can someone explain that one to me or is Contra still a clue?

I think we short-circuited the solution of that one. The solver said something like "I removed the yellow letters and dots and then figured out an anagram." It's been the only unsatisfying step of the puzzle, IMO.

edit: Here's a guess. The famous konami cheat code (used in the game Contra) is a directional sequence followed by B-A. The letters that the solver removed are B and A. So that might have been the idea behind the Contra clue.

Quote
What about the minecraft riddle? Did it get solved?

We found the QR code inside the minecraft server. Not sure if there was any sort of used solution to the clue/riddle that OP had posted.
hero member
Activity: 854
Merit: 500
Nope..


Look in the background.
sr. member
Activity: 358
Merit: 250
not sure exactly what Contra meant but op stated in update: - Contra code has been solved.
so i think that part is done and dusted
sr. member
Activity: 585
Merit: 250

now google for pictures like: "stone arch bridge art paint"



I think you have a point there...That seems like a likely possibility if the image needs folded.


Going way back here.... I never understood how the clue 'Contra' related the link bit.ly/mindthecraft  , can someone explain that one to me or is Contra still a clue?

Also continuing on the theme of confusion, I don't really get if the previous clues are still active, like should we keep other clues relating to minecraft and just the general old game clues active, or forget about them?

What about the minecraft riddle? Did it get solved?
sr. member
Activity: 644
Merit: 250
if i watch all this pictures....




















now google for pictures like: "stone arch bridge art paint"

https://www.google.at/search?q=stone+bridge+art&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=22WzU7-yM8bLPfXAgPgI&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=709#q=stone+arch+bridge+art+paint&tbm=isch









so for me the picture looks like some stone bridge painted by some artist...
maybe the name of the artist of the picture sha(artist name) could by the key?


i was not able to find the right picture till now... but i have to sleep now... maybe someone have better ideas...
but seems nobody tought about the idea of some stone bridge art pictures or something simmilar...?


but maybe its not a bridge, maybe its just 3 big stones and some little stones but arround... some art like stonehange or something like that?
anyway.. i did not found any matching pictures till now.


i go to sleep now...
sr. member
Activity: 345
Merit: 500
On the bottom right corner there is some handwritten text. We can read "artist" and something a bit longer undeneath... can't figure it out.
member
Activity: 112
Merit: 10
IMHO this means OP concluded she messed-up something, probably being slightly vague with 'Hint.jpg'. I think we concluded too few things from the 'Bit Sha' phrase and she is going to give us some hint what does it refer to. Actually, we concluded 0 things from it, with everybody concentrating on the 7:51 part. My gut feeling it has something to do with cryptography. If you look at the retrospect we had used no knowledge of cryptography, which is a bit odd for a Bitcoin-related puzzle.

I don't think OP messed anything up. She only gave hints on the morse code section, which was correct but nobody figured it out for a while. We made steady progress from then until this step, and now that we're stuck here, it looks like a hint might be in order. Also, I suspect that a lot of the speculation going around about this step is totally off-base (e.g., anything having to do with Alice in Wonderland and the Matrix), so another hint will hopefully redirect us.

I wouldn't be surprised if the answer to this next step is something cryptographic, especially since "Sha" is in our data set, although we also ought to take a look at more exhaustive image analysis. As I've said before, CYMK and LAB colorspace analysis are both promising.

There's something geometrically recurring in the image itself. Do the following in PS or GIMP: duplicate the layer then set the top layer to "divide". It should go black. Then flip the upper layer horizontally, and you'll get a crazy fractalesque thing. Decomposing that into component colors gives you some channels that look like Balinese machine elves. Not quite sure what to do with this information, but it demonstrates that Hint.jpg's background isn't random, it's a mathematically generated repeating pattern.

Here's one that might be a little out there. Let's take the image size, which is a weird size: 799x1039. The product of this is 830161. If you take that as an RGB value 83, 01, 61, you end up with a puce color that's similar to the overall color of Hint.jpg if you let your eyes cross and go fuzzy.
newbie
Activity: 14
Merit: 0
About first image. What if blue dot represents pattern inverse? For example, before it we grab all one color dots, and after it we must grab another color dots? What if stop word is not stop word? And are you see that if you mix up some colors?
See the OP's hints here: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.7458387
The original image is probably not relevant at this point- it was the starting point and we've moved away from it. The current clue is the image clearly named Hint.jpg.
Thank you.
full member
Activity: 194
Merit: 100
About first image. What if blue dot represents pattern inverse? For example, before it we grab all one color dots, and after it we must grab another color dots? What if stop word is not stop word? And are you see that if you mix up some colors?
See the OP's hints here: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.7458387
The original image is probably not relevant at this point- it was the starting point and we've moved away from it. The current clue is the image clearly named Hint.jpg.
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