New Bitcoin Puzzle

[dalek]

Code:

1b 7a 6b 3d 8a 7b 3b 9b 2b 1a 9a 7d 6a 8d 8b 4b 2a 6d 5b 5a 2d 5d 4d 4a 3a 1d *b *a
12 10 10 10  9  9  9  8  8  8  7  7  7  6  6  6  6  6  5  5  5  4  4  4  4  4  1  1

So there's 26 unique characters, so we probably just have to assign the right letters to these.

Surely that's not an english plaintext, frequency distribution doesn't fit.
We can try a bruteforce and see if something show up.

Some of those might be numbers- you can see there's a 3-character "word" of the same character, so it's not like this will be an average text that would fit the standard frequencies.

[dalek]

Surely that's not an english plaintext, frequency distribution doesn't fit.
We can try a bruteforce and see if something show up.

Brute force is against the "rules", no?

The earlier brute force comment was related to my not-so-serious suggestion that the password could be brute-forced against their api, which be similar to a DOS. There are no rules to anything that is done offline that doesn't affect others.

[Izerian]

Surely that's not an english plaintext, frequency distribution doesn't fit.
We can try a bruteforce and see if something show up.

Brute force is against the "rules", no?

The earlier brute force comment was related to my not-so-serious suggestion that the password could be brute-forced against their api, which be similar to a DOS. There are no rules to anything that is done offline that doesn't affect others.

Makes sense. I should have edited my post. I was under the presumption that is was puzzle-wide, if you will.

Sorry to clog up the thread.

[Hitman079]

Code:

1b 7a 6b 3d 8a 7b 3b 9b 2b 1a 9a 7d 6a 8d 8b 4b 2a 6d 5b 5a 2d 5d 4d 4a 3a 1d *b *a
12 10 10 10  9  9  9  8  8  8  7  7  7  6  6  6  6  6  5  5  5  4  4  4  4  4  1  1

So there's 26 unique characters, so we probably just have to assign the right letters to these.

Surely that's not an english plaintext, frequency distribution doesn't fit.
We can try a bruteforce and see if something show up.

Brute force is against the "rules", no?

I mean, trying to replace every symbol with a letter, for all the possible combination, and observe if one of the obtained plaintext has something intellegible in it.

Frequency analysis instead can be used, if we can take out weird parts or repetition

[dalek]

For this possible word I found only 1 match in my wordlist:

Code:

3d 2b 7b 2b 2b 7b 2a 9b 5b 4d
$ egrep '^.(.)(.)\1\1\2....$' /usr/share/dict/words
Canaanitic

[mi1994]

I doubt that every group of symbols is a separate word though, it could be a long string of symbols with one representing a space. Also, the map says 'the journey inwards begins here' , it could be they are meant to be read in a spiral towards the center.

Edit: 1b is interesting, it is the most frequent symbol however the first occurrence of it is at the end of the 6th row.

[rock_collector]

Too bad there isn't a public Slack chat for posting our progress. Anyone want to start one? Much better interface.

[UNO_owner]

Hadn't seen anyone mention this so I thought I would.

The description of the cell:

You are in an iron chamber, the walls are lined with iron pipes. 
There are chains suspended from the pipes and rusted gears are scattered about the floor. 
The sound of dripping water echoes in the chamber.

Sounds like the description given in QR code #9:

You are in a rusted iron chamber. Water is trickling from large iron pipes above you. 
On the wall someone has scrawled:
“When in your house black crows give birth to white doves, then you will be called wise".

Which fits with the skeleton/map/knife/note piece.  Guy wrote the message on the wall before he died.  I tried look at wall and a few other combinations of words and got nothing.  Tried typing key words of the phrase into the keypad and nothing.  Maybe the message maps to the clusters on the map somehow.

[Izerian]

Hadn't seen anyone mention this so I thought I would.

The description of the cell:

You are in an iron chamber, the walls are lined with iron pipes. 
There are chains suspended from the pipes and rusted gears are scattered about the floor. 
The sound of dripping water echoes in the chamber.

Sounds like the description given in QR code #9:

You are in a rusted iron chamber. Water is trickling from large iron pipes above you. 
On the wall someone has scrawled:
“When in your house black crows give birth to white doves, then you will be called wise".

Which fits with the skeleton/map/knife/note piece.  Guy wrote the message on the wall before he died.  I tried look at wall and a few other combinations of words and got nothing.  Tried typing key words of the phrase into the keypad and nothing.  Maybe the message maps to the clusters on the map somehow.

