Topic: Bitcoin Quest - a brain twister, by solving it you get bitcoins! - page 3. (Read 912 times)

Quest will begin on April 26.

Is it possible to do a survey here? Will you participate in the quest?

Yes Im on it. What is the message I should sign using taht address? This may take up to 12 hrs.


There are no SEEDs hidden in the main quest pic right now. You can tratin yourself to find some seeds using the old pic from my old quest.

https://bitcoin-quest.com/Bitnovosti2017.jpg

Considering that the reward is not escrowed, a signed message can somewhat ease skeptic members's doubts of the legitimacy of your project.

Just add something like this in the OP and you're good.

I haven't spent a lot of time on this picture, but I have to say the words are well hidden. 5 min of scanning from side to side and I haven't been able to find a single one (not counting those that are huge or not full English words). I hope that we aren't supposed to use some photoshop filters and such to reveal the text written somewhere in different shades of black.
Anyway, I have to find my early drawings when I was in primary school because I used to draw similar apocalyptic scenes. Of course not as detailed, but the main theme was almost identical.

Yes I can sign a message using that address, but why? As for the picture, whats your price?

There are already words in the picture, were those for misguidance?
An Automated software can't be tricked by that.

Yes but, it's better if you/team can provide a signed message to 1NnAYGJhppSNNeRhRpTgyiKVyacRec8PTf address (for verification purposes).

The painting looks well detailed, someone will pay big bucks for a framed original version of that image, but not me.

Why wouldn't someone do it? it takes literally 3 lines of code to get the difference image:
-read image1
-read image2
-result = (image1 - image2) > 20
this will result in a binary image (black/white) for all pixels that have difference higher than 20.

As for changing colors, it's a fine solution, if the color transformation is non-linear, otherwise it'll be possible to revert the image back easily.


Exactly, the delta image is a valid attack this time only because he shared the original image.

If you're concerned with that delta image thing, then don't share the original image anymore and just give the image with seed words on the exact date of the quest. Since you're sharing the original image on the site which is supposedly for the 26th of April, you need to change it with a totally different image (with seeds already) on the 26th so you will not worry if someone prepared about that pixel change.

You think someone will do this? And what if change colors of the picture?

My original concern is about locating the location of characters, reading the characters is then a minor problem that doesn't have to be automated. Even if they're captcha style, once you know the location you can type them in manually.
Kindly see my previous post to see how someone with some simple code (available online) can do this.

Assuming your 12 words in the picture are actually expressed in a way that resembles captchas, Severos concerns - while are plausible and valid - are not likely in this specific scenario so I wouldn't worry too much.  Software would be pretty useless because not only are captcha solvers way less than 100%, they are terrible at finding captcha riddles in the first place in non-discreet contexts.  And I doubt anyone would bring out the big-gun NSA image analyzers for 500$USD of bitcoin.   However, if your words are plain text  then yes - someone with software will be the winner and it will happen minutes after you open it.

The delta thing is simply the technique that would be used to shorten any processing time you might try to introduce by changing the image at the last minute.

Hope this helps,

I'm not sure they call it delta image in literature, but here's a brief explanation of it:

An image is essentially an array of pixels, each pixel is a vector of numbers that represent the Red/Blue/Green (RBG) components (or any other representation format).
I have the current image that you uploaded without the characters, when you upload the new image, I'll download it and now I have 2 images, subtract the values in each pixel in image 1 from the values of the corresponding pixel in image 2, now you have an image (array of pixels) that contains the difference between the 2 images, so you can see exactly which pixels were modified.
Pixels with low modified values (that can't be distinguished by human eye) can be zeroed out to reduce the "noise" of the image, this results in an image with only pixels that have significant change between the 2 images, all that's needed is to run some algorithm to detect those small characters locations (group of neighbor pixels)
-Drop any group with small number of pixels (ex: drop all groups with less than 9 pixels since you can't possibly write a character with them), so far the user only knows the location of the characters and can inspect them visually to extract the seed. This process can also be automated by simply adding another component that takes those pixel groups and perform character recognition algorithm on it.

That is how I'd go around scripting this contest, but I'm just an amateur in this and have used the naive approach, pretty sure anyone with decent knowledge in image processing can do much better job and explain in better technical details on how this is carried.

However, it's not impossible to defend against those "attacks", I have couple ideas that I'll PM you about (so others won't be prepared for them), as I said I'm not a professional so it's given that my defenses are week and will only stall algorithms. Also, the resulting image will loos some quality (due to changed pixels).

I'm afraid it's the first time I've heard about MFC, I'll make sure to read about it.

Wow man,

Can you please specify this delta image thing? I really want to make everything as honest as possible. I can reward you with MFC currency if you have a wallet for this tip.

