ARG Puzzle with 3.5 BTC Private Key Prize, Game Over

[Bartzi]

maybe the number of "things/stones" what ever in the picture? 2 - 1 - 9 There is a Color (#0733db) with the RGB Decimal Code 7, 51, 219....

Meh.... im stuck

Funny:

Camper Van Beethoven – 51-7

I've been through all kind of changes
Cut my hair dyed it black in stages
Been in trouble with the law, but that's all over now
I'm ready for the big time: 51-7

Left home don't think my five brothers ever noticed
Mom half-baked on weed and scientology
My father if I ever find, well don't you never mind
I'm ready for the big time: 51-7

CHORUS:
You think you're strong enough
You think you're tough enough
You think you've got what it takes to be 51-7
You think you're smart enough
You think you know everything
But you don't know anything 'til you're 51-7
51-7 51-7 51-7 51-7

Nothing to believe in except God and country
Can't stand to see ourselves pushed around or fucked with (clean alternative = or disrespected)
Well give me a chance to show the world what I'm made of
Come on, come on, 51-7

CHORUS (x2):
You think you're tough enough
You think you've seen everything
But you ain't seen anything 'til you're 51-7
You think you're smart enough
You think you know it all
But you don't know anything 'til you're 51-7
51-7 51-7 51-7 51-7

[protokol]

I'm currently looking at an obscure link, some guy wrote a book where the Cheshire Cat is a prisoner within Area 51:

http://christopheranton.hubpages.com/hub/Area-51-The-Final-Truth

don't know where the "7" comes into it though. As I said, obscure link  

EDIT:

There also may be an airstrip in Area 51 know as the "Cheshire Airstrip" (it allegedly disappears).
There also exists a series of novels by Robert Doherty, the Area 51 series. The 7th book is called "The Truth" and has a stone circle on the front:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/360928.The_Truth

Still think this is too obscure though...

[rgm108]

I'm currently looking at an obscure link, some guy wrote a book where the Cheshire Cat is a prisoner within Area 51:

http://christopheranton.hubpages.com/hub/Area-51-The-Final-Truth

don't know where the "7" comes into it though. As I said, obscure link  

EDIT:

There also may be an airstrip in Area 51 know as the "Cheshire Airstrip" (it allegedly disappears).
There also exists a series of novels by Robert Doherty, the Area 51 series. The 7th book is called "The Truth" and has a stone circle on the front:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/360928.The_Truth

Still think this is too obscure though...

lol. I also looked into area 51 earlier hoping to see structures similar to the pic.
No luck btw...

[Bartzi]

what is with coordinates in minecraft? Can you Reach 7:51? I'll try... EDIT: Ok, Server offline, it has nothing to do with mc

[rgm108]

what is with coordinates in minecraft? Can you Reach 7:51? I'll try... EDIT: Ok, Server offline, it has nothing to do with mc

Someone did check it last night.

[Bartzi]

ok, and when i try to navigate to 7° 51° i am landing depp in the water near somalia....

[S4VV4S]

Probably irrelevant but there is a filehost called Bitshare.

[mirth23]

mirth23's helpful summary #57

current data set:
- original image with undeciphered characters
- 7z file titled "Onion"
- image file titled Hint.jpg, dimensions 799x1039
- slightly hidden plaintext clues: "7:51" "Bit Sha"
- ghost images in the background of the image

probable next step:
- find the password to open 1.7z

solution thoughts:
- there are a number of bible verses that apply to 7:51 (John, Acts, 1 Kings, Numbers); none of them seem particularly useful
- googling "BitSha" didn't give us much useful. presumably "Sha" refers to the hash algorithm
- x=7 z=51 on the minecraft server didn't have much to see (server appears down now)
- 7:51 might mean the range between 7 and 51 of some other puzzle element
- we've got a few interesting primes with 7, 51, and the image height
- 51 is the length of a private bitcoin key
- what does "Onion" mean? a TOR address? many layers of an onion? something else?
- image analysis of this particular image appears to be best done with LAB and CYMK
- there are a LOT of unexplained artifacts remaining in the image. a darker wide vertical band in the middle, several places with possible text, figures, etc. perhaps the text is a hint to further decoding the image?
- I am pretty certain that the central image is not the Cheshire Cat, it looks more like burial mounds or standing stones
- all other puzzles have involved a video game - does the ghost image look familiar to anyone in that context?