Random pic of crows and doves, pay no attention.

Sounds like one room is above the other. Journeying inward? You can't kill a skeleton; at least as far as I know.

Edit: still feels like we are looking for a door key, phrase, username&password, random characters. I'm not so good at these.

[FloridaBear]

> look at shirt
An old black vintage Atari shirt.

> look at shoes
Converse sneakers.

Heh.

[dalek]

The 3x3 grids could be magic squares.

[Pompobit]

The 3x3 grids could be magic squares.

Why it should be? What would be the meaning of the red little square in a magic square?

[whateverNick]

Code:

1b 7a 6b 3d 8a 7b 3b 9b 2b 1a 9a 7d 6a 8d 8b 4b 2a 6d 5b 5a 2d 5d 4d 4a 3a 1d *b *a
12 10 10 10  9  9  9  8  8  8  7  7  7  6  6  6  6  6  5  5  5  4  4  4  4  4  1  1

So there's 26 unique characters, so we probably just have to assign the right letters to these.

Surely that's not an english plaintext, frequency distribution doesn't fit.
We can try a bruteforce and see if something show up.

Brute force is against the "rules", no?

I mean, trying to replace every symbol with a letter, for all the possible combination, and observe if one of the obtained plaintext has something intellegible in it.

Frequency analysis instead can be used, if we can take out weird parts or repetition

Well, 26! combinations, good luck with that

[Pompobit]

Code:

1b 7a 6b 3d 8a 7b 3b 9b 2b 1a 9a 7d 6a 8d 8b 4b 2a 6d 5b 5a 2d 5d 4d 4a 3a 1d *b *a
12 10 10 10  9  9  9  8  8  8  7  7  7  6  6  6  6  6  5  5  5  4  4  4  4  4  1  1

So there's 26 unique characters, so we probably just have to assign the right letters to these.

Surely that's not an english plaintext, frequency distribution doesn't fit.
We can try a bruteforce and see if something show up.

Brute force is against the "rules", no?

I mean, trying to replace every symbol with a letter, for all the possible combination, and observe if one of the obtained plaintext has something intellegible in it.

Frequency analysis instead can be used, if we can take out weird parts or repetition

Well, 26! combinations, good luck with that

a brand new account just to say that? 

[whateverNick]

Code:

1b 7a 6b 3d 8a 7b 3b 9b 2b 1a 9a 7d 6a 8d 8b 4b 2a 6d 5b 5a 2d 5d 4d 4a 3a 1d *b *a
12 10 10 10  9  9  9  8  8  8  7  7  7  6  6  6  6  6  5  5  5  4  4  4  4  4  1  1

So there's 26 unique characters, so we probably just have to assign the right letters to these.

Surely that's not an english plaintext, frequency distribution doesn't fit.
We can try a bruteforce and see if something show up.

Brute force is against the "rules", no?

I mean, trying to replace every symbol with a letter, for all the possible combination, and observe if one of the obtained plaintext has something intellegible in it.

Frequency analysis instead can be used, if we can take out weird parts or repetition

Well, 26! combinations, good luck with that

a brand new account just to say that? 

Yeah, I thought that post deserved an answer.

Anyway, just wanted to point out that the text adventure is called "Days Destroyed". It might be a reference to "Bitcoin Days Destroyed"?

[Pompobit]

Yeah, I thought that post deserved an answer.

Anyway, just wanted to point out that the text adventure is called "Days Destroyed". It might be a reference to "Bitcoin Days Destroyed"?

You don't need to brute force all the 26! combinations if you do a frequency attack. Unfortunately the frequency doen't seem compatible to english and the text is not so large, so a similar attack becomes very hard.

About "days destroyed", yes it could be a reference to bitcoin, but we should know on what period it refers to know the number of days destoryed (and of course, for what).

[dalek]

in case you haven't been watching @coin_artist's twitter stream, here's two tidbits: "this puzzle is more straightforward - for the most part", and "New puzzle is more user friendly". At least we can rule out wild ideas like using her freckles as a bitmask

[Izerian]

in case you haven't been watching @coin_artist's twitter stream, here's two tidbits: "this puzzle is more straightforward - for the most part", and "New puzzle is more user friendly". At least we can rule out wild ideas like using her freckles as a bitmask

Maybe it's me, but that just makes it more confusing...

