Bitcoin Forum

Hex is very cool

Hint 1: Binary is not the only way to encode.

Bonus hint: I know that no one has finished more than 50% of the puzzle, which takes place exclusively on-forum.

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SOLUTION

Step 1: The hex colors of the first post represented ASCII characters, resulting in the private key of 1sTPost...
Step 2: My first post was edited. There is a quote with a 0-width image and an AUTHOR md5.

https://i.imgur.com/cmAnY6l.png

Step 3: Take the md5 hash of 1BbcodE... => 4e01ebd99c8f3610af450d7b8ac4d6cf
Step 4: AUTHOR, as in, user. The member 4e01ebd99c8f3610af450d7b8 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2530969) has a post:


Step 5: "What is unseen, but still there" refers to the 0-width mongolian vowel separator whitespace characters in the post. They surround the characters for {shaone} => SHA-1.

Step 6: Take the SHA-1 hash of 1BbcodE... => 00e581a7ac7018a61836ca30dc458a200603299d which is the password for the account (your own locks will be dismantled)

Step 7: I sent a message to the account:


by your key := SHA-1 hash; second one := placement of the second 1 => 13
don't get board just yet := go to board 13, French local board.
stay hungry for the answer := translate "mange" into English.

Thus we have EatpKV211...

And the beginning of the private key is found via the user's feedback to satoshi: Kigjp...

Done.

Congratulations to LoyceV for being the first to solve the puzzle.

I got that PrivateKey, but now im stuck.. ???

hexadecimal?

I'm further...

Once you've changed the image, you may need to chop off a tail of length 7.
But some locks prefer a different kind of change.

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Hint 2: I don't hide just BBCode in puzzle posts.

Base64?

You've lost me at this step, I have no idea what this means :( But it's been fun so far :D

I don't know what's going on but I just want to answer: Duck or Chicken. Lmao DotA 2 player will understand my answer.

Edit:

I don't have a bitcoin core or any wallet that can open a pk. Try this. Any tip is welcome if this is correct answer.

True my friend, that line's confususing me. Very far from my reach XD

Make a  wallet in blockchain.com my friend, you can try privatekey there. Super fast no syncing needed.

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Revised wording to make it more evident.

The image holds the path to your reward. You may alter the path to discover who can help.
Their lips are sealed, for they reveal their secrets by following the path slightly differently.

Hint 2 Revision: Perhaps rather than examining the post with your eyes, you need to check each character one by one.

Bonus hint: I still know that no one has finished more than 50% of the puzzle, which takes place exclusively on-forum.

The only part I don't get.

The latest hints gave me many more options to try, so far no result :(
I like the hunt though :D

Not sure if I'm on the right path or just a stupidly crazy coincidence..

The fact that he's sure no one is halfway through implies there needs to be contact at some point to get the next clue? I feel like I'm on the last step before that but I think there's a little bit of guessing and bruteforcing a bit of combinations involved?

I've contacted 2 different accounts by now :D But:

It's very important to distinguish how I know that you have not progressed past a certain point. Remember: this puzzle only takes place on the forum.

(perhaps you might use some third-party tools to help but at no point will I forcibly direct you to a different website.)

Wouldn't mind another public hint on the "different kind of change." & "following the path slightly differently." part :P

Or not, who knows, maybe a genius will show up in the next hour or two.

Analyze the messenger's statement and you shall find the answer.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about with this messenger nonsense, then you probably haven't gotten far enough.

I hate captchas :(

In this code 102 characters?  ???

All nine messengers are silent :(

Found the "path" and the reward can be "seen"... but not sure how to alter the path to go further... Any clue?

5375105 569853 9965116 1196974 1166678 53116119 508983 8612268 717190 11011377 7011851 857476 102113118 7410776 6811757 7153114 5267117

Or may be it is Hex signs colors?
https://i.pinimg.com/474x/56/54/0d/56540d0f15cbcc2e2259ad5f0715cd6b--color-meanings-amish.jpg
Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/406098091370698678

I think it's safe to say I'm at 50% now :D Stuck at 50% to be precise :(

I'm pretty sure I'm stuck at the same step as you. :)

The forum disapproves:
:-\

There are users that have broken through the messenger.
There are users that have yet to do so.

