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Contest details:
Total Prizes: 100 Waves.

The contest involves one main puzzle and 2 bonus challenges relating to the following graph:


The graph comprises arrows which indicate possible paths from Alpha to Beta (of which there are many.)

The main puzzle (Prize 60 Waves):
Given that YELLOW arrows allow travel at twice the speed of BLUE arrows, what are the odds (or what is the probability) that a randomly chosen path will be the fastest possible path from Alpha to Beta? UPDATE: This has been solved below

Bonus question 1 (Prize 20 Waves):
There are two additional iQ Puzzles embedded within the graph. The answer to both of the additional puzzles is the letter 'X'. What are those two puzzles?
UPDATE: This has been half solved on Page 2
UPDATE 2: The other half of this has been half solved on Page 4

Bonus question 2 (Prize 20 Waves):
In order to solve the main puzzle (i.e. this is a hint) you will need to calculate how many paths are possible from Alpha to Beta. This can be done by computer algorithm, a hand-calculation technique (i.e. you don't need to be a programmer to solve any part of this puzzle), or by mathematical formula.
The bonus question 2 prize will be awarded to the best mathematical formula that describes (in proper mathematical language/notation) how many paths are possible from Alpha to Beta.
UPDATE 2: No challenge to our best mathematical formula has been offered yet, so the current solution is looking good to win the 20 Waves for this prize.

UPDATE 3: Contest complete. Total prizes of 105 $Waves awarded to winners.

Provide your answer in a reply to this thread.
The contest will run for two weeks. At that end of that period, if still unsolved, the solution to the puzzle will be revealed and no further prizes will be awarded.
Significant contributions to a puzzle question that lead to the solution will be rewarded with a percentage of the prize for that question.
Winners will need to provide their Waves address to which payment of the prize will be made.

Link to the inaugural contest from last year for your interest:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2346692 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2346692)

Bonus question 1

Answer:

Q1 What letter is formed by the yellow arrows at an intersection? ->  "X"
Q2 How many "X" are formed by yellow arrows at intersections? -> "X" (X is 10 in romanian, beacause there are ten "X", see picture)

picture:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dqszotyihy79p0a/2.png?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/dqszotyihy79p0a/2.png?dl=0)

Ha. Nice try, but no, that's neither of the puzzles required.
But the best answer offered within the two weeks, if no fully correct answer is given, will get a consolation prize.

Is it 2^16/2^27 to the first question? ~ 0.05%  :)

I'm afraid not.

I think answer should be (2^18)/(2^32)

The answer 0.0061%?   :P

Sorry, no.

Got it!
Answer is 120/435 = 27.59%

O! Фaк! Блин ;)

Right answer is 120/415 = 28.92% 

interesting. Let's try to solve  ??? ??? ???

bonus question 2:

415 paths are possbile

Main Question:

120/415 = 0.289 -> 28.9 %

Bonus question 1:
- Maximum of yellow arrows that could be used in the Q zone is 10 => X in roman numeral.

The chance a random path is the fastest path is 31/64 or 48,4375%

Variant: optimized path is 10 blue arrows + 10 yellow arrows = X + X

This answer is correct for the main puzzle!
Please describe your method.

Correct, but Vlad_r beat you to it. What method did you use?

And send me your Waves address.

There is no correct answer for the bonus questions yet. The prize for these will double if they are not solved in the first week.

Too late for this one  :(
The first is not so hard with an algorithm. Just evaluate the total amount of paths and after that how many are the fastest travel: 10 blues (which means X in roman) + 12 yellows (which means X + 2 lines that can create another X)  ;D ;D ;D
I don't have much time right now, but I'll try to think about a matemathical solucion later

I've been thinking a bit about Question 1, but no big concern yet  ;D

I'm interest this. The bonus questions were written not to be resolved, but which ones have not been resolved from these puzzles?

There has been no correct response to the two bonus questions yet.

