1.1 BTC Puzzle by Phemex

[rhomelmabini]

Phemex made another tweet yesterday, saying they will release the final clue to the puzzle on Friday: https://twitter.com/Phemex_official/status/1228318202247237632

I am just hoping that this will never turn out to "To register on our exchange platform you have to verify your identity and address". The puzzle was really hard and the CEO and co-founders are pretty confident that this will be decode maybe a year or more, but for now what I can do is really wait for that hint again and then again I'll just can't answer it for sure. Good luck to who/those can decode it, it's a nice reward of bitcoin.

[1714120107]

1714120107

[1714120107]

1714120107

[Phemex_official]

a good puzzle is where there is something to solve based on some logical approach like a treasure hunt. you find a clue then it tells you what to do next. otherwise it is like saying the clue is hidden somewhere on planet earth and when you find that the next is also hidden on planet earth!

Exactly

Where do we get from Satoshi’s portrait that some words are converted with Base58?

just info:
There are similar pictures: http://jeangontijo.com - Jean Gontijo twitter @jeangontijo


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Phemex_official is *not* Phemex

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Phemex_official is *not* Phemex

[Phemex_official]

and with that logic the solution to this puzzle could be something like "PhemexIsGoodComeUpAndTradeWithUs"

pooya87, if this account "Phemex_official" would be the official account of Phemex (it is not), I would declare you the winner!


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Phemex_official is *not* Phemex

[seoincorporation]

and with that logic the solution to this puzzle could be something like "PhemexIsGoodComeUpAndTradeWithUs"

pooya87, if this account "Phemex_official" would be the official account of Phemex (it is not), I would declare you the winner!


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Phemex_official is *not* Phemex

This giveaway is not about declaring someone a winner, the winner will be the one who gets access to the bitcoins.

Since no one has solved this puzzle it only proves the complexity of itself... Phemex already gives some hints:

Without further ado, here are some clarification and hints to help you solve the puzzle:

    The first 21-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e is: 957496696762772407663
    The private key you derive from Satoshi’s portrait is a big integer, not Wallet Import Format (WIF)
    The filename of the picture is irrelevant
    The next step involves converting some words from the portrait, without I/O, into a 27-digit number
    Go back to step 4) again if you can’t figure it out

Even with those hints get 27-digit number is a hard task... So, Happy puzzling.

[MrFreeDragon]

I had a look at this puzzle and guess that it is more marketing/PR thing rather than a real puzzle.
The puzzle should be logical, and resoved withount hints. But not with Phemex.

The easiest part was to find the 21 digit number. At the moment as i understood it is all that was done by the solvers. The hints above told that now solvers should find 27 digit number. It is not clear why? Why solvers need this hint?

Moreover, the current status is that new hint will be released on 21 February: It will be sent via email to all Phemex registered users, to ensure fair competition. Wow, you need to be registered on Phemex exchange to have the next hint. Is it fair?

https://twitter.com/Phemex_official/status/1228318202247237632

Anyway, it is the puzzle by Phemex, their money and they can do anything they like. However this puzzle looks more like a PR/marketing thing rather than real puzzle.

[bliKz]

The last hint is:

After meeting the Phemex team, the Goddess Pheme repeated the words “little is big”, twice within three days. 

https://phemex.com/references/articles/the-last-hint-of-phemex-2-1btc-puzzle

[BrewMaster]

Anyway, it is the puzzle by Phemex, their money and they can do anything they like. However this puzzle looks more like a PR/marketing thing rather than real puzzle.

true, but also our judgement of their platform is our right. if this puzzle were an unsolvable shady one that after a lot of advertisement suddenly some anonymous person claims the reward or more precisely moves the coins then we would consider it as fraud

[iluvbitcoins]

So I assumed the "without I/O" clue was a hint to Base58Check encoding. Given that, if you take "BTCETHXRPPhemex" as a Base58Check string and convert it to Base10, you end up with a 27 digit number.

