Right. Either the 8 words are the privkey (which is possible if OP did some brute forcing - I've done something similar myself, several years ago now, for a puzzle), or it's a hash.
Either way, it's finding the right 32 chars. I have been assuming that they are from the question itself, like others have been.
Why would that require brute forcing? Either way, it's finding the right 32 chars. I have been assuming that they are from the question itself, like others have been.
You "simply" pick 8 words that total up to 32 chars as your answer: WeCreateAnAnswerThatIsEightWords
Then pick whatever method you like to use that as your private key:
char->hex method... which yields private key: 5765437265617465416e416e737765725468617449734569676874576f726473 (18LpdmS7UPHRPsNmD384LRRawHjVXprJy1)
or
brainwallet (sha256) method... which yields private key: 8EAFEFFE8CEE0E1E43A53314FFEC31BE09B378A4E733A516BBBAEB177CC151FD (15idakESXkA4N5Uyjts2xTFupBLD9Pibz2)
You can then send your XBTC prize to the address you just "created"
The problem we have is that there is no definitive answer as to whether we should be doing "char->hex" method or "brainwallet" method. I guess the solution to that problem is to simply check both!
You misunderstand. It's possible that the privkey itself is a plaintext phrase like TheCombOfNatashYaddaYadda. However, since only a few such phrases would fit the criteria for a privkey (I think around 1 in 200), you'd need to search a load to get one that worked.
Or you can create any phrase and hash it for a privkey.
Either method generates a valid privkey. But only one will create the privkey to the prize address. So it helps to know what he was doing