To both of them:

In each message, certain words are placed there for a specific reason. They will lead you to the answer.

Why are you doing this? Instead of working, I solve the riddle all day. I feel like a member of Cicada 3301  :D
 ??? ??? ???

Tell, how to find the path image ???

How to find image, guys?
I tried maybe all ways to do it

It feels like any word can mean something, and it also feels like I'm missing something very obvious :P

I already have a raw transaction ready to sign, moving 25% back to the same address to keep the challenge open if I find it. All I need is a private key :D

LOL. What kind of person are you Loyce, counting your chickens before you even have the eggs? ;D

I reached a dead end yesterday so I forgot about it for the rest of the night. Mostly lost hope because you were ahead of me by a single step probably. Maybe I'll try to pick it up again later, I like how both the puzzle before and this one make it very easy to know if you're on the right track.

More like: preparing for the fastest transaction ever, the moment I have the right key :D

I'm now pretty sure sending a PM to user Md55Md56 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2530359) (which I did) was not part of the puzzle :P

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I've been breaking my head over "Don't get board just yet. Stay hungry for the answer" since last night :D

The first sentence relates to the one preceding it.

I feel you, I PMed another guy which I'm sure has no clue this thread even exists.

I guess you also found this person (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1133129) who literally was Never active since he made his account.

I still think these puzzles are a lot clearer than a few other ones, where you literally don't know if you're right or not simply because everything is so convoluted.

Thanks :D

I found that one, but was looking for more recent accounts.

My mind is getting blown.
What's this puzzle all about? I've searched the internet for some HEX that is very cool, and what I've found was this (https://coolgames.com/en/hex-puzzle.html).
Well it's kinda cool if you ask me :)
 
I'm currently having a headache just because of the clues given. Will be happy if OP has given a clue whether it is a Wallet Address, Name, Place, Event, Game or something...

@cabalism13 Check actmyname's previous puzzle, it'll help you with the first step.

813fc851248dd6018b9f0765e7cdce912baa4ed6d6587d4d79e6b6df572e9593 (https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/813fc851248dd6018b9f0765e7cdce912baa4ed6d6587d4d79e6b6df572e9593)
You were saying? :D :D :D My chickens are doing just fine :D

Thanks actmyname :D It was a good hunt!
By posting this I've probably given away part of the puzzle already, as promised I left 25% of the prize for the next person who cracks it.

I JUST came online to check this out again, I'm actually happy you're the one who got it :D Congrats!

Also I wouldn't worry about the hint in the address. I'm sure if people didn't get to the 2nd step they're probably unlikely to go further even if you revealed it.

Glad you enjoyed the puzzle. I hope you were pleasantly surprised when you found out how to continue after you found the messenger. ;)

I was :D I couldn't figure it out for more than a day, I tried many different combinations including brute-forcing, and eventually my brute-force worked. Then I realized the hints would have been enough without brute-forcing, so it was a nice surprice indeed.

"messenger" it member forum?

Solution posted. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5100114.msg49341973#msg49341973)

Do you know who else solved it and took the remaining 0.005?

This had me puzzled for a very long time. One of the things I considered, was that "the second one" made the tail of  "1" look like an address, but that was a dead end.

This was completely lost on me! I never understood board 13 was French, I couldn't figure out what "Menge" meant, but it looked too much like a word to be part of a random private key. I assumed the "5.00000000" BTC risked from satoshi's feedback meant either "5" as the start of a private key, or "remove 5 characters" which meant remove Menge.
"Stay hungry" to me is like the exact opposite of "Eat". I was only thinking of edible things, but couldn't figure it out until I brute forced the 3 characters.

It was a very nice challenge! And that makes me wonder how you come up with this, I've created small puzzles in the past, but nothing even close to this complicated.

Mystery, just like the first.

Some parts are disjointed. That's because I come up with them on the fly. I have an initial motif for the puzzle (i.e. the previous one was my first try at messing with vanity and color hexes). This puzzle's was the use of another account, to make someone log in.

Everything else was just bunched in through coincidence. The privkey had "Eat" in it and I figured: let's turn that into a small bit.

Hashing made it easier to elongate the length of the puzzle.