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Author Topic: Guess the private key, win the bitcoins (puzzle game)  (Read 6611 times)
Cassius (OP)
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April 17, 2014, 02:38:22 PM
Last edit: April 23, 2014, 09:22:29 AM by Cassius
 #1

Here's a new episode to the puzzle game I piloted a couple of weeks back:
http://bitscan.com/articles/missing-keys-the-mystery-continues

Those clues were guessed pretty fast so hopefully this one will take a little longer. This is the first of three related episodes, to be released over the next month or so.

Original episode (for background) here: bitscan.com/articles/mystery-bitcoin-game-the-hidden-keys

UPDATE: hints available at http://bitscan.com/articles/missing-keys-clue-hints-revealed
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April 17, 2014, 03:25:11 PM
 #2

Here's a new episode to the puzzle game I piloted a couple of weeks back:
http://bitscan.com/articles/missing-keys-the-mystery-continues

Those clues were guessed pretty fast so hopefully this one will take a little longer. This is the first of three related episodes, to be released over the next month or so.

Original episode (for background) here: bitscan.com/articles/mystery-bitcoin-game-the-hidden-keys



so what is a bounty for that one?? Smiley
How much I will get if I will solve it?
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April 17, 2014, 03:36:15 PM
 #3

Here's a new episode to the puzzle game I piloted a couple of weeks back:
http://bitscan.com/articles/missing-keys-the-mystery-continues

Those clues were guessed pretty fast so hopefully this one will take a little longer. This is the first of three related episodes, to be released over the next month or so.

Original episode (for background) here: bitscan.com/articles/mystery-bitcoin-game-the-hidden-keys



so what is a bounty for that one?? Smiley
How much I will get if I will solve it?

Did you get the last one? The winner didn't let us know...
The first one has a prize of 0.05 in the address, plus a bonus if they get in touch to claim it (see what we did there?).
But this is the first of three. There will be small prizes along the way, and a bigger pot at the end if you can get them all.
Still ironing out the kinks but hopefully it will be fun.
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April 23, 2014, 09:32:03 AM
 #4

Bump: new hints available!
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April 23, 2014, 07:09:33 PM
 #5

These are fun, but I'm terrible at this kind of puzzle.  Good luck to everyone!
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April 23, 2014, 08:55:06 PM
 #6

These are fun, but I'm terrible at this kind of puzzle.  Good luck to everyone!

Subsequent episodes will work on different principles - they won't all be this kind of rebus.
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April 24, 2014, 08:29:40 AM
 #7

Your uncle really used the MiniKey standard? So 30 characters in base58 only, with 00-check?

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April 24, 2014, 10:35:07 AM
 #8

This will be fun, I will have a go  Grin

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April 24, 2014, 10:51:10 AM
 #9

This will be fun, I will have a go  Grin

good luck Smiley I must say this puzzle is really hard ...

I cannot figure out the right answer yet ...
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April 24, 2014, 11:16:40 AM
 #10

This will be fun, I will have a go  Grin

good luck Smiley I must say this puzzle is really hard ...

I cannot figure out the right answer yet ...


I will try, but may not get anywhere.
Well, C21H23NO5 is heroin, 360' is 30 yards?

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April 24, 2014, 12:27:28 PM
 #11

This will be fun, I will have a go  Grin

good luck Smiley I must say this puzzle is really hard ...

I cannot figure out the right answer yet ...


I will try, but may not get anywhere.
Well, C21H23NO5 is heroin, 360' is 30 yards?

Yes you are perhaps right Smiley and you are closer to an answer Wink
But still more puzzles pieces to put in a right place.
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April 24, 2014, 12:46:37 PM
 #12

Your uncle really used the MiniKey standard? So 30 characters in base58 only, with 00-check?

You seem surprised - why?

Yes, it's a minikey, but in fact it's base 32: numbers and caps only. (This was explained in the first episode.)
This still makes it way to hard to brute force (145 bits of entropy - the original Casascius coins had 123) but easier to remember and less confusion about whether any given clue is upper or lower case.
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April 24, 2014, 10:10:06 PM
 #13

This will be fun, I will have a go  Grin

good luck Smiley I must say this puzzle is really hard ...

