
Show HN: I built a puzzle / programming challenge with a 0.125 BTC prize - nathan_f77
https://formapi.io/blog/posts/2018-bitcoin-programming-challenge/
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eat_veggies
It's possible to complete the first challenge without writing any CSS -- just
deactivate break points to bypass the anti-debugger loop, and then use react
dev tools to modify state and set the `completed` key to true :)

5Kbf6NSm6SABiMHwDcuZKY17fmCsnsKRYxR4hcnGqfzPsTeZnEj

~~~
vladmiller
Or you can also find solutions directly in the source code. I see that someone
moved out the funds 8 minutes ago ;)

[https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1CSSrZSSRf1RyShKGsYXw...](https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1CSSrZSSRf1RyShKGsYXwJzzsjPXi7p7gz)

~~~
nathan_f77
Whoops, I assumed the obfuscator would encrypt those strings. I should have
checked that more carefully. Oh well!

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dasmoth
Really nice idea.

One thing that's adding to the "frustration factor" of the CSS problems is
that the updates seem rather racy (Firefox 63, MacOS), in the sense that if
you edit further while an update is already running, it doesn't seem to
trigger a further update. Makes moving things around 1px at a time more
annoying that it should be.

(I'm another one stuck with a just few pixels difference on the triangle for
CSS Puzzle 7. Once someone's claimed the final prize, might there be an option
to skip through to the later puzzles?)

~~~
Signez
Ah, it's reassuring to see other people getting mad on that triangle. I am
very curious to see the solution for that thing in particular, as I found all
the other CSS puzzles way easier :)

My personal best (9px left):
[https://i.imgur.com/A0LIDxT.png](https://i.imgur.com/A0LIDxT.png)

~~~
nathan_f77
Oops, sorry about that! The solution involved `transform: rotate(81deg);`, but
now I'm realizing how frustrating that was.

I've updated the last puzzle to remove any transforms, so it should be much
easier now, and you can move on to the next stage.

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m-ou-se
All of the first challenge's puzzles can be solved with:

    
    
        .thing {
          background: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBO...);
          width: ...px;
          height: ...px;
        }
    

Where the image data is just the target image itself. :)

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anonfunction
I got through the first 6 css pixel perfect challenges but got stuck on the
last one where I couldn't get the gradients to match.

~~~
Syssiphus
It's possible to interpolate the correct values with a screenshot, the gimp
and a calculator.

~~~
nathan_f77
Nice work, that's exactly what I had in mind when I wrote it.

For anyone else reading this - The puzzle has been updated to remove the
gradients and transform, so it should be much easier now.

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syncerr
For anyone frustrated with the colors on stage 7:

    
    
        container: #660076
        triangle: #fd8abb
        circle: #fee376

~~~
fiatjaf
Thank you!

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explodingcamera
The css puzzle was definitiv fun but definitively frustrating due to
inaccuracy and bugs of the html2canvas library.

However I have to say the second puzzle is pretty uninteresting. It just seems
so arbitrary and just kills all possible fun by giving you exact instructions
how you are supposed to complete it.

~~~
nathan_f77
Thanks for the feedback, and sorry about that! But if you can make it to the
final stage, I think you might enjoy that one.

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jacquesm
There is a puzzle with a few million BTC as the prize! So far nobody has
claimed it, we'll see if it stays that way.

~~~
tlb
Supposing I had a solution to that puzzle, how much real money do you reckon I
could turn that into? Given that the exchange rate would drop dramatically as
I started selling.

~~~
jimnotgym
I suppose it depends on how long your willing to take to liquidate it

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halfjew22
Hey Nathan! I’m working on creating a website that is somewhat similar by much
more wide scale that uses a pattern similar to this.

Email me at lustig@knophy.com if you’re interested in chatting. The idea has
tremendous potential and I’m nearing completion of a prototype.

Thanks in advance, Michael

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Lee201
Got through the first puzzle, found the wallet empty - someone's already on
the hunt!

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loueed
Thanks for the 0.005BTC - Client Side Dev :)

Edit: 500,000 Sat sounds better :P

~~~
nathan_f77
Hey well done, thanks for posting! Did you solve the first stage with the CSS
puzzles?

I'd be really interested to know if you figured out the correct CSS, or if you
found the solutions in the JS source, or if you disabled the debug protection
and used the React Dev Tools. Haha I made a lot of mistakes here. But
hacking/reverse engineering is all part of the challenge :)

~~~
loueed
I solved most of them using plain CSS except for the 7th puzzle, I had to
right-click the solution canvas and view that within another tab so that I had
access to the dev tools colour picker tool. Great puzzle though! Got me
thinking about the possibilities of such projects.

A community run puzzle platform where people have to pay a few thousand
Satoshi to play. Or simply a lottery style game that clocks out at midnight
every day.

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mattlondon
The first puzzle 0 does not work at all on Firefox 64. The Target Result and
Difference areas are entirely blank. There are no errors in the console.

~~~
nathan_f77
That's surprising, I tested this on Mac with Firefox 64, Chrome, and Safari.
Which operating system are you using, and could you try disabling some
extensions?

~~~
Topgamer7
I got through the last css puzzle, but kept telling me that like 17 pixels are
different. They were as identical as one could get it...

~~~
nathan_f77
Sorry about that, I made it too difficult! I've updated the last puzzle to
remove any gradients and transforms, so it should be much easier now.

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nkshio
got through all of them, and found all to be empty. wondering if anything was
there at all to start with :(

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YetAnotherNick
Wow! How did you solve it this fast? Your comment is at max an hour after
anyone solved first question. I gave up in second question.

~~~
nathan_f77
Don't worry, they were just trolling and trying to stop other people from
doing the puzzles.

But someone was able to solve the final puzzle 24 hours after it went live.
I'll be writing up some blog posts with the solutions.

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koala_man
TL;DR from the web site:

>I know this isn’t really a “programming challenging”

~~~
nathan_f77
Yeah I wasn't sure if I should include this CSS game, or where to put it. But
I think it's a fun "warm-up" exercise, and stages 2-4 have some very
challenging programming puzzles. Thanks for the feedback, I'll try to update
the wording in the post!