I really don't think this is a fair competition to be honest, specially that you've announced it this early.
Why? because someone out there is writing AI code that does character recognition in images and will sweep the whole thing within couple minutes.
Even without it, since you've posted the image without the modifications, it's possible to create a delta-image (difference between 2 images) using the current image and the one after adding characters which will reduce the amount of lookup to do.

Don't get me wrong, the idea is awesome in theory, but in practice it's hard to implement in a fair way.

Even though some people already do similar things, it's great to see someone make a dedicated website and even got a sponsor. I'll try this quest later when i have time.

Our service RatesGuru is general sponsor of this contest.

Good LUUUCK!

I’m an artist and journalist who likes to draw, and want to unite two of my great passions: art and bitcoin. That’s where the idea of “Bitcoin Quest” appeared. It’s a competition where I draw pictures with hidden bitcoin wallet seeds in them, and you keep whatever BTC you find. Sound like fun? Try it out and play for keeps!

http://bitcoin-quest.com/BitcoinQuest.jpg

What’s a seed? It’s that string of 12 or so words many bitcoin wallets use to generate their keys. If you have the seed phrase, you have the wallet, and its BTC. The words to the seed phrases will be hidden in the picture. Find the words, figure out the seeds, check if you’re correct by entering them into a wallet app, and the BTC in them is yours.

There aren’t any words hidden in the picture yet. I’ll add them in later and make an official update.

You’ll be able to see exactly how much money is going into the main prize fund — isn’t Bitcoin’s public ledger great for transparency?
https://blockchain.info/address/1NnAYGJhppSNNeRhRpTgyiKVyacRec8PTf

[Update April 10th, 2018]: A gracious sponsor: Exchange analyzer Rates.Guru, has just contributed to the quest, bringing the current prize fund to $500 USD worth of bitcoin. Subscribe and be the first to join the seed search at the end of April! Currently I plan to add ten of the seeds to the picture, holding $50 each.

The quest date is 26th of April.

Alongside the seed competition, an auction will take place to sell the artwork itself — if it succeeds, half the money earned will go towards the prize fund. Investors can add money to the quest fund and appear in a special section of the site, as well as within the quest page.

I welcome you to join this outstanding event!

bitcoin-quest.com

Press:
https://bitsonline.com/bitcoin-quest-picture-contest

Russian Bits.Media Forum:
https://forum.bits.media/index.php?/topic/81546-oтгaдывaй-cиды-пoлyчaй-биткoйны-пpизoвoй-фoнд-500-usd/

For participating:

• Please, install the Electrum wallet onto your computer (I do not reccomend you to use a mobile version of the wallet, because it has been created not so long ago and has some performance issues on weak phones);
  
  Create a new Wallet (aka new wallet account) and then write the given SEED on a paper (if this is your first experience with this wallet, don’t worry — you have a chance to learn how to use the SEED and see for yourself their true destination and how they work);
  
  Copy one of the addresses given by the wallet into a separate text file.
  
  For now, this is it. If you experience troubles with this particular wallet, which is highly questionable to happen, please, use search in order to find more info or just don’t hesitate to write your questions to my e-mail.

 Next:

• Press the left mouse button on the quest-picture, which you’ll find within the special page on the quest date, its 26 of April. In the newly opened tab there will be a full-resolution JPG image (just wait for a bit while it loads)
  
  Press the right mouse button on it and choose ”Save picture as…”, your PC will prompt to save the file somewhere on your hard drive;
  
  open the picture using Krita, Photoshop, GIMP, MyPaint and similar ”professional” analogues of such software (you can try other ones but they can be laggy with that large JPGs)
  
  Use zoom (Ctrl + or Ctrl and the mouse wheel) to search for words;
  
  Every first word of every SEED has a ”N1” mark somewhere around;
  
  Every last word of every SEED has a STAR mark somewhere around;
  
  The picture may contain more than 120 words;
  
  By zooming the picture to the appropriate ”depth”, you can observe ”arrows”, they point the direction to where you should look for the next SEED word;
  
  Such arrows can be of a different shape and size, be a part of the surrounding scene or contrast with it;
  
  Some arrows are not so easy to find, so be attentive and patient;
  
  Sometimes other tips are used instead of the arrows. For instance, some words are marked ”X2” which means such word is a part of two separate seeds and you should choose your path carefully.

The amount and the size of the one each prize depends on the quest fund. Anyone can become the sponsor and appear within the quest picture and here on the site. You can discuss the terms with us via e-mail (at the bottom of the site).

The next quest starts at the end of April. If you would like to get a notification 24 hours before the quest begins, please, sign up.

Also dont join our private Telegram group:
https://t.me/joinchat/BsRpRg9QzKqmCOhH16LYOA