I cannot figure out the right answer yet ...


I will try, but may not get anywhere.
Well, C21H23NO5 is heroin, 360' is 30 yards?

Well this is definitely challenging but 30 yards of heroin is something to think about...Breaking Bad?   Cheesy

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April 25, 2014, 05:04:59 AM
 #14

I love a puzzle!
"Llyswen > south" could be A470
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April 25, 2014, 08:03:39 AM
 #15

Your uncle really used the MiniKey standard? So 30 characters in base58 only, with 00-check?

You seem surprised - why?

Yes, it's a minikey, but in fact it's base 32: numbers and caps only. (This was explained in the first episode.)
This still makes it way to hard to brute force (145 bits of entropy - the original Casascius coins had 123) but easier to remember and less confusion about whether any given clue is upper or lower case.
A minikey is base58 and has the 00-check. Base58 means for example that no zero is allowed in the key.
Base32 is all capital letters, and the numbers 2 till 7. By mentioning base32 I am now even more confused.

Edit: is the 00-?-check still in place?

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Cassius (OP)
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April 25, 2014, 08:22:09 AM
 #16

Your uncle really used the MiniKey standard? So 30 characters in base58 only, with 00-check?

You seem surprised - why?

Yes, it's a minikey, but in fact it's base 32: numbers and caps only. (This was explained in the first episode.)
This still makes it way to hard to brute force (145 bits of entropy - the original Casascius coins had 123) but easier to remember and less confusion about whether any given clue is upper or lower case.
A minikey is base58 and has the 00-check. Base58 means for example that no zero is allowed in the key.
Base32 is all capital letters, and the numbers 2 till 7. By mentioning base32 I am now even more confused.

Edit: is the 00-?-check still in place?

It's a totally standard minikey, so yes the 00 check is still in place. The only difference is that the characterset has been reduced:
BASE32 = '23456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ'
BASE58 = '23456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz'
So it's a base 32, not the 'standard' base 32 (which I understand isn't used that much). Sorry for the ambiguity.
If you want to see the code used to generate the minikey, take a look at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mini_private_key_format#Python_Code
Aside from using a reduced characterset, the only major difference is that I used a better source of entropy than random.
I've used all caps and numbers simply because I didn't want people to have to wonder whether a clue was upper or lower case.
Hope that helps!
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April 25, 2014, 09:52:30 AM
 #17

Your uncle really used the MiniKey standard? So 30 characters in base58 only, with 00-check?

You seem surprised - why?

Yes, it's a minikey, but in fact it's base 32: numbers and caps only. (This was explained in the first episode.)
This still makes it way to hard to brute force (145 bits of entropy - the original Casascius coins had 123) but easier to remember and less confusion about whether any given clue is upper or lower case.
A minikey is base58 and has the 00-check. Base58 means for example that no zero is allowed in the key.
Base32 is all capital letters, and the numbers 2 till 7. By mentioning base32 I am now even more confused.

Edit: is the 00-?-check still in place?

It's a totally standard minikey, so yes the 00 check is still in place. The only difference is that the characterset has been reduced:
BASE32 = '23456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ'
BASE58 = '23456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz'
So it's a base 32, not the 'standard' base 32 (which I understand isn't used that much). Sorry for the ambiguity.
If you want to see the code used to generate the minikey, take a look at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mini_private_key_format#Python_Code
Aside from using a reduced characterset, the only major difference is that I used a better source of entropy than random.
I've used all caps and numbers simply because I didn't want people to have to wonder whether a clue was upper or lower case.
Hope that helps!
Yes, thanks!

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April 25, 2014, 10:31:16 AM
 #18

So, presumably you are coding a brute force app...
When you've done, I'll be interested to find out how many combinations per second it can guess. That might help me calibrate further puzzles, assuming they use the same principles.
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April 25, 2014, 04:21:18 PM
 #19

So, presumably you are coding a brute force app...
When you've done, I'll be interested to find out how many combinations per second it can guess. That might help me calibrate further puzzles, assuming they use the same principles.
I just made a little script to go from minikey to address to see if my answers were correct. But I am about to give up Sad

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April 25, 2014, 04:33:12 PM
 #20

Check back regularly - there will be hints every couple of days until it goes.
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