Ok, here's a 1BTC puzzle.

[netlakes]

I've tested thousands of possibilities, I've given up on this challenge

Has anyone been able to verify the signature? G/cbms/K/DNzcRin5v2B03iXdbpdVoZbTebt7KG95j3FUqnJvcP9rDYcGpSV27RLspR7SlPjqma4h0tDAMwovIo=
I could not, it always gives invalid signature

I'm pretty sure it's troll.

Rooting for you guys, I hope its for real and someone here solves it.

Annoyingly, I've hit a dead end.
I'll give it a while longer, then post my thoughts here in case they're of use to anyone else.

[kachev87]

I've tested thousands of possibilities, I've given up on this challenge

Has anyone been able to verify the signature? G/cbms/K/DNzcRin5v2B03iXdbpdVoZbTebt7KG95j3FUqnJvcP9rDYcGpSV27RLspR7SlPjqma4h0tDAMwovIo=
I could not, it always gives invalid signature

I'm pretty sure it's troll.

Rooting for you guys, I hope its for real and someone here solves it.

Annoyingly, I've hit a dead end.
I'll give it a while longer, then post my thoughts here in case they're of use to anyone else.

How to verify this signiture? How to do this?

[fecell]

Has anyone been able to verify the signature? G/cbms/K/DNzcRin5v2B03iXdbpdVoZbTebt7KG95j3FUqnJvcP9rDYcGpSV27RLspR7SlPjqma4h0tDAMwovIo=
I could not, it always gives invalid signature

of coz. here is a screenshot:

[Hueristic]

Has anyone been able to verify the signature? G/cbms/K/DNzcRin5v2B03iXdbpdVoZbTebt7KG95j3FUqnJvcP9rDYcGpSV27RLspR7SlPjqma4h0tDAMwovIo=
I could not, it always gives invalid signature

of coz. here is a screenshot:

IOU +sM

[bitart]

...
How to verify this signiture? How to do this?

Just copy the data to the required fields. Make sure you don't miss any space, line break, special characters, etc, because if you fail to copy it as a whole, the signature checker will give false result.
If you don't trust signature checker websites, you can use any wallet that offers this kind of feature.
Also, if you google for e.g. bitcoin signature checker, you'll find a lot of help

[fecell]

https://brainwalletx.github.io/#generator

just insert your guesses into the passphrase field that it will convert to an address.

Still unsolved? I have a couple of ideas.

Still there waiting : https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/179sxfh6rw6bHSo5wVUhLP96k46QaEzVP

I feel close. I have a solution that matches the right criteria, with the double meaning implied by the question. Just need to figure out how to process it.

ablosulty wrong way- brainwallet words is a SMALL case begins! not a @CamelCase

[netlakes]

I think you're mistaken, if you insert a camelcase phrase it generates the hash respecting uppercase and lowercase letters.

https://brainwalletx.github.io/#generator

just insert your guesses into the passphrase field that it will convert to an address.

https://imgur.com/0zdYxFD

Still unsolved? I have a couple of ideas.

Still there waiting : https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/179sxfh6rw6bHSo5wVUhLP96k46QaEzVP

I feel close. I have a solution that matches the right criteria, with the double meaning implied by the question. Just need to figure out how to process it.

ablosulty wrong way- brainwallet words is a SMALL case begins! not a @CamelCase

[iq_armando]

blockladder has not had apparent activity in bitcointalk since the day he put the puzzle.

Do you think he has been reading our comments in some way?

Maybe he has another nick in this forum

[iq_armando]

WhyTheCombOfNatashaOtomoskiHas21Teeth?.txt

Plain text, Plain-text, or Plaintext is any text, text file, or document that contains only text.

maybe the solution is in a file,

if so, where to find this file

in google drive you can enter with blockladder@gmail.com, but you do not know the password

[maksimkinvot]

I have no idea about how to solve this puzzle ???but I need to solve it will cover my debt to the Bank.

[HCP]

Right. Either the 8 words are the privkey (which is possible if OP did some brute forcing - I've done something similar myself, several years ago now, for a puzzle), or it's a hash.
Either way, it's finding the right 32 chars. I have been assuming that they are from the question itself, like others have been.

Why would that require brute forcing?