[etamine]

Extremely relevant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNkjmTQ3AiA

[S4VV4S]

Extremely relevant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNkjmTQ3AiA

Here:

[jc01480]

Alice first meets three cards (the 2, 5 and 7 of Spades) in the Queen's garden painting white roses red. One of them explains that they accidentally planted white roses, and because the queen hates white roses they have to paint them red or the Queen will behead them. After the Queen arrives, she finds white roses and orders the execution of all three of them. Alice hides these 3 in a flowerpot, after this their fte is unknown. When Alice joins a game of croquet with the Queen and the other playing cards, the card soldiers act as arches. They have to leave being arches every time the Queen has an executioner drag the victim away. They also appear in the trial where the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts. In the book, the clubs are soldiers, the diamonds are courtiers, the spades are gardners, and the hearts are children.

Tried to post photo to no avail.

[S4VV4S]

Alice first meets three cards (the 2, 5 and 7 of Spades) in the Queen's garden painting white roses red. One of them explains that they accidentally planted white roses, and because the queen hates white roses they have to paint them red or the Queen will behead them. After the Queen arrives, she finds white roses and orders the execution of all three of them. Alice hides these 3 in a flowerpot, after this their fte is unknown. When Alice joins a game of croquet with the Queen and the other playing cards, the card soldiers act as arches. They have to leave being arches every time the Queen has an executioner drag the victim away. They also appear in the trial where the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts. In the book, the clubs are soldiers, the diamonds are courtiers, the spades are gardners, and the hearts are children.

Tried to post photo to no avail.

Hmmm, funny you say this.

7-5=2-1=1 exactly the name of the file.............

[mtgox555]

The name of the file is the layer. First we had layer 0 then layer 1. My bet is the next file is named 2.7z

Not that i thought it would work but i gave bruteforcing a chance. The password is longer than 4 chars

[Kangaderoo]

What do you do in an ARG when stuck?

Backtrack the steps that were made, just to see if clue's were missed.
The Morse code topic was brilliant, I've been puzzling long on the remaining code, until the enderman overlay popped up.

Too bad the overlay image was hard to find, google is not always your friend :-(
With the overlay the bit .ly adress had to be found.

This hint was availlabe 24 hours before the result was posted on the forum

The word "CoNtra" pops up to me.

Current hint: ask a classic, avid gamer

"Contra" - my guess is contra code: http://www.ign.com/cheats/games/c-nes-5653



 

That, and the fact that you are actually the owner/creator of the bit. ly/mindthecraft link makes you
the puppet master.
bitly .com/u/xavier46930

The trip through MineCraft... I could not track.
The current status, the 7z file...
bitly .com/1juqeCj+

This link has been created on 28th of Juli... thats a couple of days after the start of the quest.

So Xavier.... one question, if you please.
It there an excisting live trail that leads to the price, or are we only making the progress while
the puppetmaster is awake and is the trail made as we go along.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind spending time to search/find clue's....

last clue I found... off the trail, but sharing the info anyway.
bitly .com/u/coinartist

[Mitchell]

Hmmm, it seems weird that coinartist has a bitly link for a Pufferfish article. Might have something to do with the puzzle. Who knows?

[S4VV4S]

The name of the file is the layer. First we had layer 0 then layer 1. My bet is the next file is named 2.7z

Not that i thought it would work but i gave bruteforcing a chance. The password is longer than 4 chars

You broke one of the rules......

[davida]

For the password to 1.7z I tried characters 7-51 of sha-256 hash of the Hint.jpg image itself but no luck! 

[jc01480]

The name of the file is the layer. First we had layer 0 then layer 1. My bet is the next file is named 2.7z

Not that i thought it would work but i gave bruteforcing a chance. The password is longer than 4 chars

You broke one of the rules......

Don't piss off the Queen of Hearts.  She lobs heads off...

[jc01480]

7+5+1=13. Naw...
7-5-1=1.  Ace?  Of spades, maybe?

52 cards in a deck, yet only 1 has power in the storyline.  Queen of Hearts.

[mtgox555]

With the fear of copying a past solution i made this from the youtube video of alice in videoland
https://i.imgur.com/EUbfhdh.jpg