Steemcypher #1 - SOLVED!

After almost half of June and the first steemcypher is finally solved! @zenchess swept the pot, and earns $40 SBD + the $8 in Bitcoin stored in the brainwallet for his efforts!

I leave it to @zenchess to describe (or NOT describe) his methods to solving, but for our purposes, let's review the puzzle:

Secret Message: Juiegj Opbpj Tk Uesf
Public Bitcoin Address: 1GccQZ4RAuYecowZ87nBTkupt7MuctHAd8
Hint: Song Title

The song title that starts this process of solving the puzzle was "Empire State of Mind", by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. When looking at distributions of letters, and using some great educated guesses, the keyword was "EXHAUSTING".

This gave the puzzle solver the following blocks of three to work with to crack the brainwallet passphrase:

Which, in turn, made for an original sample space of possibilities to check for a correct combination of 1,679,616.

After some creative hints with my last post, I effectively reduced the sample space to 7,776 possibilities, after which @zenchess went all beast mode and swept the wallet with the winning passphrase:

EXHAUSTING+351+169+815+291+201+510+165+931+44

Congratulations to @zenchess!

And, be on the lookout for Steemcypher #2, dropping later today!

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HOW DO I SOLVE A STEEMCYPHER?????

Glad you asked! Below is a overview of how to solve a steemcypher. To not give anything away, I am doing this for a different puzzle.

Sample Steemcypher:

Secret Message: Aheem Wmqeg!
Public Bitcoin Address: 16TGN1hcEps75D7uzXf6xKMhgryKXcqsVr
Hint: Someone's First Computer Program

• The puzzle is known as a type of Caesar Cypher, or often commonly called a cryptoquip. Every letter of the alphabet is encoded with one other letter. Except, a keyword with no repeating letters is placed in the alphabet.
• Once you figure out the secret message, in this case "Hello World!", you know that H was encoded with A, E with H, so on and so forth.
• Once you decode the known letters, you need to figure out the keyword!
• This keyword could be placed ANYWHERE in the string A-Z, and all other unused letters would then be placed in alphabetical order in the rest of the locations of the alphabet. An example:

• The puzzle solver will have no idea where this keyword is located, which adds a layer of complexity. These puzzles are best solved by looking at distributions of letters and many awesome educated guesses.

• Once the message is deciphered, it gets re-encoded with numbers as follows:
  

• The standard for coding letters of the alphabet as follows:
  

• These numbers will then be split into groups of three like so, with any left over numbers in a group by themselves :

• This group of numbers, along with the keyword, are part of a brainwallet passphrase that generates a bitcoin address. The passphrase will always be of the form:

KEYWORD+###+###+###+###+###+...

• Note, the keyword is in ALL CAPS and there are + signs seperating the groups of three. The catch...

Each group of three numbers is not necessarily in the correct order. You will need to test combinations of each group to determine the correct brainwallet passphrase.

• For instance, say the correct solution to the sample puzzle above is:

• To check if your combination works, go here: https://brainwalletx.github.io/.

• You will know if you found the right brainwallet if it generates the correct public address given with the puzzle!

Math behind the puzzle

• As an aside, for this particular sample puzzle, there were a total of 3,888 possible combinations to test to crack the brainwallet. Only one keyword works in the beginning of the puzzle. In a group of three unique numbers, there are 6 possible ways to mix. In a group of three with only two unique numbers, there are 3 possible ways to mix. In a group with all numbers the same, there would be only 1 possible way to mix. The math behind that is as follows:

Yes, but what do I win?

• First and foremost - YOU MUST UPVOTE THE THREAD! Resteeming not required, but recommended if you would like the prize pool to be higher!
• When you solve the puzzle, locate the private key associated with the public address.
• If you are the first to solve the puzzle, you will claim 25% of the SP from the series of posts about that puzzle. Just be the first one in the comments section of the MOST RECENT THREAD to type the first three characters from the private key (labeled public exponent) to the thread. You can only post ONCE with your answer. No multiple attempts allowed.

• A winning reply would therefore be the first reply to the comment thread that looks like this:

• If you are second, you will comment the next three characters to the puzzle thread, so on and so forth.
• First to the prize will also have the first opportunity to sweep the bitcoin wallet of its funds, if you desire, because you will be first to have access to the private key. I will be placing a nominal amount of bitcoin here each time proportional to the difficulty of the puzzle. Please sweep the private key and keep as an “extra bounty” for yourself, if desired.
• As far as all prizes, 50% of the overall SP from the post will be distributed as follows:

First place: 25% SP
Second Place: 10% SP
Third-Firth Places: 5% SP

If you are the only one in a one week period to solve the steemcypher, you sweep the pot! If only two solve, you split among each other, so on and so forth.

REMEMBER - YOU MUST HAVE UPVOTED THE POST TO BE ELIGIBLE TO CLAIM THE REWARD!