Over a million dollars’ worth of bitcoin was hidden in a picture – and there’s still some left to be found, CoinDesk reports.
Called the 310 BTC Bitcoin Challenge, a pseudonymous user going by the name ‘Pip’ stashed a total of 310.61 BTC (worth $2 mio at press time) into four digital wallets earlier this month – with the recovery code for unlocking each wallet decipherable through careful investigation of a single black-and-white image.
It’s a familiar concept within the space. Earlier this year, a crypto enthusiast won $50K worth of bitcoin by solving a puzzle in a painting called ‘The Legend of Satoshi Nakamoto’ by visual artist turned blockchain developer Marguerite deCourcelle.
Similar to the 310 BTC Bitcoin Challenge, enticing users to find bounties of bitcoin concealed within a computer-generated image, one of Driscoll’s puzzles took more than two years to solve.
For Pip, the game, which debuted on October 2, was an experiment, he said, created “to make someone else happy.” Pip claims to have amassed ‘a treasure chest’ of bitcoin largely for free as an early adopter.
His puzzle, though, is already near completion. In fact, within eight days of the challenge being released, three of the four wallets were successfully unlocked and emptied – this including the grand prize allotment of 310 BTC.
Shocked at how quickly the funds were moved, Pip posted on Reddit, “I’m very surprised and impressed at the same time. For my next challenge, I can clearly beef up overall complexity.”
The web page reports over 400 registered participants – and counting. While the majority of staked funds have been claimed, the challenge is ongoing with one final wallet containing 0.31 BTC, around $2K, yet to be unlocked.
As such, active discussions among interested parties on not only Reddit but other public channels such as Discord and BitcoinTalk posit different techniques to uncover the remaining secrets hidden in the PNG file.
CoinDesk technology officer, Craig Lewiston, highlighted that in order to crack the code, participants will require a combination of different skills including image manipulation, bytecode manipulation, text encoding and cryptography.
Adding to this, Steve Wilson, a cryptography expert and principal analyst at emerging technologies advisory firm Constellation Research told CoinDesk the final solution could also entail a ‘cultural’ understanding specific to open-source development communities.
“I bet you there are patterns and clues and inside jokes and a culture that might be useful for solving the problem. There are probably clues going on here and ways of solving problems that are shared by the community without necessarily being mathematical,” he said.