Guess the private key, win the bitcoins (puzzle game)

[Cassius]

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

[roslinpl]

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??
How much I will get if I will solve it?

[Cassius]

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??
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.

[Cassius]

Bump: new hints available!

[sed]

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

[Cassius]

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.

[Jouke]

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

[zetaray]

This will be fun, I will have a go 

[roslinpl]

This will be fun, I will have a go 

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

I cannot figure out the right answer yet ...

[zetaray]

This will be fun, I will have a go 

good luck 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?

[roslinpl]

This will be fun, I will have a go 

good luck 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 and you are closer to an answer
But still more puzzles pieces to put in a right place.

[Cassius]

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.

[circusmidget11]

This will be fun, I will have a go 

good luck 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?   

[medUSA]

I love a puzzle!
"Llyswen > south" could be A470

[Jouke]

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?

[Cassius]

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!

[Jouke]

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!

[Cassius]

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.

[Jouke]

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

[Cassius]

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