[ANN] Buried Keys

[cbeast]

Kudos on the site.  It has the potential to introduce a lot of new people to bitcoins.

I have a couple of suggestions.

No matter how creative you are, you will eventually run out of puzzles.  I suggest you set it up so that users can submit their own puzzles (become puzzle masters).  Encourage users to donate to the prize money and to tip the puzzle masters. Maybe have a minimum prize before you are willing to post a puzzle submission, and when the prize is taken, you would take the puzzle down, or move it to the completed puzzles section. Incorporate a leader board for the puzzle masters, so that people that submit really hard puzzles get recognition.

Another handy tool would be to incorporate the bitaddress.org and blockexplorer functionality into the site, so people don't have to leave the page to check their answers or see the prize total. 

Nice job and best of luck!

Thank you on the kind words. I have a pretty good vision of what I want the site to look like, how it will function, and how to make it grow and scale. I have been thinking of starting a GLBSE to raise funds to hire programmers. In the meantime, I can make more puzzles and find more ideas.

I don't think it is going to require a lot of coding at first, so I will probably just hire someone out of pocket for the initial development so it will spark interest from investors. I would even entertain a partnership in GLBSE stock.

For those folks playing, I encourage teamwork and using technology. This is not the kind of contest that can be won by just googling stuff. Expert knowledge is sometimes needed, but cleverness is almost always required. There are a lot of trick questions. Read them carefully and interpret them in ways not always included in some dictionary or thesaurus, but by other usages as well. I'll need to put that hint on the site.

[scintill]

I am interested in helping build the site.  I can't commit a lot of time to it, but if you've got some smaller ideas you'd like to implement soon I'd love to be involved!  My main environments right now are PHP and Javascript, but I could pick up something else.

[cbeast]

I am interested in helping build the site.  I can't commit a lot of time to it, but if you've got some smaller ideas you'd like to implement soon I'd love to be involved!  My main environments right now are PHP and Javascript, but I could pick up something else.

That's great. I'm not really familiar with PHP and Javascript, but they should do fine. The games are pretty simple. The crossword puzzles I want to be able to run locally offline (for security reasons) and enter the words into the boxes or onto a line that automatically inputs them into the boxes. Right now I'm using a puzzle generator that is not useful for this but there are free Javascript puzzle generators available online that would be worth using as a template to build an interactive one. There will then need to be a solution button that concatenates the words into a string to be copy/pasted into a brainwallet app to see if it matches the given solution.

The Digs can be just entered as strings with each question and then again concatenated into a string for a brainwallet app. It would also be nice if the work in progress can be saved offline on a local drive for the individual to come back to.

I also want a forum for teams to privately or openly discuss questions.

These are just basic functions needed for now. I have a lot more plans.

I am willing to pay some for this, but I need to find another funding source eventually. Msg me privately if you (or anyone) are interested.

[Joric]

Am I doing it right http://tinyurl.com/geobtc ? Not sure it uses spaces, the description is vague it might be \n or something.
Some ppl tried to bruteforce it using http://download.geonames.org/export/dump/allCountries.zip (1GB unzipped) didn't get anything.
If someone will manage to solve it, please report here for gods sake.

[cbeast]

Am I doing it right http://tinyurl.com/geobtc ? Not sure it uses spaces, the description is vague it might be \n or something.
Some ppl tried to bruteforce it using http://download.geonames.org/export/dump/allCountries.zip (1GB unzipped) didn't get anything.
If someone will manage to solve it, please report here for gods sake.

Good work so far, not too many wrong! Here's the thing: I know it's hard. This site (when it is developed) is intended to be world-class hard and not to be completed by an individual. I will go over your answers to see if there is something I can learn about the problem solving process. I do appreciate and applaud your efforts! This will help me make this a better site.

[cbeast]

Let me tell you a little about the inspiration for this site. For awhile I lived in Stevens Point, WI and enjoyed playing in the World's largest trivia contest. It was and still is played on the college radio station as a 54 hour marathon of trivia, music, and madness. Teams would call in answers and earn points. They would also engage in scavenger hunt activities presumably to get out and get some fresh air.

Team members became life-long friends and many made trivia their obsession. Some super-teams would take turns all year-long going to every film played locally, scanning books (before Google), and allegedly even followed The Oz (as he is called, I won't divulge his identity) on summer vacations to see what he enjoyed.

I tell this story to provide a background into the spirit of what trivia is about to me.

