Bitcoin Forum

Congratulations! You have just found real money!

The object in this cache contains the cryptographic keys needed to spend 0.1 bitcoin, currently worth about 6600 ISK. If you are not familiar with bitcoin, then you have made another valuable discovery today! You can spend this money at tens of thousands of locations online and around the world. Or sell your bitcoin to a growing community of millions of users at an online exchange.

Best of all, there are no strings attached. I am giving away my own money because I thought it would be an interesting and fun project to geocache some bitcoin. I would like it if you sent me an email telling of how you found this paper wallet. You don’t have to identify yourself, but it would be cool to follow along on your adventure under whatever name you chose. And if you send a photo of the paper wallet as proof of your find, I will deposit another 0.01 bitcoin into any bitcoin wallet you chose. I also ask that you not divulge my email, as it is one of the things that only you know and that proves your find.

What do I do with this thing?
First, remember that the paper wallet has a hidden “private key” that should NEVER BE SHOWN TO ANYONE!!!!! Exposing the QR code and/or the string of characters hidden inside gives a viewer everything needed to move your bitcoin to another wallet.

You can use the “public address,” printed on the front, to check the balance on this wallet by scanning the associated QR code or entering the characters manually at a website like blockchain.info.  Once you have set up a wallet of your own, you should import the hidden private key and spend/give/save/sell your money as you wish.

You and I posses the only two copies of the private keys for this wallet. If by 2018 no one has sent me photographic proof and the funds have not been moved, then I will assume that the paper wallet was lost. I will then move the bitcoin to another paper wallet and hide it somewhere else on earth. If I do receive email proof or if the money is moved, which is also proof someone found the wallet, I will delete my copy of the private key and leave you as the sole owner. That means if you loose your paper wallet, nobody can recover your money. Just like loosing paper money.

Learn more at bitcoin.org

That looks like some sort of chain, possibly connected to a anchor.. so I guess it's somewhere in a harbour. 

I chose the letter C

Icelandic has two Cs in it  ;D

Note that the Icelandic alphabet will be used. 

???

Nobody? Well I'll let it ride and add another challenge question. Let's see who is awake while I get some sleep. The first person to post the correct answer in this thread wins .01BTC in this simple goole skils question! After posting in this thread the winner can PM me a receiving address and I will pay within 24hrs. The other online photo challenge also remains open at the moment. Happy hunting.

The paper wallet has a depiction of early Icelandic vikings. Who is the artist of this image?

???

Nobody? Well I'll let it ride and add another challenge question. Let's see who is awake while I get some sleep. The first person to post the correct answer in this thread wins .01BTC in this simple goole skils question! After posting in this thread the winner can PM me a receiving address and I will pay within 24hrs. The other online photo challenge also remains open at the moment. Happy hunting.

The paper wallet has a depiction of early Icelandic vikings. Who is the artist of this image?

Chained
An image from Keflavik, Iceland. I'm not sure of the relevance of this monument as I couldn't understand the plaque. I would guess at some sort of acknowledgement of the islands maritime history? I did like the detail in all the rust and how weather beaten it looks. Even on 35mm film the detail still holds up very well.
 
Camera: Pentax K1000
Lens: Pentax SMC M 50mm f1.4
Film Stock: Kodak Portra 160

Artist's full name is Oscar Arnold Wergeland  8)

Is this the photo you are after ?

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/450/20389862892_28f332e8e4_m.jpg

Wow, 30 days and nobody collected the money?  ???

Considering how people will solve captchas all day to make pennies, I am a little surprised that this wallet is still there. (Or at least I think it is, the money has not changed addresses). I know that it is not enough to fly to Iceland. Still, there are no rules here and anyone could partner up or something to get a cut of the loot. I will soon open this up to a wider audience by publishing it on geocaching.com.

Geocaching.com kinda sucks by the way.  To publish a cache you have to take a quiz, follow a bunch of rules and wait forever for a reviewer to OK your cache. However once it is done I suspect the money will promptly disappear. So make your plan now and claim your treasure!

60 days and no one picked up this money yet. As I write this the cache is worth over $80!

Well, there are only around 300.000 people living in Iceland, so I'm guessing there's only a handful of people actually looking and aware that this exists.

In a few weeks or so, I'm thinking of doing something like this in my own country, Belgium. I think that one might even be found before this one :D

Will the caches value increase over time if no one finds it?  I like the idea and wish I could get out there to see the beautiful landscapes, amazing photos!   :)

Great idea, how did this fall on your mind to do? Do you just wish to spread the word, or there is some deeper meaning in all this? Maybe you own the shop or cafe that accept bitcoins, so these people will come to your place most likely.
Anyway great thing, I respect your words, at least they will learn about bitcoin if they didn`t know for them before, and they can enjoy playing your interesting game I can say.