I took every combination of the words "BTC", "ETH", "XRP", and "Phemex" (24 combinations in total), and converted from Base58Check to Base10.

For every one of these 27-digit numbers (24 in total), I concatenated them before the prime, concatenated after the prime, and multiplied the two together.

For each of these 72 resulting numbers, I tried:
Hashing them with SHA256
Hashing them twice with SHA256 (the "Go back to step 4 again" clue makes me think we have to do something twice)
Converting them to HEX, then hashing them

I used each of the 216 results as a private key and checked the addresses. No luck.

I'm out of ideas at this point. Going to have to wait for another hint.

How do you get a 27 digit number?
If I convert it I get 26 digits
https://www.better-converter.com/Encoders-Decoders/Base58Check-to-Hexadecimal-Decoder
And then to decimal


If I use numbers from the Base58Check wiki table, I get 30 digits  
Also, shouldn't it be hexadecimal for WIF?

[o_e_l_e_o]

If I convert it I get 26 digits

No, you're right. Not every combination of the words results in a 27 digit number. PhemexBTCETHXRP gives 27 characters, while BTCETHXRPPhemex only gives 26. I didn't actually bother to check which combinations were 26 and which were 27, it would have taken longer to do that than it took to just automatically check them all as I did.

Also, shouldn't it be hexadecimal for WIF?

No, WIF is Base58Check. The "standard" private key format is hex.

[iluvbitcoins]

Why are there incoming transactions on the addy all the time o.o
At first I thought the balance showed binary because it was 1.10101 but then I saw there were incoming transactions today.

[Btchunter3333]

Why are there incoming transactions on the addy all the time o.o
At first I thought the balance showed binary because it was 1.10101 but then I saw there were incoming transactions today.

I wonder why almost all incoming transactions that come on address are 3 numbers repeating?

[iluvbitcoins]

Why are there incoming transactions on the addy all the time o.o
At first I thought the balance showed binary because it was 1.10101 but then I saw there were incoming transactions today.

I wonder why almost all incoming transactions that come on address are 3 numbers repeating?

Not all are
https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/974a5c4d597cb648ad4ee526b79d27d5388c0ccd4a6d72d66da2ef3b2dfdcd81
https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/47d53dd6d9f251dbd3b847ae2dfcb5e9a3a73e554eeba801ee3afbf921b419e6
https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/fea886aef33090775fe8a95c911659a2e7742b95f98b7e4a9620d49c60f559fa

[LoyceV]

Why are there incoming transactions on the addy all the time o.o
At first I thought the balance showed binary because it was 1.10101 but then I saw there were incoming transactions today.

Could it have to do with the hint "little is big"
Many of the transactions come from vanity addresses:
3Phemex
1JEDY
3333333
3666666
3999999
1PHEMEX
1LoveYou
1VERYxx
1MUCHxx
1ThisA1
1VERY1
1NiCE1
1PUZZLE1
(and more)

There's also an OP_RETURN output in many of those transactions. This one for instance:

Code:

Pkscript OP_RETURN
68747470733a2f2f6b6579732e6c6f6c2f626974636f696e2f7b70677d

I have no idea what to make of that.

[Btchunter3333]

Can someone tell me how to convert bitcoin HEX private key to WIF? if that is the key i will give a tip

[bliKz]

Why are there incoming transactions on the addy all the time o.o
At first I thought the balance showed binary because it was 1.10101 but then I saw there were incoming transactions today.

Just ignore this transactions. Some troll keep sending it.

The creators already said on telegram official group that's not part of the puzzle.

For who is interested in joining, heres the link:
https://t.me/Phemex_EN

[Btchunter3333]

How this image can help to solve puzzle?

[DaCryptoRaccoon]

OK lets look over some of the clue's again..

