The Tezos Foundation has teamed up with Satoshi’s Treasure, the team behind a long-running Bitcoin treasure hunt, to offer one million XTZ tokens, or “tezzies”, in a follow up treasure hunt due to launch this year. The hunt, described as a “massive multiplayer game of skill where people can solve difficult puzzles and technical problems” will pit teams, or clans, against each other in the fight for the prize pot, which currently stands at over $1 million in value.
In April, @ToshiTreasure launched a global hunt for BTC.
We are excited to announce we have partnered with them for a second hunt – a game where players solve difficult puzzles and technical problems to compete for prizes from a pool of 1 million tez.https://t.co/NlTrby2LaB pic.twitter.com/hB754O1SXU
— Tezos Foundation (@TezosFoundation) August 22, 2019
A Three-pipe Problem
The Tezos Hunt was announced in a similar way to Satoshi’s Treasure Bitcoin hunt, with a one-page announcement made on the Satoshi’s Treasure website giving some basic details about it, including some key information for those who fancy doing a bit of crypto sleuthing:
The Tezos hunt is very different from the Bitcoin hunt in that it’s built on top of a set of smart contracts, which means that clever hunters can be more immediately rewarded for using their problem-solving skills to beat puzzles. We’re very much looking forward to seeing how this changes the dynamics of the game, in terms of teams, clans, individuals and strategies used to win.
Prospective code crackers will be rewarded in “non-fungible Prize Tokens” of which there are three types – uncommon, rare, and epic. These can be cashed out for XTZ tokens, but there is a catch – no Prize Tokens can be exchanged for real XTZ tokens until enough tokens to claim the whole one million prize pot have been transferred to a smart contract.
More Catches than a Garden Gate Expo
If the Tezos treasure hunt piques your interest, you may want to factor in a few things before you go digging out the deerstalker and pipe. Firstly, entrants will be relying on the XTZ token remaining the same value or increasing for the duration of the hunt, which is likely to be months long (although the first three keys to the Bitcoin hunt were found in minutes). This is by no means guaranteed, and could lead to a lot of disappointed detectives come the close of the competition. Second, millions of lines of code is expected to be written in order to complete the various challenges, which the guys at Satoshi’s Treasure say will “in the end benefit the Tezos ecosystem.” Does this mean Tezos will be allowed full and free access to use the code written by hunters? If so, this seems a very sneaky way of them getting their hands on some quality code for free.
The Tezos Treasure Hunt won’t start until the Bitcoin treasure hunt has concluded and been audited, which means that a Q4 launch is likely. In the meantime however, treasure hunters waiting for starters pistol can join a mini hunt for 5,000 XTZ tokens on September 10.
