1.1 BTC Puzzle by Phemex

[yazher]

This kind of puzzles is not fit for ordinary people like me, only those who are involved in some kind of programmers or encoders work can solve this kind of puzzle. anyway, the reward is big enough to make every bitcoiners participate in it. however, only a few of them are capable of knowing what is really happening here. 

[1715450679]

1715450679

[1715450679]

1715450679

[1715450679]

1715450679

[alexsandria]

Would you mind if you will state some good instructions on how we will going to solve the puzzle? All I can see is a face and an eye wuth numbers and it is pretty hard to guess on how we wre going to solve this puzzle and problem. But it seems that the puzzle was s really hard one because until now no one solve it and maybe there are some people who still don't understand this puzzle like me.
Just state some good idea and instructions.

[Flangler]

Would you mind if you will state some good instructions on how we will going to solve the puzzle? All I can see is a face and an eye wuth numbers and it is pretty hard to guess on how we wre going to solve this puzzle and problem. But it seems that the puzzle was s really hard one because until now no one solve it and maybe there are some people who still don't understand this puzzle like me.
Just state some good idea and instructions.

Address is 1h8BNZkhsPiu6EKazP19WkGxDw3jHf9aT

The compressed public key is 02b4a72e4aaa69ba04b80c6891df01f50d191a65eccc61e4e9862d1e421ce815b3.

21 digit prime is 957496696762772407663.

Some words from the image need to be converted into a 27-digit decimal number.

The solution consists in 3 steps:

Finding the 21-digit prime
Converting some words from the image into a 27-digit decimal number.
This step is not known yet but is probably a function of the numbers found in steps 1 and 2 to generate a private key.
The 27-digit number does not start with and probably doesn't contain the 21-digit number (since Max claimed he could only recognize the 2-leading digits easily).

Puzzle is solvable without hints.

Capitalization of words in puzzle matters.

27-digit number is not necessarily a prime.

27-digit number doesn't involve consecutive digits of e.

Max's birthday, username, etc. are not relevant.

Only Max knows the private key but both Jack and Cecilia (chief marketing) know the method.
Letter from MAX:

"The first 21-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e is: 957496696762772407663
Already known
"The private key you derive from Satoshi’s portrait is a big integer, not Wallet Import Format (WIF)"
Seems self-evident since WIF is just a copy/paste friendly encoding of a private key.
"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"
27-digit decimal number is too small to be the output of a hash function so we can probalby exclude their use for generating the number.
I/O possibly refers to Input/Output which could be a synonym for communication with the outside world (e.g. the puzzle is solvable without additional information found on the web).
I/O possibly refers to the fact that base58 encoding excludes the letters I, O, l, and 0.:

Source: https://github.com/olalonde/phemex-puzzle/blob/master/CLUES.md

[rosengold]

someone knows the third step ?

[bliKz]

Here's the "solution":

https://phemex.com/references/articles/puzzle-ending

[pooya87]

Here's the "solution":

https://phemex.com/references/articles/puzzle-ending

so our initial guess that this is NOT a puzzle but instead a brute force attempt was correct.
and now that the "solution" is released we can be sure that it was impossible to brute force this because the number of cases to check is gigantic and we did not have enough clues specially since we were supposed to use different charsets for the Base-58 decoding and also skip the 3 strings (ETH, BTC, XRP) that were inside that picture and the previous clues suggested they were used!

conclusion: the same as i said day one, this was an advertisement.

[o_e_l_e_o]

so our initial guess that this is NOT a puzzle but instead a brute force attempt was correct.

Not only that, but the "clues" they released were not only useless, but actively led people in the wrong direction and away from the correct answer.

The first clue was this:

The next step involves converting some words from the portrait, without I/O, into a 27-digit number

The actual solution was to convert the words "SatoshiNakamoto". Neither the word "Satoshi" nor "Nakamoto" appear anywhere in the portrait, and all the words which do appear in the portrait would obviously give the wrong solution.

If you look at some of the hints that were given on telegram: https://github.com/olalonde/phemex-puzzle/blob/master/CLUES.md#possible-hints-given-on-telegram

Max said Paul was in the right direction after he said "we should find a way to convert BTC, XRP, ETH and Phemex to numbers.

We know now this is completely wrong.