[soulblade249]

Has anybody been able to get through the cell door, or any ideas on how to do that?
I believe that we have to look at the actualy real life portal and the story behind it.

[4pollo]

The picture has many cells and the colors and triangles could all hold information.

im guessing u mean something like
https://i.imgur.com/l6oYYZ8.jpg

This looks like a pigpen cipher which was also used in the previous unsolved puzzle.

Also note that the placement of the white triangle on each 3x3 grid can have 4 different orientations, but only 3 orientations are ever used. There is no grid that has a triangle in this orientation: ◣

Using the grid numbering as above, and the position of the triangle, where ◤=a, ◥=b, ◢=d, the map becomes:

Code:

6b 7a 8b             7a 2b 2b    1d             6a    9b
8a    1d    1d    3d 7a 1a       1d    2a 3b 1a 6d 5a
         7a       6b 1a       7b 5d 5b 4a    7b 2d
      9b 2d             8a 3b 5a 3d 8b          2d
         6a 7b 9a    8d          7b 7b       8d    4d
4d    6b    3d 2b 7b 2b 2b 7b 2a 9b 5b 4d    8d 1b 4b
   1b 8a    2a 4b                      2a 1b 8b
6d             3d    6b 9a 4a 8b 3d    7d 8a
   1a    9a 4a 6d    7d          1a    5a
3a    6a 2b    7d    4a    7d    6b    3d    3b 7a    4b
               3d    3d          9b    4b 3b 4b    1b
            9a 5a    9a 5a 3a 6a 4b    8a             9b
         3b 1a 9b                      2b 8a    8d 6b
   8a 2a 6a    8a 1b 1b 8a 7a 1a 7a 3b 9a 7a    6b    4d
   7d    9b       5b 2b    6b    6d    1b 1b 1b
      *b          3b 1b 6b 3b 3a             3b 7d
      1b 6a    3a 8b 5b 9a       7a 2a       8d
   2d 6b *a 6d 5d    5d    1a 1b 7a 5b    6d    7b    5d
7b    2d             3d    8d 3d 9b             7d 8b 6a

And the character count is:

Code:

1b 7a 6b 3d 8a 7b 3b 9b 2b 1a 9a 7d 6a 8d 8b 4b 2a 6d 5b 5a 2d 5d 4d 4a 3a 1d *b *a
12 10 10 10  9  9  9  8  8  8  7  7  7  6  6  6  6  6  5  5  5  4  4  4  4  4  1  1

So there's 26 unique characters, so we probably just have to assign the right letters to these.

Here is a corrected version of the earlier posted grid (4 corrections marked with underscores):

Code:

6b 7a 8b             7a 2b 2b    1d             6a    9b
8a    1d    1d    3d 7a 1a       1d    2a 3b 1a 6d 5a   
         7a       6b 1a      _7d_5d 5b 4a    7b 2d      
      9b 2d            _8d_3b 5a 3d 8b          2d      
         6a 7b 9a    8d          7b 7b       8d    4d   
4d    6b    3d 2b 7b 2b 2b 7b 2a 9b 5b 4d    8d 1b 4b   
   1b 8a    2a 4b                      2a 1b 8b         
6d             3d    6b 9a 4a 8b 3d    7d 8a            
   1a    9a 4a 6d    7d          1a    5a               
3a    6a 2b    7d    4a    7d    6b    3d    3b 7a   _4d_
               3d    3d          9b    4b 3b 4b    1b   
            9a 5a    9a 5a 3a 6a 4b   _7a_            9b
         3b 1a 9b                      2b 8a    8d 6b   
   8a 2a 6a    8a 1b 1b 8a 7a 1a 7a 3b 9a 7a    6b    4d
   7d    9b       5b 2b    6b    6d    1b 1b 1b         
      *b          3b 1b 6b 3b 3a             3b 7d      
      1b 6a    3a 8b 5b 9a       7a 2a       8d         
   2d 6b *a 6d 5d    5d    1a 1b 7a 5b    6d    7b    5d
7b    2d             3d    8d 3d 9b             7d 8b 6a

Some thoughts for directions to decode the aztec code that might not be an aztec code:

• interpret the empty spaces instead: “When in your house black crows give birth to white doves, then you will be called wise”?
• interpret blocks of it as bitstrings and then convert?
• interpret blocks of it as braille?
• interpret blocks of it as some other script, like http://www.omniglot.com/conscripts/ancients.htm ?

None of those really account for the 2 pixels that don't match the symmetry though, nor does it use the markings...