Bitcoin

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Location - A Neew Crypocurrency

1. "Some blend of technobabble and money" is a key phrase in the flavor text.
2. Each "That sounds..." clue combines a tech word and a word for money. Or at least, a word who has a homophone with one of those meanings.
3. Here's each clue split by definitions. (h) means it's a homophone clue

   1. "subterranean vault" / "baked loaf"

   2. "single finger" / "piece of stationary"

   3. "meshed fabric" / "duck mouths"

   4. "mouthful" (h) / "a planes tilting"

   5. "a small amount" / "hidden provisions"

   6. "1,000,000,000,000" / "uncooked pastry"

   7. "the letter K" / "never stayed the same"

   8. "zeros & ones" / "a herd of male deer"

4. The "technobabble" words are: `binary`, `bit`, `byte`, `crypt`, `digit`, `kilo`, `net`, and `tera`
5. The "money" words are: `bank`, `bills`, `bread`, `bucks`,`cash`, `change`, `dough`, and `paper`
6. The clues resolve to:

   1. `Cryptbread`

   2. `Digitpaper`

   3. `Netbills`

   4. `Bytebank`

   5. `Bitcash`

   6. `Teradough`

   7. `Kilochange`

   8. `Binarybucks`
7. PINTCOIN

Genesis Block

1. "Cryptic" is a key word in the flavor text.
2. Yup, it's a cryptic crossword. Don't know what that is? Check out [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptic_crossword) or use this handy [solving reference](https://s.wsj.net/blogs/html/wsjcrypticguide.pdf).

   If you're stuck, the next few hints will help in different ways:

   * The next hint is a general clue about the answers

   * The hint after that will show all the cryptic clues split by definition.

   * The hint after that will show the cryptic clue type, without the split.
3. All of the cryptic answers fit a theme.
4. Here's how you can split those cryptic clues to get the correct definition:

   1. Eugene's is holding / a bible book

   2. The start / The start point on a graph

   3. A sharp, acidic taste after the first serving / makes me jump

   4. A graduation ceremony / remarks about males and cerium

   5. DiCaprio movie / not in epic mix-up

   6. Initially describing a whole new / daybreak

   7. Found in whiteout setting / from the beginning
5. Here's the type of each cryptic clue:

   1. Hidden

   2. Double definition & lit.

   3. Charade

   4. Combination/Charade

   5. Anagram

   6. Hidden

   7. Hidden
6. Here's the answer to each cryptic, with an explanation

   1. `genesis` -- hidden in "Eugene's is"

   2. `origin` -- "the start" as well as the start point on a graph

   3. `start` -- "first serving" becomes "s". A sharp, acidic taste is "tart".

   4. `commencement` -- "males" becomes "men". "cerium" becomes "ce". "remarks" becomes "comment". Put "men" and "ce" in "comment" you get `com + men + ce + ment`

   5. `inception` -- "not in epic" anagrams (mixes up) to this answer.

   6. `dawn` -- the initials of "describing a whole new"

   7. `outset` -- hidden in "whiteout setting"
7. Have you used those numbers in the crossword yet?
8. A NEW CREATION

Secret Keys

1. Key words in the flavor text are "based on 16" and "drop"
2. It doesn't look like each column is limited only to numbers...
3. This is a drop-quote puzzle, but with hex characters rather than letters. Each column of characters will fill in the columns below. You can then
4. Good places to start:

   * The first 2 columns (one's already filled in for you!)

   * The 7th and 8th columns

   * The 10th and 11th columns
5. On your code sheet, the hex letters all start with either a 1 or a 0. All dropped pairs will start with a 1 or a 0.
6. The top row is `14 08 05 13 05`
7. The filled in message, in hex, is: `14 08 05 13 05 03 12 05 14 0B 05 19 09 13 03 04 16 05 12 14`
8. Decoded, it reads "The secret key is covert".
9. COVERT

Pintcoin Mining

1. The "listen" word is the first key word you should pay attention to in the flavor text.
2. It looks like the flavor text as a lot more stops and pauses than any of the other puzzles. That's odd.
3. In fact, some of the flavor text looks darker than the rest.
4. The dashes and periods seem more prominent than in other puzzles. I wonder if that's an encoded message...
5. PARTIAL ANSWER: Decoding the flavortext with morse code gets you the message `DECODE ROWS`
6. When looking at the transactions, the key phrases from the flavor text to keep in mind are "mine", "partially mine", and "mostly mine".
7. Each transaction defines a word that fits a mine pattern. Either: * It will have 'mine' somewhere in the word * It will have 'mine' with a letter missing. For instance, "limited" is partially mined, since it has "mine" in it without the "n". (That's not one of these answers, btw.)
8. Here's each word associated with the definition:

   * The management - `ADMINISTRATION`

   * A person who has regard for someone - `ADMIRER`

   * A mutual settlement - `COMPROMISE`

   * A person who builds complex products - `ENGINEER`

   * To inspect closely - `EXAMINE`

   * The 3rd zodiac sign - `GEMINI`

   * Unable to catch a disease - `IMMUNE`

   * Describing a straight path - `LINEAR`

   * A periodical - `MAGAZINE`

   * A warship - `MINESWEEPER`

   * Extremely small - `MINUTE` (`MINUSCULE` would also work)

   * Consisting of different elements - `MIXED`

   * Officially coined currency - `MONEY`

   * A candidate for office - `NOMINEE`

   * Continuing without change - `PERMANENT`

9. For each transaction, which "mine" part is present? Where does it appear in the word?
10. here's how to arrange the transactions in the grid, by the word they resolved to:

    * `MINE`: Minesweeper, Nominee, Examine

    * `_INE`: Linear, Engineer, Magazine

    * `M_NE`: Money, Permanent, Immune

    * `MI_E`: Mixed, Admirer, Compromise

    * `MIN_`: Minute, Administration, Gemini
11. Did you notice that the definitions also have bolded pauses? Where have we seen that before?
12. With the definitions in the correct place on the grid, decode each row using the same morse technique we used in the flavortext.
13. BLOCK

Initial Coin Offering

1. "exponential" is the key word in the flavortext.
2. Bale & Carell were in The Big Short
3. Aykroyd & Murphy were in Trading Places
4. Bale & Cumberbatch were superheros.
5. Simmons & Aykroyd were born in the 1950s.
6. Bale never hosted SNL.
7. Simmons bought the most Pintcoin.
8. Here's what each celebrity bought:

   * Bale: 10,000,000

   * Aykroyd: 1,000

   * Carell: 10,000

   * Murphy: 100,000

   * Moss: 1,000,000,000

   * Johansson: 100,000,000
9. What's another way to write those numbers, using the key word in the flavor text?
10. Try indexing into each actor's name.
11. INVEST

Meta - Altcoins

1. The key phrases in the flavor text are "only some will matter" and "buy the right ones at the right time".
2. Which are the right ones? Maybe the ones you're familiar with...
3. Look at the Altcoin Abbreviations. Do some altcoins look familiar?
4. The only altcoins you care about are: Block Dollars (BKD), Covert Bucks (CBX), DigiCreation (DCN) and InvestBits (IVB)
5. The only days you care about are:

   * In column one: Days 2, 4, 5, 7, and 9

   * In column two: Days 12, 13, 16 and 18

   * In column three: Days 21, 22, 24, 26, 27 and 29
6. In chronological order, the buy price for an altcoin we care about is: `19 16 5 3 21 12 1 20 5 23 9 12 4 12 25`
7. Which encoding on your sheet seems to work well for numbers in this range?
8. SPECULATE WILDLY