[GAME]Bitcoin Escape Room Season 2 - The Missing Block[$100 reward]

A Bitcoin Forensics Challenge | Season 2
"The evidence is on the chain. The truth is in the details."

What is Bitcoin Escape Room Season 2

This is the second season of my Bitcoin educational puzzle series.
Unlike Season 1, which explored Bitcoin's origins, fundamentals, and history, this season focuses on practical investigation and technical reasoning.
You will examine evidence, interpret Bitcoin data, solve connected puzzles, and explain your conclusions.
You do not need to be a Bitcoin developer. But, curiosity, careful reasoning, and attention to detail will help.

Prize Pool (Paid in BTC )

🥇 1st Place: $50
🥈 2nd Place: $25
🥉 3rd Place: $15

Rules

• Alt-accounts are not allowed and will be reported.
• Must have earned a minimum of 5 merits in the last 120 days.
• Season 2 consists of 6 puzzle rooms and you need to escape them all in order to win.
• Don't just post the answer but show your reasoning. Well-explained answers will always be valued more than one-word replies.
• Discussion is welcome, but every participant must submit their own solution.
• If a room turns out to be too difficult, hints may be released later.
• Winners will be chosen based on the overall quality of their answers across all six rooms and not simply who finishes first.
• Low-effort, copy-pasted, or obvious AI-generated submissions will be disqualified.
• Most importantly, have fun and enjoy the challenge!

Application format

There's no format. Just solve all rooms and climb the leaderboard.
First 3 to escape would be rewarded but additional rewards can be allocated if more users participate.

The Story

Quote

You thought your journey was over when you escaped Satoshi's Vault.
You were wrong.
Several years later, a mysterious message appears on your terminal:
CASE FILE #002: THE MISSING BLOCK
A transaction has reportedly disappeared.
A wallet balance does not add up.
A block's evidence appears inconsistent.
Two sources disagree about what happened.
Someone is hiding a crucial detail.
Your mission is to find it.
You have been given access to a collection of transaction records, block data, technical clues, and witness reports.
Some evidence is reliable. Some may be incomplete. And some conclusions may be more complicated than they first appear.
There are six rooms between you and the truth.

The Rooms

Quote

Room 1 - The Vanishing Transaction
Investigate a missing payment and determine what the available evidence actually proves.

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Room 2 - The Wallet That Doesn’t Add Up
Reconstruct the movement of funds and identify the mystery behind the wallet balance.

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Room 3 - The Forged Block
Examine block data and discover an inconsistency in the evidence.

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Room 4 - The Fee Trap
Investigate competing transactions and determine why their confirmation prospects differ.

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Room 5 - The Two Sources Of Truth
Resolve a disagreement between two sources of Bitcoin data.

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Room 6 - The Final Reconstruction
Combine the clues and reconstruct what really happened.

Release Schedules

To keep the event interactive, each room will be released as a separate post in this thread.

Post Link	Content	Status
Room 1	The Vanishing Transaction	Active until Oct 27th, 2026
Room 2	The Wallet That Doesn't Add Up	Launching on Oct 27th, 2026
Room 3	The Forged Block	TBD
Room 4	The Fee Trap	TBD
Room 5	The Two Sources of Truth	TBD
Room 6	The Final Reconstruction	TBD

Leaderboard

Rank	Bitcointalk Username	Rooms Completed
🥇	-	0/6
🥈	-	0/6
🥉	-	0/6

The leaderboard will be updated after each room is completed.

#The objective is not merely to escape first. It is to demonstrate genuine understanding of Bitcoin.

Final Message

Quote

Every transaction leaves evidence.
Every block tells a story.
But evidence must be interpreted correctly.
Can you separate facts from assumptions, reconstruct the events, and uncover the truth behind the missing block?

The game begins soon.
Stay tuned for Room 1.

Good luck, participants!

A special thanks to AOBT for making this thread accessible in local boards.

Translations can be found here -

Spanish: [JUEGO]Bitcoin Escape Room Temporada 2 - El Bloque Perdido [recompensa 100$], translation by Porfirii
Urdu: [گیم] بٹ کوائن ایسکیپ روم سیزن 2 - گمشدہ بلاک [100 ڈ, translation by snowpega

ROOM 1 – The Vanishing Transaction [Where Did the Payment Go?]

