ARG Puzzle with 3.5 BTC Private Key Prize, Game Over

[xELx]

Theres no need to stress him

Edit: What would you do when you had won the price? I would pay my tuition fee and the rest would go to the others

If I had won it would have gone towards my engagement ring fund for the SO.

[1715176853]

1715176853

[1715176853]

1715176853

[1715176853]

1715176853

[1715176853]

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[1715176853]

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[1715176853]

1715176853

[arg-sidekick]

what card you whant?
i have about 20 hd5970, hd5870, hd5850.. older cards now, but still very powerfull beasts!

This would be for a gaming rig. I know, talking gaming GPU's on a BTC forum. I've been eyeing up the 780's for my next build but if I had 1.75BTC, I would have topped up to a titan black. Or maybe just a TI. It's not like I spend enough time in front of a computer as is..

If I had won it would have gone towards my engagement ring fund for the SO.

Are.. are you proposing to me? On here? HOW ROMANTIC! Yes! Yes, I will, xELx.

[xELx]

If I had won it would have gone towards my engagement ring fund for the SO.

Are.. are you proposing to me? On here? HOW ROMANTIC! Yes! Yes, I will, xELx.

Hey now, let's keep this civil. This is the internet after all.

[mirth23]

My attempt to identify where credit is due. This is a certainly flawed list of the people who were the first to post crucial points of progress on puzzles. There were also many other contributions to the effort from people who appear infrequently on this list, or in some cases, not at all, but these were the big steps that moved us forward:

(dark wallet)
> suggested morse code: S4VV4S
> determined proper direction for morse decoding: moinen
> correct set of long words: shorena
> correct search phrase: mirth23

(contra)
> found the enderman image: codenomnom / mtgox555
> posted enderman image: micaman
> created correct image overlay: moinen
> found bitly address: Gatekeeper

(mindthecraft)
> found IP address: Gatekeeper
> linked IP address to minecraft: mtgox555

(minecraft server)
> posted QR quadrant 1: newuser01
> QR quadrants 2-4: newuser01, shorena, moinen, and several others
> assembled QR: moinen

(Onion.7z)
> opened 7z: Yemmster
> posted hidden text: Yemmster
> noted swordfighting characters: S4VV4S
> found Tomb of Horrors hint: mtgox555
> found Tomb of Horrors image: mtgox555
> figured out to double-sha passwords: Timmmaahh

(Elements.jpg)
> posted about platonic solids: mtgox555
> figured out basic password approach: mtgox555
> first opened 7z: arg
> found ps thumbnail shortcut to Again.7z: arg
> figured out full password (after hint): mtgox555

(Algo.jpg)
> identified figure as a Tetractys: Gatekeeper
> determined password: micaman

(DoD)
> noted music files were recently modified: Yemmster
> found QR codes in audio: protokol, arg, Prospero
> decoded QR code: arg

(Space.mp4)
> found song information: tsoPANos
> found original video source: mirth23
> pulled binary out of Space.mp4: arg/Voyager
> converted binary to .7z: alphabetacanary
> posted password approach: mirth23, Prospero, arg
> found password first: arg
> posted password: xELx

(Crops.jpg)
> identified the particular crop circle: mirth23
> found the source image: Timmmaahh
> found correct morse code: mtgox555
> found Wow signal page: xELx
> found signal strength password: Prospero

(Wow.JPG)
> correct interpretation of character map: xELx (during the Crops puzzle)
> identification of Vigenère cipher approach: several people
> figured out OP hint to make w uppercaes: Gatekeeper

Thanks again to everyone for fun times. I learned a couple things, and dusted off parts of my brain that I haven't had a chance to use in a while.

[rapport]

I want to take a moment to say thank you to all the players: to those who showed support - your words resonated deep and carried me through the game, to those who gave criticism when criticism was due - I listened closely and took note, and finally to everyone who contributed their time, creativity, and efforts - I am in awe of your talents and skills. I leave this experience humbled by a wonderful and dynamic community.