You "simply" pick 8 words that total up to 32 chars as your answer: WeCreateAnAnswerThatIsEightWords

Then pick whatever method you like to use that as your private key:

char->hex method... which yields private key: 5765437265617465416e416e737765725468617449734569676874576f726473 (18LpdmS7UPHRPsNmD384LRRawHjVXprJy1)
or
brainwallet (sha256) method... which yields private key: 8EAFEFFE8CEE0E1E43A53314FFEC31BE09B378A4E733A516BBBAEB177CC151FD (15idakESXkA4N5Uyjts2xTFupBLD9Pibz2)

You can then send your XBTC prize to the address you just "created"


The problem we have is that there is no definitive answer as to whether we should be doing "char->hex" method or "brainwallet" method. I guess the solution to that problem is to simply check both!

[netlakes]

Right. Either the 8 words are the privkey (which is possible if OP did some brute forcing - I've done something similar myself, several years ago now, for a puzzle), or it's a hash.
Either way, it's finding the right 32 chars. I have been assuming that they are from the question itself, like others have been.

Why would that require brute forcing?

You "simply" pick 8 words that total up to 32 chars as your answer: WeCreateAnAnswerThatIsEightWords

Then pick whatever method you like to use that as your private key:

char->hex method... which yields private key: 5765437265617465416e416e737765725468617449734569676874576f726473 (18LpdmS7UPHRPsNmD384LRRawHjVXprJy1)
or
brainwallet (sha256) method... which yields private key: 8EAFEFFE8CEE0E1E43A53314FFEC31BE09B378A4E733A516BBBAEB177CC151FD (15idakESXkA4N5Uyjts2xTFupBLD9Pibz2)

You can then send your XBTC prize to the address you just "created"


The problem we have is that there is no definitive answer as to whether we should be doing "char->hex" method or "brainwallet" method. I guess the solution to that problem is to simply check both!

I fully agree

[bitart]

Has anyone read Duality.pdf maybe written by satoshi?
some people think it's not him.

And how it's connected with this puzzle? Does it give any extra hints to solve? 

Anyway, that time when this puzzle was started, I thought that by this time it will already be solved...

[BlackMambaPH]

It's more than two months since OP started this puzzle topic and still, the 1 BTC reward is still in the address: https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/179sxfh6rw6bHSo5wVUhLP96k46QaEzVP

Meaning to say no one still solved this puzzle. 

[Cassius]

Right. Either the 8 words are the privkey (which is possible if OP did some brute forcing - I've done something similar myself, several years ago now, for a puzzle), or it's a hash.
Either way, it's finding the right 32 chars. I have been assuming that they are from the question itself, like others have been.

Why would that require brute forcing?

You "simply" pick 8 words that total up to 32 chars as your answer: WeCreateAnAnswerThatIsEightWords

Then pick whatever method you like to use that as your private key:

char->hex method... which yields private key: 5765437265617465416e416e737765725468617449734569676874576f726473 (18LpdmS7UPHRPsNmD384LRRawHjVXprJy1)
or
brainwallet (sha256) method... which yields private key: 8EAFEFFE8CEE0E1E43A53314FFEC31BE09B378A4E733A516BBBAEB177CC151FD (15idakESXkA4N5Uyjts2xTFupBLD9Pibz2)

You can then send your XBTC prize to the address you just "created"


The problem we have is that there is no definitive answer as to whether we should be doing "char->hex" method or "brainwallet" method. I guess the solution to that problem is to simply check both!

You misunderstand. It's possible that the privkey itself is a plaintext phrase like TheCombOfNatashYaddaYadda. However, since only a few such phrases would fit the criteria for a privkey (I think around 1 in 200), you'd need to search a load to get one that worked.
Or you can create any phrase and hash it for a privkey.
Either method generates a valid privkey. But only one will create the privkey to the prize address. So it helps to know what he was doing

[zielar]

[netlakes]

that ".txt" at the end of the question should have some meaning

The English dictionary has 171,476 words.

finding 8 words in 171k and still in the right order with 32 characters is very unlikely anyone can solve.

I think there's more chance of winning the lottery than solving this puzzle.

[Rmcdermott927]

There has to be a reason for the .txt at the end of the question.   I’m sure we have all tried hashing the phrase and combinations of the words in the phrase but I feel like we are missing something crucial.   Most file and text depositories randomize file names.  Are there any that Dont?