[cbeast]

I am re-visioning Buried Keys to add an interactive online game show. It will be more of a party atmosphere. The puzzles will not be easier, but there will be hints and other fun things in store. I want to make this into a contest to win bitcoins based on small entry fees. I'm hoping there will be interest in this concept. There will be more details soon.

[franky1]

I will just say this:

1 ACROSS = SARANGANI
2 DOWN = ...

now leave you all to get started

[DannyHamilton]

This is fun.  I see that the Bible Dig hasn't been claimed yet, so I'm working on that one at the moment.  I've got 10 answers (probably the 10 easiest ones), there are a 2 more that I expect to be able to find eventually.  Then there are 3 that I know I'm going to struggle with.

[cbeast]

I was notified that question 9 in the Bible dig is poorly structured. In this case, I will agree to rewrite the question in (hopefully) proper English.

[DannyHamilton]

I was notified that question 9 in the Bible dig is poorly structured. In this case, I will agree to rewrite the question in (hopefully) proper English.

It worked fine for me.  I'm pretty sure I managed to find the correct answer. If you really feel a need to rewrite it, I'll take another look afterward to see if I still get the same answer, but I doubt it is necessary.

The 5 questions that I'm still working on in that dig are 3, 4, 8, 11, and 14.

[cbeast]

AHHH!!! I can't believe I missed this. My instructions are incomplete. When I said that modern spelling will be used, I meant only the questions, not the answers. The answers are as they appear in KJV 1611. I hope this did not throw anyone off. I will correct the intructions in bold.

[DannyHamilton]

AHHH!!! I can't believe I missed this. My instructions are incomplete. When I said that modern spelling will be used, I meant only the questions, not the answers. The answers are as they appear in KJV 1611. I hope this did not throw anyone off. I will correct the intructions in bold.

I had already figured that out and was hoping that the only reason the bitcoins weren't claimed yet was that maybe I was the only one who figured it out.  I suspect that others who have all the answers will quickly claim the reward now.  We'll see.

[cbeast]

AHHH!!! I can't believe I missed this. My instructions are incomplete. When I said that modern spelling will be used, I meant only the questions, not the answers. The answers are as they appear in KJV 1611. I hope this did not throw anyone off. I will correct the intructions in bold.

I had already figured that out and was hoping that the only reason the bitcoins weren't claimed yet was that maybe I was the only one who figured it out.  I suspect that others who have all the answers will quickly claim the reward now.  We'll see.

I'm not so sure. Not all the questions have easy answers. There are trick questions. These are meant to be solved through discussion by teams.

[53rv3r]

Hi folks,
I've finally been let out of newbie "heaven".

I am interested in collaborating with others on this quiz (and obviously sharing the prize). If you PM me, I'll be more forthcoming about my answers, but here I will post the sha256 hash of my answers so far, so that we can compare. These are the answers to the Bible dig. I am using lowercase spellings for everything that I have. All answers contain only letters (even the one that asks for the number of horns). All answers are one-word, except for 12, for which I've included two possibilities.

Code:

1. fb613b14eef090eef0e73ae6f5948bf34d7974a0cd107125d55257273236f11b
2. 0a8cbff7f48becda6a1c0e1ec178b2ad6eef8928b9dae8bdcc239da932a130b4
3. 74ae323f9b9abcff9669a5a3f88af295529db26bff271851737f47cb6f270698
4. 2e4b9cc2428beb7bff6a56c14d7304e472a23e890e91ef0a6b0b0380e89f9734
5. c2e9d906a4c08d067b35c596257e06570e90dd623d8ba6ab4063c9d6147e25f5
6. e4432baa90819aaef51d2a7f8e148bf7e679610f3173752fabb4dcb2d0f418d3
7. dc9f28b12dd1818ee42ffc92ecb940386214598837348d30d3c6c0b7b57e34c9
8. 
9. 43c893e2c167ca6c1beae2d1d7ef102969b645293d256acfa1bf9c0092b853f8
10.30cb57108eab24eb2a91a6ba3e51bca3b850f3fed131a0a6909a9b974cef43de
11.bf8ad1d631968d6744f9d4ac5a699231b74110ad55633844222039d7a3b4839f
12.773d88ed774c85531593d6624d32b6e396e0c10c9560279994732a32a54b378f (from two words with a space between them)
   b605d13993abc3abf71d233cac374b641d3b2fb3162c3e2e7494a6a7ab24ce70 (from the second word, without the modifying noun)
13.9d93597c7f0b8c25c609fd5536296f5838df8f7e1b83cb5c60d86facd190ee95
14.a8b7ab91e0fc1cf173a0e0c89e885f27d8d0e59eac5383510a3a71af40225d62
15.36fc81e0b52fd7b92d4360ee156a5cb6e20ccf04fdb8dc832759fcc3cedc48aa

These hashes are just the sha256 hash of the answers. They can be computed in one of several ways:

1. On bitaddress.org, paste

Code:

javascript:alert(Crypto.SHA256('answer'));

into the address bar, substitute "answer" with your own word and hit enter. The popup will contain the hash.

