A puzzle containing the access code of a bitcoin wallet was successfully solved. Uniquely, the puzzle is inserted in the form of a painting.
The time taken to solve the mystery behind the painting is quite long, about three years after it was created as an open challenge by two artists, Rob Myers and another with pseudonym @coin_artist.
The painting titled "TORCHED H34R7S" was first published in early 2015 and finally solved last week. The value of bitcoin in a wallet that was deliberately set as a reward reached 50,000 US dollars (about Rp 714 million) at the time the digital safe was successfully accessed by the puzzle solver.
Not mentioned who managed to uncover the mystery of the painting. But based on information compiled KompasTekno from the BBC, Tuesday (6/2/2018), the prize was claimed by a 30-year-old programmer who declined to be named.
The painting titled TORCHED H34R7S made by artist Rob Myers and @coin_artist who hide the access code into a bitcoin wallet. @ Coin_artist / Twitter
Around the painting there are flame-colored tongues of various sizes, as well as key images wrapped in several ribbons. In both these elements the artist inserts access codes in binary numbers (numbers "0" and "1").
The colors and shapes of each flame represent the binary numbers to be compiled with XOR (exclusive or) operations, using the key alias cipher of the ribbons in the key image representing the binary number as well.
After the binary sequence found in the painting successfully solved, the programmer then converts it with a computer program into a private key bitcoin wallet containing a series of 52 characters of letters and numbers.
Breaking the bitcoin password in a unique way does not happen this time. Last January, a PhD student in Belgium successfully broke the password of a bitcoin wallet that was then worth 10,000 US dollars by breaking the code contained in a synthetic DNA strand.