When you don't know where to hide Bitcoins, you may realize that putting them just in plain view, but encrypted, may be the best solution. From there to the idea of creating a puzzle holding the private key of a wallet with a bunch of Bitcoin in it, and making that challenge public, is just a small step.

A step taken in 2015 by two artists, Rob Myers and @coin_artist (a pseudonym) who published in 2015 a painting called '"TORCHED H34R7S" (referencing a William Shakespeare poem, apparently). Inside the painting there was a hidden code that once cracked, contained the private key to a wallet with 5 Bitcoins, worth around $38,000 at the current prices.

Here's how it looks:

Image credit: @coin_artist / Motherboard.

Well, the code has been cracked and the wallet was emptied. But the programmer who solved it wanted to remain anonymous, as he lives "in a country which is non Bitcoin-friendly".

I think it's safe to say that these 5 Bitcoins were "mined" with a different algorithm, namely "Proof of Brains".

If you want to know all the nitty-gritty of this puzzle, as well as other online puzzles related to cryptos, you can just head over to the original Motherboard story.

I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.

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This is awesome. I wonder if it was really that hard to solve or wasn't worth the time to solve it until the value became too good to pass up.

It took me 2 weeks to do a 1000 piece puzzle once. And then I realized the last piece was missing. This would take me longer than a humans natual lifespan. I think the prize is well deserved

That is so amazing , jsut the Puzzle itself is flawless. The detail In it is crazy. I wonder how he did it

When he announced this puzzle challenge, then bitcoin was not much costly.
May be coin_artist is regreting now. :D

A very long time to solve, Useful post thanks for sharing

Penemuan yang luar biasa, sukses selalu @dragosroua

A masterpiece deserves to be rewarded at an affordable price, and should be properly maintained so that our bitcoin is encrypted it will feel safer.

I will re-encrypted the code and I will keep a secret record of either PC or Smartphone.

I read the article linked and they said the Bitcoin was worth over $50,000. Apparently that made a better headline. That's funny it took so long for someone to find it. Granted it would have safely remained there if anyone had been counting on me to crack the code, but that's a different story.
This story was a good find.