[Cassius]

I'll post my thoughts so far here. They may or may not be useful - I hope so.
It looks like blockladder has deleted posts he made in the past. A Google search shows up the odd quoted post for which the original has been deleted. It's hard to tell whether these are sarcastic or trolly. Either way, I've hit a dead end. Here's what I've assumed so far. Some of these assumptions could be false, of course.

Thoughts/Assumptions
1) ‘Why The Comb...’ is poor grammar (it should be ‘Why Does The Comb...’). I assume this is deliberate (OP appears to have native English), and that ONLY these letters are required.

2) I assume it’s an anagram of the question for that reason.

3) The ‘.txt’ is difficult; it could be part of the answer, or could simply indicate that the answer is plaintext. Including ‘txt’ increases the proportion of consonants to a problematic level.

4) I assume that the 8 camel case words are to be hashed (SHA256) to create a 32-byte privkey. It is technically possible that the 8 words ARE the key. However, this would require that several letters were discarded (as the question contains too many), and there is no obvious indication of which ones.

5) ‘Natasha Otomoski’ is an anagram of ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’. The letters were clearly grouped to indicate this, so I assume ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ is a part of the answer. This massively reduces possible permutations for 8 words. If it is not, and is simply deliberately misleading, it becomes vastly more difficult to figure out the answer.

6) There may be a second layer in the puzzle, whereby the answer references something in the question rather than just using its letters. ‘Why….?’ implies an answer ‘Because...’ (the right letters aren’t present though) or ‘To...’  I spent a while considering the joke, ‘What has teeth but cannot chew’. Answer: A comb. ‘ToChewThe21MbyteHashOfSatoshiNakamoto’ doesn’t hash to the given address.

7) The significance of ‘21’ (or ‘12’, or ‘1’ and ‘2’ separately) in the answer is unclear. The letters aren’t present for ‘21 Million bitcoins’, though they are for ‘21m Btc’.

A rail fence cipher doesn’t appear to produce anything useful.

That's all from me. It felt I was getting close. Assuming there is a solution, I hope this helps someone find it.

[netlakes]

1) ‘Why The Comb...’ is poor grammar (it should be ‘Why Does The Comb...’). I assume this is deliberate (OP appears to have native English), and that ONLY these letters are required.

2) I assume it’s an anagram of the question for that reason.

I had not thought of that before, but it makes sense ...

I'll post my thoughts so far here. They may or may not be useful - I hope so.
It looks like blockladder has deleted posts he made in the past. A Google search shows up the odd quoted post for which the original has been deleted. It's hard to tell whether these are sarcastic or trolly. Either way, I've hit a dead end. Here's what I've assumed so far. Some of these assumptions could be false, of course.

Thoughts/Assumptions
1) ‘Why The Comb...’ is poor grammar (it should be ‘Why Does The Comb...’). I assume this is deliberate (OP appears to have native English), and that ONLY these letters are required.

2) I assume it’s an anagram of the question for that reason.

3) The ‘.txt’ is difficult; it could be part of the answer, or could simply indicate that the answer is plaintext. Including ‘txt’ increases the proportion of consonants to a problematic level.

4) I assume that the 8 camel case words are to be hashed (SHA256) to create a 32-byte privkey. It is technically possible that the 8 words ARE the key. However, this would require that several letters were discarded (as the question contains too many), and there is no obvious indication of which ones.

5) ‘Natasha Otomoski’ is an anagram of ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’. The letters were clearly grouped to indicate this, so I assume ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ is a part of the answer. This massively reduces possible permutations for 8 words. If it is not, and is simply deliberately misleading, it becomes vastly more difficult to figure out the answer.

6) There may be a second layer in the puzzle, whereby the answer references something in the question rather than just using its letters. ‘Why….?’ implies an answer ‘Because...’ (the right letters aren’t present though) or ‘To...’  I spent a while considering the joke, ‘What has teeth but cannot chew’. Answer: A comb. ‘ToChewThe21MbyteHashOfSatoshiNakamoto’ doesn’t hash to the given address.

7) The significance of ‘21’ (or ‘12’, or ‘1’ and ‘2’ separately) in the answer is unclear. The letters aren’t present for ‘21 Million bitcoins’, though they are for ‘21m Btc’.

A rail fence cipher doesn’t appear to produce anything useful.

That's all from me. It felt I was getting close. Assuming there is a solution, I hope this helps someone find it.