Psst, there’s hidden treasure on Arweave

A look at the legendary Arweave treasure hunt that’s far from over

GM fellow Arweaver!

In May 2019, an anonymous Twitter account launched a series of legendary treasure hunts stored on Arweave. Several cryptographic puzzles were unveiled over the course of a year, with bounties reaching as high as 1,250 $AR. Fast forward to today, and four of these puzzles are still unclaimed.

Join us for a deep dive into Tiamat’s Puzzles.

Can you crack these blockweave bounties? 🪙

We first want to give a quick shoutout to fellow community investigator HomelessPHD, who has done an amazing job collecting clues and tracking the status of these puzzles on their AR_Puzzles GitHub repository. We’ve based a lot of our research for this article on their work, so a big thanks to HomelessPHD.

If you want a head start on your treasure hunt, make sure you check this resource out. You can also show them your appreciation on X at @MiningPredict.

And if you feel like taking on this challenge with other Arweavers, there’s an open Telegram group dedicated to solving these puzzles.

Puzzle Overview

There is no single source of information on all the puzzles, but thanks to the efforts of HomelessPHD and a bit of timeline digging, we’ve managed to put together a (mostly complete) list of the puzzles.

Below, you’ll find links to the original announcements, the puzzles, and Viewblock and Etherscan addresses to verify the bounties onchain. While the puzzles themselves are hosted on Arweave, a few of them contain private keys to tokens on Ethereum.

Puzzle 1: 1,000 $AR - Solved - Announcement - Puzzle - Prize

Puzzle 2: 1,250 $AR - Solved - Announcement - Puzzle - Prize

Puzzle 3: 1,000 $AR - Unsolved - Announcement - Puzzle - Prize

Puzzle 4: 500 $AR - Solved - Announcement - Puzzle - Prize

Puzzle 5: 500 $AR - Solved - Announcement - Puzzle - Prize

Puzzle 6: - No public info, but this tweet mentions that it was solved on day 2.

Puzzle 7: 3 $ETH - Solved - Announcement - Puzzle - Prize

Puzzle 8: 400 $AR - Solved - Announcement - Puzzle - Prize

Puzzle 9: 100 $DAI - Solved - Announcement - Puzzle - Prize

Puzzle 10: 500 $AR - Unsolved - Announcement - Puzzle - Prize

Puzzle 11: 1 $ETH - Unsolved - Tweet deleted - Puzzle - Prize

Puzzle 12: 400 $AR - Unsolved - Announcement - Puzzle - Prize

Puzzle 13: 1 $ETH - Solved - Announcement - Puzzle - Prize

Four of the puzzles remain unsolved, amounting to 1,900 $AR and 1 $ETH in available bounties to claim. Let’s take a closer look.

Unsolved mysteries

A black-and-white grid of eight hand-drawn sketches, including a diamond with the number "21863," a pickaxe, a dollar sign with arrows, a map outline, a tree, and a cactus.

Accompanying Puzzle 3’s hand-drawn images are eight separate fields that allow for 4-character inputs. Important clues were given regarding the third and eighth images in the comments section of the announcement post.

A collection of torn white paper scraps scattered on a gray surface, featuring black-and-white graphics and numbers, accompanied by a gold key attached to a yellow paperclip.

Puzzle 10 offers you a way to get hands-on and recreate the image with your own printed version. Many potential concepts have been pitched for this one, including references to Arweave’s genesis block and a specific Star Wars character.

A simple black ink sketch of a sailboat on the water in the foreground, with several smaller boats docked at a pier and a city skyline in the background.

Unlike the other puzzles still left to crack, Puzzle 11 doesn’t include any instructions or fields to decrypt the key. In that case, it’s to be presumed that the relevant cryptographic key (or seed phrase) is hidden in plain sight. What can you see here that everyone else can’t?

Four separate jigsaw puzzle pieces, each containing different graphics: colored flags on poles, a blue whale with a date, orange geometric shapes with numbers, and letters in hatched squares.

Puzzle 12 offers multiple clues, including a date, several numbers, letters, and six colored flags. Despite the abundance of information in the picture, nobody’s managed to crack this riddle in the six years it’s been visible onchain.

Once again, make sure to visit HomelessPHD’s GitHub for a deeper look at all the clues and partial solutions. Have fun attempting to crack these puzzles and let us know on X at @onlyarweave if you manage to solve anything.

Good luck!

ICYMI 👀

Here’s a quick snapshot of what’s been unfolding across Arweave and AO.

This week's community feature 👨‍💻

The text "NASA Satellite" in a black sans-serif font, followed by a small black circular icon with green, blue, and red dots along its perimeter.

Jonny Ringo launched NASA Satellite recently, a chat dashboard for builders to talk to node operators through encrypted messaging. In anticipation of an automated marketplace, NASA Satellite gives builders a direct line to discuss operations, device needs, and costs.

Thanks for reading!

If you know anyone else who would find this information and our insights helpful, please share this newsletter with them.

Follow us on X at @onlyarweave to stay updated on all things Arweave. Want to dive deeper into AO? Check out @aoComputerClub.

The Longview Team

This is not investment advice. No profit guarantees. If in the U.S., ensure compliance with U.S. laws and seek professional advice.

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