# Image steganography / hidden message inside image (png, 8-bit gray+alpha)

I'm new to steganography and have been trying to figure this one out but some additional help would be appreciated. There is this image here:

It supposedly has a hidden message in it that should lead to the private key to an Ethereum wallet that has 1 Eth in it. A private key for an ethereum wallet is a 64 hex character string. If anyone helps figure this puzzle out I do not care to have the prize, I have just spent many hours on this with no luck and would like to know how to solve it.

Here is what I know so far:

1. Running file on the image yields this: PNG image data, 1600 x 1105, 8-bit gray+alpha, non-interlaced. So it has no RGB values, just gray and alpha.
2. There are only 434 pixels with an alpha value less than 255. I'm pretty sure this is where the solution lies but after this I have no luck.
3. I have tried a lot of different things ranging from playing with the bits for both the gray and alpha values for the pixels that have an alpha < 255. Converting them to ASCII and hex, reversing them, only looking at the least significant bit.

At this point I am at a loss. Any ideas?

The alpha values that are less than 255 actually seem to draw a cycle (white short lines) around the ship. Perhaps the solution does not lie in alpha, but it's the first step on where to focus.

hope it helps

• I believe the alpha channel is definitely going in the right direction but even when I inspect just the boat with a bunch of common steganographic filters nothing really pops out. – Eth Stegranographer Apr 26 at 22:11