1. The first 21-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e is: 957496696762772407663
2. The private key you derive from Satoshi’s portrait is a big integer, not Wallet Import Format (WIF)
3. The filename of the picture is irrelevant
4. The next step involves converting some words from the portrait, without I/O, into a 27-digit number
5. Go back to step 4) again if you can’t figure it out

Clue 2

After meeting the Phemex team, the Goddess Pheme repeated the words “little is big”, twice within three days.

For clue 1,  I have done some searching and found some reference materials in relation to the consecutive digits of e.

If the "2" at the beginning of e is included, the only values for n <= 1000 that change are a(1) = 2, a(3) = 271 and a(85) = 2718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959574966967627724076630353547 594571

There are also quite a few other patterns that share the "957496696762772407663" number in the OEIS database :

https://oeis.org/A137443/b137443.txt

Clue 2 says the key would be a Big Int which made me think about it could be something to do with elliptic curves over finite fields that may be something to look into?

https://koclab.cs.ucsb.edu/teaching/ecc/eccPapers/Washington-ch04.pdf

Let E be the curve y2 = x3 +x+ 1 over F5. To count points on E, we make a
list of the possible values of x, then of x3 + x + 1 (mod 5), then of the square
roots y of x3 + x + 1 (mod 5). This yields the points on E.

Once I have looked into this some more I will post a further update.

[Btchunter3333]

well yes but how he can get private key or we will get more private keys on different format which will give solution to puzzle?

More this puzzle is about endomorphism and maybe can be solved by an advanced mathematician

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endomorphism


and how this private keys can help us to retrieve private keys from puzzle address?

Code:

Pub Addr: 3Phemexu461g7zmZBGqSZY1e16pZAMaiGE
Priv (WIF): p2wpkh-p2sh: ------------------CSLJzgPHFaWuf6UdbuU5GutTNTKhpWjF1yKrzg
Priv (HEX): ------------------------B3D64B631E5768450AB700D2D53C05B5F8B598E7F28C30BF

Code:

Pub Addr: 1Phemexs4q4spbNHEuarZ1itf5jvy6Yw9K
Priv (WIF): p2pkh: ---------------hqn8x62AwSqN2wh7kKXKXNtMr5YEufcB3F6scd
Priv (HEX): ------------F95082BB234AB2527E21534F765B5B306D4F3FF1C13880BE980

if someone new another step further let's talk and solve together.

[pooya87]

If I convert it I get 26 digits

No, you're right. Not every combination of the words results in a 27 digit number. PhemexBTCETHXRP gives 27 characters, while BTCETHXRPPhemex only gives 26. I didn't actually bother to check which combinations were 26 and which were 27, it would have taken longer to do that than it took to just automatically check them all as I did.

i did the same with 2 alternative additional words: Satoshi and Dorian (it is his picture after all!). used alternative lower case and upper case and both base58 and UTF8 encoding to decode to bytes then to a biginteger in both little and big endian and combined it with the prime as concatenation of the numbers and also with bytes again in both little and big endian. nothing worked

Code:

Pkscript OP_RETURN
68747470733a2f2f6b6579732e6c6f6c2f626974636f696e2f7b70677d

I have no idea what to make of that.

hex -> byte -> UTF8 and you'll see (it is advertising keys.lol site)

[o_e_l_e_o]

Can someone tell me how to convert bitcoin HEX private key to WIF? if that is the key i will give a tip

Just enter the private key in HEX in either https://www.bitaddress.org/ or https://gobittest.appspot.com/PrivateKey, and they will convert it to WIF for you.

Re-reading the clues, I wonder if there is actually two 27 digit numbers. "Little is big" could refer to converting little words (such as "BTC" and "ETH") in to big (27 digit) numbers, and the clue said it was done twice. The previous clues also say to "go back to step 4 again".

Having said that, two 27 digit numbers and a 21 digit is only 75 digits, which isn't quite the 76 or 77 digits in base10 you need to get 64 characters in base16.