Honestly, not only were there not enough clues to reasonable deduce the answer, and not only were there too many possibilities to simply brute force, but the clues and hints which were given out would make it impossible to solve if you followed them, not easier. The whole point of a giveaway like this is to actually give the funds away - they should have released more and more clues until someone claimed the prize, not deliberately obfuscate the answer and then shut the whole thing down without a winner.

[LoyceV]

conclusion: the same as i said day one, this was an advertisement.

Nothing wrong with that, of course they're trying to promote their site. But by not actually continuing by giving real hints until there is a winner, they only make themselves look bad.
Then again, there is no bad publicity.

[Flangler]

the hard part is figuring out what the hell this puzzle means and WHAT to try because it is the least clear puzzle i have ever seen and i've seen lots of them.

This. It's not really a puzzle when people are just blindly bruteforcing thousands of potential combinations. The whole point of a puzzle is that there should be logical clues which one can follow to reach the intended outcome. There was zero way to know we are meant to convert the words in to a number before he said so on his blog. There was zero way to know we are looking for a 27 digit number before he said so on his blog. And even with the additional "hints" he has released, there is still no logical path from start to finish. There are people on twitter and GitHub who have bruteforced hundreds of thousands of combinations and methods of turning those 4 words in to numbers, and combining those numbers with the 21 digit prime, and turning the result in to a private key. At this point, it is just a guessing game. Somebody might blindly stumble on the right answer, but it will be through sheer luck, not through any logical reasoning.

It's a bad puzzle, and it's only the size of the prize that is keeping people interested.

You just understood the whole idea of this event. The main idea of this puzzle is to get the Phemex exchange more popular. When I showed this puzzle to my friend who is a senior developer he said that the puzzle is probably that hard that you have a miracle to solve. I'm not arguing that it isn't solvable but it requires a tons of free time.  Eventually, the puzzle will be solved probably by the person from Phemex and they will split the prize. Seeing how people with extreme knowledge about cryptographic and programming failed I really doubt someone from outside Phemex will solve it.

You can not expect 1.1 BTC to just drop on your lap. Can you?

See, I was right the Puzzle was impossible to solve/

[Sadlife]

Im not good or expert in Cryptography and i will probably wouldn't try the challenge for 1.1 BTC only. I've seen people trying to break computer puzzles and some of them really spent all their lives breaking it to no avail like in Cicada puzzle. And what if, the puzzle needs some bruteforcing it would take quite an amount of cpu power in who knows what type of encryption their using and if that doesn't work you have to find new ways to solve it, it's like to trying to find a needle on the vast desert.

[rosengold]

They said "The puzzle is solvable without hints" I totally disagree, and now we know that it was just an advertisement for phemex. bad way to start, but yes, there's no bad publicity.

SOLUTION

The first 21-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e is: 957496696762772407663

27-digit number: 237871847045914904726285415 (first hint came out on Jan. 23, two times within three days, also refer to the first two digits:23), b58decode(‘SatoshiNakamoto’), convert the bytes to integer using little endian, which is bigger than that of big endian, charset(default):’123456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz’

Last number:554405551875, b58decode(‘Phemex’) convert the bytes to integer using little endian,which is also bigger than that of big endian, charset(xrp):’rpshnaf39wBUDNEGHJKLM4PQRST7VWXYZ2bcdeCg65jkm8oFqi1tuvAxyz’

This is the final private key in decimal:126272244427365764086102017718794198001099243823071433146875 =957496696762772407663*237871847045914904726285415*554405551875,

0x141dc7bec50472bb381be8e18f6d6b397773d71fc5d91d41fb in hexadecimal

WIF: KwDiBf89QgGfm2CrqioD77Q1g7urAhFcGUyUCQP3GdGAwCQRszmY

Address: 1h8BNZkhsPiu6EKazP19WkGxDw3jHf9aT

[100bitcoin]

They said "The puzzle is solvable without hints" I totally disagree, and now we know that it was just an advertisement for phemex. bad way to start, but yes, there's no bad publicity.