Are you Tatiana? http://bitcoinmagazine.com/12191/transcript-interview-tatiana-moroz-regarding-sxsw-bitcoin

hell of a puzzle (I came in too late)

[rapport]

long thread, and I searched, but how was z69JZqlJn862D1ndx7oLVEMmVOlP1zewEeUCrsI7Roahzpeny7P obtained from some image?

its from the top line in file wow.jpg

thanks, guess that part was relatively easy

[rapport]

Can someone tell me the thread page of the the clue right before this got solved? This thread progresses way too fast, and I do check up on it but I don't fully read all 114 pages.

Look at Gatekeeper's posts, eg:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=661781.msg7708242#msg7708242

[mirth23]

Can someone tell me the thread page of the the clue right before this got solved? This thread progresses way too fast, and I do check up on it but I don't fully read all 114 pages.

This was my summary of all the clues that we had at the time: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=661781.msg7707789#msg7707789

Then OP posted the image that Gatekeeper replicated here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=661781.msg7708233#msg7708233

Which led to the solution, which was to make the 'w' in the 51 byte string uppercase, then to apply the Wow signal strength as a cipher key (which several of us had already attempted and published the results of).

[Kangaderoo]

See you all at the next treasurehunt.

[micaman]

Any chance we can get a final version of that awesome .PDF?

[mirth23]

Any chance we can get a final version of that awesome .PDF?

shorena is making progress on it. I'm helping out a tiny bit.

[micaman]

Any chance we can get a final version of that awesome .PDF?

shorena is making progress on it. I'm helping out a tiny bit.

Thanks. If there's something I can do to help, feel free to ask.

[shorena]

Any chance we can get a final version of that awesome .PDF?

shorena is making progress on it. I'm helping out a tiny bit.

Thanks. If there's something I can do to help, feel free to ask.

Here you go: https://mega.co.nz/#!N5oUUBQR!T9PvfVCW-u2XZQZQcOREjkZsFrCqb0jVF432KhDyH8g (has been updated, see below)

I could have written more at the end, but I think I shouldnt have. There is a whole educational part I decided not to touch. The background is that I used to study education and even taught in school. The educational system however is fundamentally flawed. But I also have problems to translate these thoughts into english. You probably know this yourself. School is not inspiring, its depressing, it restraines learning. If I didnt know better Id think the educational system is intentional bad to keep the masses calm in front of the TV.

Think what this picture made you learn the last two weeks. This could happen in schools, in companies, everywhere around the world learning could be discovering and not memorization. Im rambling again, aint I?

Anyway I didnt include the thanks in the pdf because I felt I should end with a question

Thanks OP, thanks all those the contributed, thanks all those that watched in silence, maybe next time you will join in. I enjoyed this journey very much. Maybe there will be something as exhilarating in the future. But I honestly think this was a once in a lifetime event.

Id also like to call attention to this post by S4VV4S: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=683366.0

I have yet to understand it, but apparently there are more riddles in this than we thought. I have to admit: I need a break. I have to tend my life a bit.


Edit 14.07.: Corrected the PDF thanks to micaman:
https://mega.co.nz/#!8tITXZRQ!4wDTy5j-MgzeDFt_N81ieTwGLvm0eN5GZtVpCrB2NE4

the list in section 3.11 was not correct.

[Remember remember the 5th of November]

Any chance we can get a final version of that awesome .PDF?

shorena is making progress on it. I'm helping out a tiny bit.

Thanks. If there's something I can do to help, feel free to ask.

Here you go: https://mega.co.nz/#!N5oUUBQR!T9PvfVCW-u2XZQZQcOREjkZsFrCqb0jVF432KhDyH8g

I could have written more at the end, but I think I shouldnt have. There is a whole educational part I decided not to touch. The background is that I used to study education and even taught in school. The educational system however is fundamentally flawed. But I also have problems to translate these thoughts into english. You probably know this yourself. School is not inspiring, its depressing, it restraines learning. If I didnt know better Id think the educational system is intentional bad to keep the masses calm in front of the TV.

Think what this picture made you learn the last two weeks. This could happen in schools, in companies, everywhere around the world learning could be discovering and not memorization. Im rambling again, aint I?

Anyway I didnt include the thanks in the pdf because I felt I should end with a question

Thanks OP, thanks all those the contributed, thanks all those that watched in silence, maybe next time you will join in. I enjoyed this journey very much. Maybe there will be something as exhilarating in the future. But I honestly think this was a once in a lifetime event.