Ae!!! I was right ;D

As for the method, I used simply a hand-calculation technique.
You put a number of routes (how you can get there) to each intersection, starting from alpha. Every time two routes cross, you sum the number of routes that crossed to get the value. You repeat this exercise until you'll get to the beta. It follows that the exact number of routes that lead to the beta was 415

Then you need to find a number of fastest routes, as the value you are looking for is "the chance that a randomly selected path will be the fastest one" - which is simply the number of fastest routes divided by the total number of routes. You find the fastest routes by erasing all slow paths and then repeating technique you used to find the total number of routes. It appeared to be, that there are 120 fastest routes.

120/415 = 28.92%

As for mathematical formula...
I found that there exists a Critical path method, but there is no formula related to this method (or I just haven't found it).
I remember that in school in informatics class, we solved puzzles like this one manually.

In my opinion, the algorithm should look like this:
1. Starting from the left and moving to the right, column by column.
2. You attribute a number 1 to the starting nod (one way to get here), every arrow that starts from the starting nod gets the same value as the starting nod (1)
3. Every arrow transfers the value from the nod it started with to the nod it ends with. It follows, that if there was a "split" and two arrows start from the same nod - they both will transfer the value of the starting nod to the end nods of each arrow.
4. If two arrows transfer values to the same nod - these values are summed (as there are X + Y paths which lead to this nod). Following this logic, arrows that start from that nod will further transfer value of the nod (X+Y). 

My Waves, please...   8)

I have no idea how to solve the 1st bonus question, but I know that:

- X is 10 in Roman numerals
- X is 24th letter of English alphabet
- X is the form of two arrows that cross and then split, which gives us 2 arrows transferring value of 2 (if it helps)

If we divide 24 by 2 and multiply by 10 we get 120 - the exact number of right routes in the puzzle  ???

OMG. X was the answer!!!

60 Waves are on their way to the address you PMd me.

Well done on the solution. Next time it'll be harder!

Now, onto the more cryptic puzzles of Bonus Question 1...

Nice try, but that is not the answer.

That requires too much knowledge that X is the answer.

The additional puzzles require no knowledge that X is that answer, but lead directly to the answer 'X'.

Welcome back. I know you were the winner of the first contest in November and have done some mining on iQCash.net.

There was just a little bump up in buy price for iQCash on Waves DEX, so if you had placed a sell order, you may have got yourself a few Waves there!

Received 60 Waves. Thanks!

first of all i like your project. i do a lot of mining on your site. why do you have no official ann thread to bring all news there on one place? another idea, pay a monthly bonus of waves or tokens to the top 10 of you best miner or make another monthly list with best miner for the bonus. maybe the bonus brings new people to the project and they start mining. i think this would be better than to give away 100 waves for celebrate 100.000 puzzle. its a great milestone, yes, but with this promo you support not the people how have support the project with mining.
for all my solved puzzel i get less than 1 waves token and here you give away 100 waves for one puzzle. sad. anyway, i still support your project, but maybe you should support more your miners.

Thanks for your efforts.

We started an announcement thread here, but interest and traffic was extremely low. A lot of threads are pumped by 'bot' farms, so as a means of building awareness, it is a poor strategy. And there really haven't been many announcements to make yet. That may change soon. We've just opened a Telegram channel (http://t.me/iQCash) and will see how that goes in terms of making announcements and connecting with users. Eventually, we may simply end up hosting a forum for such things at iQCash.net itself.

If you've mined thousands of iQCash, I'd suggest you hold onto a percentage of them and not sell them all. The limited supply and increasing difficulty should see the price rise - hopefully to well above the price of Waves!  In fact, as a result of this contest, which is a form of marketing, the sale price of iQCash on Waves DEX has (at least temporarily) risen higher, which should help all miners.

The contests will occur occasionally and will be significantly more difficult than the mining puzzles for some time to come. (It may take a while to get the balance right though.) And this particular contest is not yet over, so the solution may still take the winner several days worth of effort to fully solve. You could still be the one to solve the bonus question! Your experience with the iQ Puzzles on iQCash may give you special insight into the solution (hint hint.) Plus, it is a contest - which adds pressure. Mining is not a contest and so suits different people at different times.