WARNING: THIS IS A SIMULATED CASE. ALL LABELS, TIMESTAMPS, AND OBSERVATIONS BELOW ARE FICTIONAL. THEY DO NOT REFER TO A REAL BITCOIN TRANSACTION.

The Incident

Code:

At 14:00, a user named Alex attempts to pay a supplier 0.015 BTC.
Alex's wallet reports that the transaction was sent. However, the supplier says the payment has not arrived.
Alex checks two blockchain explorers and becomes even more confused.
One explorer cannot find the transaction. Another reports that it is unconfirmed.

Alex contacts you, the investigator:
"My wallet says the payment was sent. 
One explorer says it doesn't exist, another says it is unconfirmed, and the supplier still has no payment. 
Has the Bitcoin network lost my transaction?"

Your mission is to determine what the available evidence proves, what remains uncertain, and what Alex should investigate next.

Exhibits

Quote

Exhibit A - Wallet report

Simulated observation at 14:05

Wallet status - Pending
Amount displayed - 0.015 BTC
Confirmations displayed - 0
Transaction identifier - SIM-TX-ALPHA
Broadcast status - Wallet reports that the transaction was sent

The wallet's report is not an independently verified network record.

Quote

Exhibit B - Explorer Alpha

Simulated observation at 14:10

Search label - SIM-TX-ALPHA
Result - No record found
Confirmation status - Unknown

The explorer's search interface returns no record for the supplied case label.

Quote

Exhibit C - Explorer Beta

Simulated observation at 14:12

Search label - SIM-TX-ALPHA
Result - Unconfirmed
Confirmations displayed - 0

For this fictional exercise, Explorer Beta reports an unconfirmed transaction associated with the case label. The label is a teaching identifier, not a real Bitcoin transaction ID.

Quote

Exhibit D - Node operator's note

Simulated observation at 14:15

A node operator checks their own Bitcoin node and reports: "I cannot find this transaction in my node's current mempool."

The operator has not supplied a raw transaction, a valid transaction ID, a block inclusion proof, or evidence that the node saw the transaction earlier.

Your Mission

Answer all five questions.

Quote

Question 1
What can you conclude?
Based on the four exhibits, what is the strongest conclusion you can reasonably reach?

Question 2
Has the payment been confirmed?
Can you establish that the supplier received a confirmed Bitcoin payment? Explain your reasoning.

Question 3
Why do the records disagree?
Give at least two technically plausible explanations for the inconsistent observations. Clearly distinguish possibilities from established facts.

Question 4
What evidence is missing?
Identify at least three additional pieces of evidence or checks that would help resolve the case.

Question 5
What should Alex do next?
Give a safe, practical investigation plan. Explain what Alex should verify before attempting another payment.

Rules
- Please number your answers from 1 to 5.
- Explain your own understanding.
- Low-effort one-line answers will be ignored.
- Explain your reasoning in your own words. External references are welcome, but cite the specific documentation or source you rely on.

Important: Do not invent a real transaction ID, claim that the fictional payment occurred on the Bitcoin network, or treat an explorer's display as conclusive proof of payment.

Code:

The best investigators do not simply guess what happened. They explain what the evidence supports and what it does not.

Room 1 is now open. Good luck!

Friendly bump..

Room 1 is now live!

Hello BigTarget, please be aware that AOBT started translating this topic of yours. And we have a first translation:

- Urdu translation, made by snowpega

Cheers!

Room 1

1.

A preliminary (and most reasonable) conclusion can be drawn: the presented evidence does not confirm the transaction's inclusion in the block. It is impossible to state with 100% certainty that the transaction was successfully generated by Alex's wallet. No source confirms its inclusion in the blockchain. The evidence does not contradict each other; in particular, they were created at different times. SIM-TX-ALPHA is a training token, not a real Bitcoin txid.

In my country, the cartoon "Hedgehog in the Fog" is popular. The hedgehog wanders in the fog and doesn't understand anything. In my opinion, this is exactly the story!

Quote from: GazetaBitcoin on Today at 05:02:21 AM

Hello BigTarget, please be aware that AOBT started translating this topic of yours. And we have a first translation:

- Urdu translation, made by snowpega

Cheers!

You forgot to mention Spanish translation by Porfirii Grin

Both translations are now added in the footnotes.