Chrono.gg ARG

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The Coin Conspiracy
Active since 2017-03-05
Chrono logo.png
The Chrono.gg ARG involved a bunch of coin-related puzzles spread across various sites.
Type [[List_of_Investigations#Unofficial|Unofficial]]
Creator Chrono.gg
Discovered 2017-03-05

Main Page > List of Investigations > Chrono.gg ARG

The following is chronological documentation of puzzles and events that occured during the Chrono.gg ARG, an ARG that took place on the popular game deal site Chrono.gg.

This investigation is ACTIVE. You can join the discussion on the Official Chrono.gg discord, here.

Chrono.gg

Subscribers to Chrono.gg's daily newsletter recieved an unexpected message on March 5, 2017:

ChronoNews.png

Users quickly arrived at the first clue on Chrono.gg's homepage. A URL could be seen on the page's main image, promoting the game OmniBus: http://www.thisisnotaclue.com/

OmnibusURL.png


Following that URL leads to a site containing some text and an image with different color columns. Every user was given a different sequence from 1 through 24. The sequences were constant, meaning that two users assigned the same sequence both had the same set of colors in their swatch.

Chronogg Swathe Page Secret.png

Chronogg Swathes Secret.png

Users then found that the last two colors of every set of color columns corresponded to the first two colors of the next swatch in sequence.

Cutting out the extra colors, and by converting the hex values of all the assembled color swatches into letters of the alphabet, the following message was obtained CRITICAL WARNING: COINS ARE UNEXPECTEDLY MISSING. SUSPECT IDENTIFIED. SUSPECT ID: GRENDEL23. REQUESTING INVESTIGATIVE ASSISTANCE. END TRANSMISSION.

A matching username was subsequently found in the chrono.gg forum user: https://community.chrono.gg/users/Grendel23/activity

The user's avatar caught the attention of the solvers.

Tangram1.png

This was identified as a tangram with the following solution:

Tangram1solved.png

Additionally, a single post was found under the same username. The first letters of every sentence in the post spell out the following:

imgur
com
LgmNn9E
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The link above leads to this image:

ChronoSoup1.jpg

By overlaying the previously solved tangram in line with the letter grid, solvers came to the conclusion that the phrase being spelled out was GO TO / CONSPIRACY

Overlay1.png

This led solvers to http://www.thisisnotaclue.com/conspiracy, which immediately redirects to http://thecoinconspiracy.com/

The Coin Conspiracy Day 1

Arriving to this page, solvers are met with a riddle resembling the Tower of Hanoi puzzle:

Barry, an antique coin collector, has recently come into possession of a complete collection of ancient Xin dynasty coins and spades that are more than 2000 years old. There are 6 coins and 10 spades, making a total of 16 pieces, each of which has a different denomination. The coins and spades, which have square holes in their centers, are speared on a small metal rod, with the bottom spade being the largest (and the highest denomination). Barry wants to move each of the pieces to the rod in his display case; however, they cannot be scratched or otherwise damaged! To that end, Barry is only able to move one piece between rods at a time. Fortunately, Barry has a third rod that can be used for storage. Additionally, a piece is only able to be stacked on top of another piece on the same rod if it is of a smaller denomination than the coin or spade it is being placed on.

Keeping all this in mind, what's the minimum number of times will Barry have to move the Yao Quan Yi Shi piece while transferring all 16 coins and spades to his collection?

The correct answer was obtained using the exponential nature (Mersenne Number, or Mn=2n-1) of the puzzle; with 16 disks, the Yao Quan Yi Shi piece (the 2nd disc) would need to be moved 16384 times.

This answer is derived from the completed equation 16384=215-1

Inputting the answer beneath the puzzle displays the following image:

LazyGG.png

Removing the alpha channel of the above image allows us to see the removed portion of the image:

WingdingsGG.png

The font is Wingdings, reading: /corr However, there is another, cut-off symbol. It was speculated this leads to /corru - an assumption that was confirmed on day two.

At this point, after hitting what seemed like a wall with no leads to go off by, participants began to grab at straws for the night until it was assumed that the ARG was timegated, a term used to mean that portions of the puzzle are revealed after a certain amount of time. During this discussion, The Coin Conspiracy updated with a .gif of a gate at the bottom of the page.

Chrono Secret Timegate.gif

This simultaneously confirmed the beliefs of those who figured there was a timegate, and caused more suspicion into the meaning of the gate itself.

The Coin Conspiracy Day 2

At approximately 1:20 pm Eastern Standard Time on March 6th, The Coin Conspiracy updated to reveal a new post titled "Silver for Seconds"

Silver for Seconds 6th March 2017

I flip 4 silver dollars and hide the results from you. I tell you that at least two of the coins came up heads. What is the probability that the other two coins came up heads as well?

The chance of 2 coins being heads-up in a 4-coin toss is 11/16. The consecutive chance of the remaining two coins being heads-up is 1/11, which is the answer.

Correctly entering the answer revealed a second piece to the previously discovered Wingdings message, this time with the alpha layer properly applied, and no way to read the RGB values it means to hide.

Chrono Secret Day2a.png

This part of the message reads uptedmess with what appears to be a Wingdings a cut off, leading to the full proposed message /corruptedmessa

Within minutes of solving the new puzzle, another post appeared on the site titled "Accounting", this time with an image with rows of American coins of various value.

Chrono Secret Day2b.png

Counting up the currency in each row gave the numbers 14 88 90 96 30 which is a Unix time stamp for 2017-03-07 @ 6:00pm (UTC)

Chrono Secret Day2b Explained FIX.png

It is speculated the next portion of the Wingdings message will be revealed at that time.


This page will be updated as the ARG progresses.