The question as to whether to award extra tokens for reaching a milestone for any particular miner is a tricky one. Definitely no extra iQCash can be awarded in this way. Every iQCash will be awarded for completion of a particular mining task. And only one for every solved puzzle. Awarding Waves as bonuses or other kinds of airdrops are unlikely also. In principle, the rewards should only be from the mining.

However, there are plans to reward the miners over time in other ways. Just one example, a 'contest' that will specifically reward multiple miners that is planned for later this year will be a good one for you. I won't give details, but experienced miners will be at an advantage over others.

We're still setting things up. This contest is the first awareness-builder since launch but we haven't officially started marketing yet.

So, if you have further questions, let's give the Telegram channel a go.

Bonus question 2:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3z0oea046e4ck08/2018-02-23%2018.15.00.jpg?dl=0

Bonus Question 1:

1. How many squares (formed by the arrows) are there in total in the graph (smaller and bigger ones)? -> 24 -> 24th letter of the alphabet = x

thank you sir for your reply and answers. you have explain all very good and i can understand you. then i'm curious, what else will come. i will continue my work and "mine" more tokens. hope for a bright future with iq cash.

That is correct for the first hidden puzzle. (That's won you 10 Waves.) There is still one more hidden puzzle that has the answer 'X'.

(Some would call the squares on an angle 'diamonds' but no issue there.)

There is a puzzle on iQCash.net called 'How many squares?' which is simple now but will become more complex as the rounds progress.

Congrats on this part of the bonus question!

Thank you very much! Doing my best to find the seconde question...

Bonus question 2:
How many of those 24 squares are made by color mixer (Blue + Yellow)? 10, which means X in Roman
The other 14 are just from single colors

Is that right?  ;D

In fact, it's the 2nd question from Bonus question 1

Bonus Question 2:

(I hope you can read it)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/iqijidhiwllapsb/solution.jpg?dl=0

Ha! That's clever but it's not the correct puzzle.

If it was a color mixer puzzle there would be distinct boundaries for each square.

But nice try!

Sorry, no. What we are looking for for bonus ques. 2 is a mathematical formula to describe as best as possible the calculation that you have performed.

The formula should be written with standard mathematical notation. e.g. f(x) = f(x_n-1) - xⁿ⁺¹

That's not the answer, and probably not even close, but just an example of the type of layout that is required.

Bonus Question 1:

How many arrows have to change colour that all paths have the same speed. -> 10 blue in the middle. 10 = X

Maybe the answer for Question 1 is:
How many hearts are there? I can find 10 and like I said before   10 = X

re Bonus Question 2:

the algo for the solution is kinda similar to how a NN (neural network) is built...

1. every column of nodes (not arrows) in the puzzle is a separate layer;
2. each layer consists of a number of nodes (n_i), so i-th layer has n_i nodes;
3. every node in i-th layer is connected to some nodes in layer i-1;
4. let T_i be the transformation matrix that describes how nodes from i-th layer are connected to nodes in layer i-1, T_i is size of (n_i*n_i-1);

a simple example:
 ↗  ↘  ↗  ↘
 ↘  ↗      ↗
     ↘  ↗
there are 4 layers - (layer 0 - the initial layer, containing only one node), layer 1 - contains 2 nodes, layer 2 - contains 2 nodes, layer 3 - contains 2 nodes and layer 4 - contains 1 node (final node);
if a j-th node in i-th layer is connected to a k-th node in layer i-1 you write 1 in place (j,k - j-th row, k-th column) of the T_i matrix, otherwise you write 0:
T₁ = [ 1; 1 ], of size (2x1) or (n₁*n₀);
T₂ = [ 1 1; 0 1 ], of size (2x2) or (n₂*n₁);
T₃ = [ 1 0; 0 1 ], of size (2x2) or (n₃*n₂);
T₄ = [ 1 1 ], of size (1x2) or (n₄*n₃);

5. let W_i be the vector that describes how many paths lead to every node in i-th layer, so W_i is size of (n_i*1);

now the formula:
W_i = T_i * W_i-1;    (1)
W₀ = [1];

considering there are 22 layers in the puzzle and 22 transformation matrices, the solution can be calculated by repeating (1) for each layer (column) in the puzzle, here is a pseudo-code:

W₀ = [1];
for (i = 1:22)
   W_i = T_i * W_i-1;
Answer = W₂₂;

or:
Answer == W₂₂ = T₂₂ * T₂₁ * T₂₀ * ... * T₁ * W₀;

and for my simple example:
W₀ = [1];
W₁ = T₁ * W₀ = [ 1; 1 ] * [1] = [ 1; 1];
W₂ = T₂ * W₁ = [ 1 1; 0 1 ] * [ 1; 1 ] = [ 2; 1];
W₃ = T₃ * W₂ = [ 1 0; 0 1 ] * [ 2; 1 ] = [ 2; 1];
W₄ = T₄ * W₃ = [ 1 1 ] * [ 2; 1 ] = [ 3 ];
answer - there are 3 paths

That's not the intended puzzle, but it does work as a puzzle, so I'll award a bonus prize for that one, either 5 Waves or 10 if no-one finds the other puzzle.

Well spotted. PM your Waves address!

Another nice try, but you'd have to include sideways hearts which look more like arrows, so this one doesn't quite make it.

(You'd also have to accept hearts with different proportions to total up to 10 too.)

Impressive. You're definitely in the lead for the 20 Waves for this question!

BTW I wrote all the T-matrices down so anyone can check that the algo is correct:

if you have matlab installed on your machine (you can also use octave-online.net (http://octave-online.net)) put this code into the command promt, W22 will be equal to 415:

T1 = [1; 1];
T2 = [1 0; 1 1; 0 1];
T3 = [1 0 0; 0 1 0; 0 0 1];
T4 = [1 0 0; 0 1 0; 0 0 1; 0 0 1];
T5 = [1 0 0 0; 1 0 0 0; 0 1 0 0; 0 1 1 0; 0 0 1 1; 0 0 0 1];
T6 = [1 1 0 0 0 0; 0 0 1 1 0 0; 0 0 0 1 1 0; 0 0 0 0 1 1];
T7 = [1 0 0 0; 0 1 0 0; 0 0 1 1];
T8 = [1 0 0; 1 0 0; 0 1 0; 0 0 1];
T9 = [1 0 0 0; 1 1 0 0; 0 1 1 0; 0 0 1 1; 0 0 0 1];
T10 = [1 0 0 0 0; 0 1 0 0 0; 0 1 1 0 0; 0 0 1 1 0; 0 0 0 1 0; 0 0 0 0 1];
T11 = [1 0 0 0 0 0; 0 1 0 0 0 0; 0 0 1 0 0 0; 0 0 0 1 0 0; 0 0 0 0 1 0; 0 0 0 0 0 1];
T12 = [1 1 0 0 0 0; 0 0 1 0 0 0; 0 0 0 1 0 0; 0 0 0 0 1 1];
T13 = [1 0 0 0; 1 0 0 0; 0 1 0 0; 0 0 1 0; 0 0 0 1; 0 0 0 1];
T14 = [1 1 0 0 0 0; 0 0 1 0 0 0; 0 0 0 1 0 0; 0 0 0 1 0 0; 0 0 0 0 1 1];
T15 = [1 0 0 0 0; 1 0 0 0 0; 0 1 0 0 0; 0 0 1 0 0; 0 0 0 1 1; 0 0 0 0 1];
T16 = [1 0 0 0 0 0; 0 1 0 0 0 0; 0 0 1 0 0 0; 0 0 0 1 0 0; 0 0 0 1 0 0; 0 0 0 0 1 1];
T17 = [1 0 0 0 0 0; 0 1 1 0 0 0; 0 0 1 1 0 0; 0 0 0 1 1 0; 0 0 0 0 1 0; 0 0 0 0 0 1];
T18 = [1 1 0 0 0 0; 0 1 1 0 0 0; 0 0 1 1 0 0; 0 0 0 1 1 0; 0 0 0 0 1 1];
T19 = [1 1 0 0 0; 0 0 1 0 0; 0 0 0 1 1];
T20 = [1 0 0; 0 1 0; 0 0 1];
T21 = [1 1 0; 0 1 1];
T22 = [1 1];

