Hello Again Steemit!

After a very long hiatus, I decided it was finally time to come back and dip my toes in creating content again. There wasn't really any huge reason in me leaving for so long, just many small factors that made checking Steemit a lower priority for me.

Unexpectedly, I recently received a link from a good friend of mine referring back to Steemit. And, after lurking around again these past few weeks, I'm rediscovering my love of everything Steemit. I’ve been inspired again. I'M HAVING FUN!

Steemit ... Do you like to play games?

I really do. One of the more exciting things I used to do around here, besides frequently post about math stuff, is participate in the steemsports games voting for winning teams. Browsing through Steemit again, I realized nothing like this was out there for people that like playing other types of games.

And, if Steemit is truly a daily interactive news source, what is the most fun about reading the news? The games section, of course! Everyone loves a good puzzle every now and again, right?

Enter Steemcypher

So, an idea sprung in my head that I would like to try out with the community. A unique blockchain based puzzle that rewards the winners with a share of 50% of the rewards from the post for solving correctly. I am calling this puzzle a steemcypher, and am creating a steemit account of the same name (Hive account@steemcypher) to share with the community. I would have loved to have that account live today, but have been waiting since this past Saturday to get approval.

The Puzzle Rules

Here is what a puzzle will look like:

Secret Message: Aheem Wmqeg!
Public Bitcoin Address: 16cY7kb8k2ioT2Swnz99BEibs5mRxZddmE
Hint: Someone's First Computer Program

• The secret message 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.
• 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:

• Each contestant trying to decipher the secret message 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:
  
  edit: I realize I grabbed a wrong image for this article as shown above. The letter codes should be H=8, E=5, etc. As soon as I can I will correct this image to reflect the accurate way to play this game. However, this does NOT affect puzzle number 1 at all. Please read the rest of this piece assuming I encoded the correct letter numbers ;)

• I will use 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+###+###+###+###+###+...

• 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:

CALIPER+811+767+123+133+717+9

• 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!

Yes, but what do I win?

I'm say we claim rewards as follows:

• First and foremost - YOU MUST UPVOTE THE THREAD!
• 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 post. Just be the first one in the comments to type the first three characters from the private key (labeled public exponent) to the thread.

• 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 rewards from the post will be distributed as follows:

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

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

Is This Hard?

Well, by hand, yes it will take some time. But, it is doable and I think very fun to do in this way. A script, I suppose, could also be written for help if one feels like it. The more blocks of three numbers there are in the puzzle, the more the difficulty will go up.

Is This Fun?

I think so. And if it's not, I will try to come up with something else just as interesting for the community. Just thought this would be a fun way to marry the puzzles I love with blockchain technology. Only you can answer this question Steemit, and I sure hope you do! What do you think?

Time for the first puzzle!

To avoid confusion with the sample puzzle above, the first ever steemcypher will be in a brand new thread!

As soon as I have the new Hive account@steemcypher account eventually approved, I will start posting from there! Until then, I will post from my account.

Happy deciphering Steemit! I hope you enjoy!