Bitcoin with a value of $2,000 is up for grabs if you can uncover a code hidden in a picture. The “310 Bitcoin Challenge” is the brainchild of ‘Pip’, a pseudonymous Bitcoin benefactor who, on October 2, hid the recovery codes for wallets containing a total of 310 BTC in a picture and offered amateur sleuths the chance to find them. Most of the wallets contained within Pip’s picture have been located and emptied, but the final wallet, containing the remaining 0.31 BTC, is yet to be found.
You Know my Methods, Watson, Apply Them!
Digital detectives are busy discussing various methods with which to uncover the final wallet, but the victor will need a combination of different skills including image and bytecode manipulation, cryptography, and text encoding. For tips on what approaches have worked so far check out this video. Of course, what has worked in the past might not work in the future, but with something this complex every little helps!
Cipher So Good
The 310 Bitcoin Challenge has echoes of “The Legend of Satoshi Nakamoto”, a puzzle created in 2015 by two digital artists that, if you solved it, would have given you the private keys to a wallet containing almost five Bitcoin. The Bitcoin went unclaimed for almost three years until this February, when a programmer discovered the cipher hidden in the frame and ribbons and used it to unlock the code hidden within the puzzle, earning himself the $50,000 digital reward. Now where’s that magnifying glass…