W22 = T22 * T21 * T20 * T19 * T18 * T17 * T16 * T15 * T14 * T13 * T12 * T11 * T10 * T9 * T8 * T7 * T6 * T5 * T4 * T3 * T2 * T1;

disp('TOTAL NUMBER OF PATHS LEADING TO BETA IS:');
disp(W22);

Bonus question 1:
How many diamonds can you find in the first big Waves Logo (smaller and bigger ones)?: 10 -> 10 = X

Unfortunately no. Hint: The last hidden puzzle doesn't use the Roman numeral for 10, so the number 10 is not your target!

That's awesome. You'll be a star at some of the later rounds of iQCash mining!

But then again, the progress of the puzzle rounds is intentionally educational, so there may be a lot of miners who have caught up by that time.

Bonus question 1:

How many steps are there from the beginning to the end if you also count in alpha and beta? -> 24 -> X

Nope. That's not it.

Another hint: It's related to one of the round 1 puzzle types on iQCash.net

it's not easy to solve the puzzle. i break my head all the time, which could be x. hope the next hint give me a new idea.

There are 25 yellow tiles, I don't think you misscounted them as 24, but that's really the only possible answer I can think of at the moment.

Nope.

Wow, that's a really hard one. I don't think I will solve this without another hint. I already spent way too much time looking at that graph  ??? ;D

what happened today? the solved puzzle doubled to over 200k in only 24 hours. impressive, but i hope that are not bots. this would be very unfair.

Yes, a bot just mined 80k iQCash!

We are implementing better countermeasures, but I think the battle has just begun.
Obviously, it feels like cheating and it feels very unfair, but in one sense it's not so bad: The individual had to to do some work to earn them - and the point of iQCash is that they're earned by a human doing intellectual work.
We'll just have to make absolute sure (with better countermeasures) that the amount of work required to earn them this way would be less attractive than actually doing the puzzles.
Hopefully the early rounds don't turn into a battle of bots, but if they do, it'll be limited to the first few rounds only. Later rounds will require more human comprehension and analysis.
A positive takeaway is that at least we're getting noticed...

After this contest is over, this thread may slide away, so you can follow the Telegram group for updates and discuss any issues:
t.me/iQCash

Just under a week to go. The prize for identifying the second hidden puzzle has doubled to 20 Waves.

Clue: It's based on one of the round 1 puzzles on iQCash.net, but it is not based on 'How many Squares?' (which was the first hidden puzzle) and it's not based on 'Color Squares' which was tried already, and it's obviously not based on Crossword puzzles or Word Ladder or Balance Scales.

Also, with no alternatives being presented, it's looking good for the only mathematical solution that was offered to win 20 Waves.

An elegant answer to bonus question 1

Bonus question 1 (Prize 20 Waves):
There are two additional iQ Puzzles embedded within the graph. The answer to both of the additional puzzles is the letter 'X'. What are those two puzzles?

There are two Waves logo figures hidden in the puzzle:
http://drive.google.com/open?id=0By6tjWQmYIKxT2FhTzhRNF9qekE

If you count the number of arrows in the first one, you will get 42; in the second Waves figure - 18 arrows.

Then, if you remember classic iQcash puzzle "Algebra", you can make up the following equation:
42 - X = 18
X - ?

Here X equals 24, which is the number of letter X in the English alphabet.  8)

That's pretty clever, but it's not it - technically the Waves logo has changed to a solid diamond, but if the puzzle isn't found this week, I'll award that 5 Waves.

So (clue) it's not based on the Algebra puzzle...

bonus question 1

i = 9
Q = 17

sequence:

0 -> 9 -> 17 -> ?
  +9    +8     +7

? = 24 -> X

Bonus Question 1

other possibility:

Number of Blue Diamonds * Number of Yellow Diamonds = Z

2 * 12 = Z

Z = 24

24 -> X

Correct!

It was based on the Sequence puzzle.

