Quote from: rezpkt on January 25, 2018, 11:58:37 PM

Sorry, have to disagree here. Just because you guys are salty youve spent loads of time on the flames and found nothing doesnt give you the right to diss the authors here. It will go to the person who is able to solve it, due to their way of thinking.

You're free to disagree with us, just as we are free to comment on the art however we want. It's easy to make a complicated puzzle that cannot be solved and our current educated opinion is that's the case here.

Just a small recap, the puzzle contains ambiguous "clues" that point at the following scenarios:

1) 2x QR code, version 1, ECC level L, 21x21

it needs 152 data bits
the Phoenix 11110 decoded as QR formatInfo results in 011 mask type and ECC level L (which gives around 16-17 bytes per QR, so enough for a 256bit key)
previous ARGs were QR related
there are "blocks" on the art, like in QR
there are "patterns" in the corners

2) Code128B barcode

we have 17 leaves and 17 repeated bits (in reverse, "mirrored" outer color stream versus inner color stream)
Phoenix spikes 11110 in binary encode number 30 in decimal
30 is the number of characters for a mini private key, which YES, can be used to generate vanity address, see my post here with proof: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=766000.msg27801341#msg27801341
Code128B needs 330 bits to encode 30 chars, we have 380 bits, Code128B has START/END patterns which are 11 bits each and a CRC which is 11 bits. 380-11-11-11=347 . Next, 347-17 = 330

3) Bacon26 encoded string #1

the height stream can be decoded with quite straight-forward logic to "THEFM?AURISKEYFILE" message
bit granularity of other streams suggest similar content

4) Bacon26 encoded string #2

The 011 bits in the height stream can be an artifact of 6-bit encoding of 5-bit-based Bacon26 string
If we encoded some string with Bacon26 and extended each encoded character to 6 bits, 6th bit would be always null. Next, if we XOR the resulting stream with 011010, the every-other bit of the key would match 011, like (0)1(1)0(1)0
1flamen6, 1 bit in 6... is extra

5) Yari Shogi

Chess pieces, however irrelevant for Yari Shogi (it uses flat ones), the names are relevant, it does have Knight and a Bishop
The board is 7x9
Arguably, the 011010 pattern can be read as 1A, or A1, which in some notation might match key/lock location on the board

6) Poem

The Shakespeare's Poem tells a story about the Dove & Phoenix, saying they merge into one, also that their hearts are on fire (the flames) and that for them to be together, there must be no gap between them
If you disregard flame pairs that have gaps in-between, you'll be left with 63 pairs, same as number of board tiles

7) Internal patterns

The flames themselves have internal patterns like my earlier post explored. Starting point, 7 bits taken from all 3 streams, put together exist in the inner color stream AND contains the 011010 pattern on 8th bit in each track AND in the 7*3 stream as well.
The Poem mentioned Phoenix and the Dove merging into one. Dove's tail encodes 1000 and Phoenix spikes 11110, together, with added '0' in-between, it results in 10 bit pattern 1000011110 which exists in all 3 streams. That being said, statistically only 7 bit patterns should exists in triplet of 63+139+139 bits (76-13, 152-13).
If you remove 7 bits "codec" and the 011010 "key" from the beginning of the Heights stream, you'll be left with 63 bits
The "codec" bits in the inner color stream are mirrored at bit 0 ("0" might refer to the Bishop's bottom that looks like a zero and seems to be a mirror/transparent), it goes like this: 00001(0)01101(1)11010(0)10111(1)11001(1)00100 (0) 11100(1)11010(1)01100(0)01101(1)11110(0)01011
There are 17 bits repeated in inner and outer color stream, in mirrored setup
There is also a possibility of ECC code being implemented, because if you disregard the 011 bits, and read all 3 streams flame by flame, then flame that carries 3 bits is data, and flame with 2 bits (where you removed one of the 011) encodes number of bits from the data, here is my post about it: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=766000.msg26676467#msg26676467

8) Extra stream?

The flames might also encode an additional 152 bits in their internal color "fat" or "skinny" look
I've asked some friends to "decode" that track on their own, without checking my data, and it turns out about 14 of "bits" is "up to interpretation".
Here is the dump, commonly mismatched bits are marked as "2":

Code:

10110011110011100010100010100011110001110010100011102211000000111001100111011100101112100110210010110011100212020110100012200202001011000100120211000021

9) Leaves

There's 17 of them - is the number it self a clue?
Some leaves point toward certain flames, some point into a gap between them, some take space on the 7x9 board
Do they instruct where to "cut" the streams?

As you see, there are many "starting" points to begin with. And they ALL have some Pros and Cons, and yet, cannot be completely ruled out. Why? Cause we don't even know what we are looking for! It can be WIF 304 bits, WIF 296, Plain 256bits, Minikey 30 chars, Minikey 22 chars. Then, all of these can be encoded using either direct binary encoding, QR (with some mask and zigzag), Base58, Base64, Bacon26, Code128B (and other barcode formats), Morse, DNA, etc..

What I'm trying to say is, the Authors underestimated the number of valid permutations all the clues give for us, and given the ambiguity if the puzzle it self, It can be very well unsolvable without an intervention.