Id also like to call attention to this post by S4VV4S: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=683366.0

I have yet to understand it, but apparently there are more riddles in this than we thought. I have to admit: I need a break. I have to tend my life a bit.

About school. It's not the problem, but it's far from the solution when in most European countries, kids are not checked for any mental conditions such as ADHD,Autism,Asperger's syndrome which can impede learning, this is why most kids skip school,get bad grades.

[micaman]

The thing is we are forced to learn what they want us to learn, the way they want us to learn.
I saw a TEDx with a kid called Jacob Barnett. He is a 15-year-old genius who was diagnosed with autism. He basically says that we have to stop learning, and start thinking.
That's what happened with Newton, Einstein and many others. They were forced to stop learning by the plague or the Nazis, and had to start thinking by themselves, instead of having to follow someone's path.

I think this is a very interesting point-of-view, as i found myself in the past 2 weeks in a quest towards an objective which required a lot of skills that I didn't have.
The motivation grew naturally as the path and the goal were right in the center of my circle of passions.
I learned about and developed interest in areas I had never "visited" before.

I can even confess that one of the "algorythms" used in the quest helped me to solve a problem at work today. Always a win-win situation.

A big thanks to those who SHARED time/work/knowledge/skills! 

[leanne]

This has got to be beyond my capabilities. I really can't seem to wrap my head around it  But I guess this may very well pass as art - which is truly awesome!

[ooxtcoo]

good work shorena! thanks for complete your pdf!

but one thing... 

And I get easily frustrated, espcially when supporting
Windows. Well, maybe thats Windows fault, not mine

..immer dem werkzeug die schuld geben! 

[ytcoinartist]

Any chance we can get a final version of that awesome .PDF?

shorena is making progress on it. I'm helping out a tiny bit.

Thanks. If there's something I can do to help, feel free to ask.

Here you go: https://mega.co.nz/#!N5oUUBQR!T9PvfVCW-u2XZQZQcOREjkZsFrCqb0jVF432KhDyH8g

I could have written more at the end, but I think I shouldnt have. There is a whole educational part I decided not to touch. The background is that I used to study education and even taught in school. The educational system however is fundamentally flawed. But I also have problems to translate these thoughts into english. You probably know this yourself. School is not inspiring, its depressing, it restraines learning. If I didnt know better Id think the educational system is intentional bad to keep the masses calm in front of the TV.

Think what this picture made you learn the last two weeks. This could happen in schools, in companies, everywhere around the world learning could be discovering and not memorization. Im rambling again, aint I?

Anyway I didnt include the thanks in the pdf because I felt I should end with a question

Thanks OP, thanks all those the contributed, thanks all those that watched in silence, maybe next time you will join in. I enjoyed this journey very much. Maybe there will be something as exhilarating in the future. But I honestly think this was a once in a lifetime event.

Id also like to call attention to this post by S4VV4S: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=683366.0

I have yet to understand it, but apparently there are more riddles in this than we thought. I have to admit: I need a break. I have to tend my life a bit.

I was absolutely delighted this morning when I saw bitcoinmagazine.com. The online header is an image of the puzzle portrait. An accompanying article was written to include shorena's PDF.

http://bitcoinmagazine.com/14850/coin_artists-latest-dark-wallet-puzzle-32-page-solution/

[itod]

I was absolutely delighted this morning when I saw bitcoinmagazine.com. The online header is an image of the puzzle portrait. An accompanying article was written to include shorena's PDF.

http://bitcoinmagazine.com/14850/coin_artists-latest-dark-wallet-puzzle-32-page-solution/

Congratulations! Will the original artwork be auctioned someday?

[ytcoinartist]

I was absolutely delighted this morning when I saw bitcoinmagazine.com. The online header is an image of the puzzle portrait. An accompanying article was written to include shorena's PDF.

http://bitcoinmagazine.com/14850/coin_artists-latest-dark-wallet-puzzle-32-page-solution/

Congratulations! Will the original artwork be auctioned someday?

Someday! I wish there was an an online bitcoin auction platform, so all interested parties could participate.