SOLUTION

The first 21-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e is: 957496696762772407663

27-digit number: 237871847045914904726285415 (first hint came out on Jan. 23, two times within three days, also refer to the first two digits:23), b58decode(‘SatoshiNakamoto’), convert the bytes to integer using little endian, which is bigger than that of big endian, charset(default):’123456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz’

Last number:554405551875, b58decode(‘Phemex’) convert the bytes to integer using little endian,which is also bigger than that of big endian, charset(xrp):’rpshnaf39wBUDNEGHJKLM4PQRST7VWXYZ2bcdeCg65jkm8oFqi1tuvAxyz’

This is the final private key in decimal:126272244427365764086102017718794198001099243823071433146875 =957496696762772407663*237871847045914904726285415*554405551875,

0x141dc7bec50472bb381be8e18f6d6b397773d71fc5d91d41fb in hexadecimal

WIF: KwDiBf89QgGfm2CrqioD77Q1g7urAhFcGUyUCQP3GdGAwCQRszmY

Address: 1h8BNZkhsPiu6EKazP19WkGxDw3jHf9aT

Utter BS. The puzzle was unsolvable IMHO. There is no use of BTC, ETH & XRP! There was no way to know the involvement of Little Endian before the last hint either. I lost so many days behind it.

[Cavanagh]

This is the final private key in decimal:126272244427365764086102017718794198001099243823071433146875 =957496696762772407663*237871847045914904726285415*554405551875,

Can someone explain how Phemex got from this concatenated stage: 957496696762772407663 - 237871847045914904726285415 - 554405551875
(The 3 number strings we were tasked to discover from each of the 3 steps, although the third step was never mentioned or hinted at. i.e. - You had to guess you were looking for a 12 digit number to add on to the end using a word from the portrait which was converted from the obscure Ripple alphabet) and converting it into the Private Key Decimal number that = 126272244427365764086102017718794198001099243823071433146875 ?

Basically, how is the 3 string number converted to that decimal number and how is that decimal number converted into a WIF and Hex? Is Java the only way?
It can't be done on your bog standard Brainwallet website at that stage. Only once you have the WIF (Compressed or uncompressed) and/or the Hex number can you use it to find the corresponding correct Public Keys on Brainwallet or Bitcoinpaperwallet etc.

[seoincorporation]

...
Utter BS. The puzzle was unsolvable IMHO. There is no use of BTC, ETH & XRP! There was no way to know the involvement of Little Endian before the last hint either. I lost so many days behind it.

I agree, they never give a hint about the Little Endian on the puzzle, without that was kind of impossible. There are too many ways to encript a name and get numbers.

I feel disapointed about this giveaway too, feels rigged to me.

[pooya87]

The actual solution was to convert the words "SatoshiNakamoto". Neither the word "Satoshi" nor "Nakamoto" appear anywhere in the portrait, and all the words which do appear in the portrait would obviously give the wrong solution.

not to mention that this picture is the picture of someone called "Dorian Nakamoto". and even if you used these that meant your brute force numbers would have been multiplied by 7 ("Satoshi", "SatoshiNakamoto", "Satoshi Nakamoto", "Dorian", "Dorian Nakamoto", "DorianNakamoto", "Nakamoto").
not having a space between the two words is absurd itself too....

[SteepPepper]

It was necessary to apply brute force to the author’s brain. I went over and the correct option from 0 to 999 exactly as in the solution. But I did not take into account that he used the second version of base58. I came late. I only had 1 week. Another week - and I would have hacked it. Since I understand how the author thinks. He is not very smart ...

[SpanishSoldier]

It was necessary to apply brute force to the author’s brain. I went over and the correct option from 0 to 999 exactly as in the solution. But I did not take into account that he used the second version of base58. I came late. I only had 1 week. Another week - and I would have hacked it. Since I understand how the author thinks. He is not very smart ...

WoW! So, you must be a genius. Why dont you apply your intellect here and help us to solve this 100 ETH Puzzle - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5240826.0 ?

[n1nj4]

Okay, serious question here, How do these folks know what satoshi looked like to be able to create a portrait of him like that? Did anyone stop to ask this question?

[pooya87]

Okay, serious question here, How do these folks know what satoshi looked like to be able to create a portrait of him like that? Did anyone stop to ask this question?

this whole thing was a sham to advertise their crappy exchange.
the picture is also a very old news where a magazine found a Japanese American dude with the same birth name and started an article claiming this dude is the creator of bitcoin. suffice it to say that it was nonsense. read more on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto#Dorian_Nakamoto