2. In node.js use

Code:

crypto.createHash('sha256').update('answer').digest('hex')

3. On unix/linux type the following in the command line:

Code:

echo -n "answer" | shasum -a 256

For testing purposes, the sha256 of "answer" is 0db52f4076c082518412afd3dd3576e2cb0c63703fd7fed5e23ade60efef31d9

[53rv3r]

For anyone else doing the Bible quiz, where are you getting the 1611 text? I've tried the following two:
http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/1611-Bible/
http://av1611.com/kjbp/kjv-bible-text/

However, the spellings are not quite the same between the two. Sometimes a "u" is written as a "v" and sometimes a "v" as a "u". Other times, they're the same. In one, a word might have an "e" appended to the end, in another version, there is no "e'. It would take too much effort to go through all possible combinations. What do you guys think is the "official" 1611 version?

Regards,
53v3r

[cbeast]

For anyone else doing the Bible quiz, where are you getting the 1611 text? I've tried the following two:
http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/1611-Bible/
http://av1611.com/kjbp/kjv-bible-text/

However, the spellings are not quite the same between the two. Sometimes a "u" is written as a "v" and sometimes a "v" as a "u". Other times, they're the same. In one, a word might have an "e" appended to the end, in another version, there is no "e'. It would take too much effort to go through all possible combinations. What do you guys think is the "official" 1611 version?

Regards,
53v3r

One of them is the KJV 1611 version and one is a modern translation. Lest it be clear for thou to knoweth the difference. There are other copies online as well. Make sure of your answers by checking multiple sources to be sure.

[DannyHamilton]

. . . here I will post the sha256 hash of my answers so far, so that we can compare . . .

My answers differ from yours on numbers 3, 4, 12, 13, and 14.  On number 12 I found that we spelled the same answer differently (changed my spelling and then the hash matched).  That leaves 3, 4, 13, and 14 where we seem to have different answers.

Additionally I still don't have the answers yet for 8 or 11.

Shall we exchange answers (and reasoning) for 3, 4, and 13, and 14 to see which of us is mistaken?  Here are my hashes:

3. fa5cbdbe1d7afd7b7e5f80922010bd89b2b650b5d41cd6d32e856f40bd66cab8
   6d705d62c204d312f024c495e18a76043c041e4261441120c096adb8a6c93b64 (alternate spelling)

4. 0ddf0830b87790422913467b64c752fc1028bf83561a84af320f81b2d68c70b2

13. ad589ceb8b5ccca048911a0e4dcf5466a1f14dc9f50517c9a2c53988d7de2521

14. 0bb09d80600eec3eb9d7793a6f859bedde2a2d83899b70bd78e961ed674b32f4

[mskwik]

AHHH!!! I can't believe I missed this. My instructions are incomplete. When I said that modern spelling will be used, I meant only the questions, not the answers. The answers are as they appear in KJV 1611. I hope this did not throw anyone off. I will correct the intructions in bold.

I had already figured that out and was hoping that the only reason the bitcoins weren't claimed yet was that maybe I was the only one who figured it out.  I suspect that others who have all the answers will quickly claim the reward now.  We'll see.

Well I had come up with answers a while back but never got them to work out together and had basically given up on it.  So I just went back over my list and switched some 'u's and 'v's, added a few 'e's and out popped an answer.

Spoiler warning if you want to finish it yourself, couldn't find a style to black it out completely though:
carpenter cubite treasures pleasing delusion eleven fire boastings Dagon vnsearchable sharpe kniues pruning hookes dominion vapour perdition

Now if I could just figure out how to narrow down the answers in that crossword somewhat (I have found quite a few 6-letter places in Norway and towns in New Jersey with the right crossing letters)

[DannyHamilton]

. . . I suspect that others who have all the answers will quickly claim the reward now.  We'll see.

. . . switched some 'u's and 'v's, added a few 'e's and out popped an answer . . .

Saw that one coming.  Congratulations.  I'll probably work on it for another day or two before I look at your answers.