It wasn't surprising that it had taken so long for someone to solve the painting's code, said Peter Todd, a cryptography consultant. "Puzzles like that one aren't things you can just throw computing power at - they're genuine brain puzzles," he told the BBC.

The Legend of Satoshi Nakamoto: TORCHED H34R7S (2015) aka 1Flamen6

The oil pastel painting is a cryptographic puzzle that led to 5 bitcoin. The artist used steganography to encrypt bitcoin into the art piece, anyone who discovered the solution gained access to this bitcoin address: https://blockchain.info/address/1FLAMEN6rq2BqMnkUmsJBqCGWdwgVKcegd

This is a digital copy of the physical "TORCHED H34R7S"

Marguerite deCourcelle aka @coin_artist created the puzzle during Easter 2015, alongside fellow crypto artist Rob Myers, as a way to conclude a series of Bitcoin puzzles called The Legend of Satoshi Nakamoto.

This particular painting, TORCHED H34R7S, is based on of William Shakespeare's famous poem, The Phoenix and the Turtle. Within the painting, there are two pieces of information that have to be decoded in order to access the Bitcoin wallet.

The first piece of information is found in the 16 different types of flames on the border of the painting, based on their color, size and width. There are Greek symbols in each corner, which hold clues for how to read the information contained in the flames.

After that, the key to the puzzle is the literal key in the painting.

"You use the key, which has bits of information as well, as basically a cipher key to decrypt the flames and you'll have then a Bitcoin private key," deCourcelle said.

Once the player had that key, he was able to access the five Bitcoins within the wallet, which are worth, in total, more than $50,000.

"His way that he went about it was such a logical way that it showcases his brilliance," she said.

Read The Full Puzzle Solution Here

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