20 Waves for you pretty much ends the contest.

(But we'll wait till the end of the week to confirm no better mathematical representations.)

Congrats!

80k is very much. yes, i now what you mean, but it still feels unfair. anyway, i saw you implementing better contermeasures, hope this plan works and keeps the bots away. thank you for the telgram group, but i dont use telegram. i dont like messenger. thats why i like the idea of an official iq cash thread here in the forum.

last but not least congratulations to all winner of this 100k celebration puzzle.

Yes, Telegram is not for everyone. In the meantime, you could follow iQCash on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/iQCash (http://www.twitter.com/iQCash)

But we will eventually place another dedicated announcement thread on Bitcointalk.

For the next few months we will be doing two things:
1) Marketing to miners - because the more iQCash is distributed the better;
2) Developing version one of iQ+, which will be a new area on the iQCash web-site (separate from the mining) that will introduce an exciting use-case for iQCash.

That's when it may really be of interest to a wider audience in this forum. So, at that time, there will be a new announcement thread which will be dedicated to news and developments of iQCash.

The total prizes were for 120 Waves. (1 Waves is currently US$6.66)

The point was to bring attention to a token in a way that highlights what the token is about: You mine iQCash by solving iQ puzzles.

It's a fun crypto that allows anyone to start earning and get into cryptocurrencies easily - whether you have money or not.

i will try to follow IQCash on twitter and i'm really looking forward to the innovations and on a real ann thread here in the forum. that sounds very good. in the meantime i try to solve many puzzle.

My previous solution to the bonus question 2 was quite generic in terms that it can be used not only in puzzles where a single node has maximum of 2 connections, but also in cases where nodes have N connections to previous layer.

The contest puzzle can be solved faster/easier with the following algo. It is less "mathematical", but it can be easily transformed to code. Basically this algo is a representation of the steps provided by Vlad R.

1. The given puzzle is a matrix of arrows (A). It has 12 rows (n) and 22 columns (m). Each cell of A can take a value of: up (+1), down (-1) or null/empty (NA/0).
2. The puzzle also contains a matrix of nodes (P). It has 13 rows (n +1) and 23 columns (m + 1). Each cell of this matrix contains a value that represents the number of paths leading to this node.
3. Each cell in the very first column of P is eaqual to 1 representing the initial numer of paths (P_i,0 = 1).
4. Every other value of cell in P derives from the following formula:

    P_i,j = if(A_i,j-1 > 0; P_i+1,j-1) + if(A_i-1,j-1 < 0; P_i-1,j-1);
    *it's a bit simplified for better reading; in reality you have to check that values in A and P exist <=> indeces are non-negative (i and j >= 0)

5. That's it. The only value present in the last column will be the total number of paths leading to beta from alpha.


You can see the implementation of the algo here (excel file): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oYvlU0ko07NEE5G36cuYCGzhVcRo2b3Q/view?usp=sharing

Congrats.

I'm sure this comes as no surprise, but you are the winner of 20 Waves for the best solution to bonus question 2.

Please send me your Waves address and thanks for your great contribution!

Cheers.

Thanks!

Sent you a PM

Prize sent. Thanks.

Thanks to all participants for your efforts.

The contest is now closed. A total of 105 Waves were distributed to the winners. Congrats to all.

You can start mining iQCash right now at https://www.iQCash.net (https://www.iQCash.net)
Many have and have been selling for Waves on Waves DEX.  Others are holding for future price rises and yet to be announced use-cases.

A formal announcement thread of the upcoming new features is still to come.

do you have a date when the upcomings new features are coming? i'm really looking forward to it.

No date set yet.

We're still performing updates to protect against bots. That may take another few weeks.

Then we begin a marketing campaign to attract new miners.  That may take a month or two depending on results.

Then we'll launch the new features, create a relevant announcement thread and start marketing for investors - this should be when miners start getting better returns for sales of their earned iQCash.

great, i am looking forward to. one or two month is a long time, but in the meantime, i solve more puzzles. some changes of the last days are very good. it is more fun again and is more comfortable again.