Could see some one flying over to Iceland now that we have more flights heading there from Canada.
Once the upward tick of bitcoin becomes more evident the rush should happen,interesting no one has picked it up though.

Can we have a new one, whilst this one is still running? Hopefully the new one will not be that remote. Did you promote this only on this forum or did you promote it on social media too? The success of this is dependent on the exposure it gets, and how many people hear about this.

This thread stays on the front page for only a few days, when it gets bumped or only a few hours depending on the traffic in this section. It is actually strange that they have not moved it yet to the Games & Rounds section.  ???

100 days and no takers yet!

It is still there just waiting for you to come up with a plan. No strings, no rules. Just take it and it's yours.

100 days and no takers yet!

It is still there just waiting for you to come up with a plan. No strings, no rules. Just take it and it's yours.

I would not be surprised if it would take more than a year. Iceland is not densely populated and the probability of an Bitcoiner from Iceland becoming aware of this thread is pretty low. And just booking a flight to Iceland to search for $ 80 worth of Bitcoin is not an attractive option by now. Maybe when Bitcoin surpasses $10k it will become more attractive for foreigners as well.

Maybe you should consider announcing your hidden treasure on other platforms (reddit or Bitcoin news sites) as well. That would increase the probability of search and discovery. This thread has just been read about 1600 times - that's simply not enough exposure considering that many people open the thread repeatedly.

Anyway, great idea!

ya.ya.yo!

Don't worry, it won't be there forever. The second this becomes profitable for me I'll book a flight and get to have a vacation with your bitcoins paying the way :)

Needs much larger prizes.

I believe anybody can send funds to the wallet to increase the prize, 0.1BTC is what RodeoX contributed.  ;)

https://blockchain.info/address/1E481Lk1L1hSb9ZsJu3Smcqtg6tKpVmKcq

You sir are correct!
However it may not be a great idea. Here is why.
I have a copy of the private key that controls this balance. The reason I kept a copy is in case this is never claimed. It could be destroyed by the ocean or weather or whatever. If no one claims it by 2018 I will assume it is gone and move the cache to another place on the earth. At that point it would be very hard to return any additional funds sent to the address. So you would have to commit to giving those funds away even if it means they are moved to another location later. You would also have to trust me not to just take the funds. I'm not going to do that, but you don't know me and blind trust is not a bitcoin value.
 :)

You may very well be right. I was worried it would only take hours and would go too fast, silly me.
Even though there are not a lot of bitcoin users in Iceland there are mega-mines right in the same town as this cache. So I know some people there know about it.  Where are they?
Maybe I will announce this in some other places. I was hoping that someone here would get it though. In any case it will be there until 2018. Unless the sea claims it.

If you remove the funds from that address, you should leave a note/message to inform people on why this was done. Yes, it should be

removed if it is unclaimed for too long, but just in case someone does find it and access that address... then they will know why it was moved.

In future, when you do this, I would include a message with the stash, to tell anyone that this treasure has a expiry date.  ;)

If you post this on geocaching.com it will get found pretty fast I think, most caches there don't last more than a couple of days, even in some pretty remote areas.
I've done this a few times myself. Too bad I don't live in Iceland :)

As per the note in the geocache I will move the bitcoin if it is unclaimed by 2018, one year from today. I think I will continue to offer a small reward for finding and photographing the cache after 2018. As far as I know the paper wallet is still just sitting there. We can see that the money has not moved anyway.

Its a shame that a ticket to Iceland is more expensive then the prize  ;D

I recently visited Iceland and having come across this post a while ago, I thought I would go and hunt for for the geocache before leaving. But it seems like it has disappeared!
See photographic proof below:

[img]https://i.imgur.com/xhqOeWe.jpg [/img ]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/FhSE8oY.jpg [/img ]

Disappointing! Beautiful country though, highly recommend a visit and thought that this was an interesting experiment

Very nice find geschtonkenflapped!   ;D

It's a shame the cache wasn't there when you searched.  Rodeo - was the cache weighted down so it could not float away? 

Interesting that most of the rocks look to be in the same place except the rock which was holding the container.

Thanks for the update as I've been watching this project for quite some time and agreed, I was under the impression you did a good job sealing/placing the cache.  :)

Let me know if you're interested in having others help with hiding items in other continents as I'd be available for East Coast US cache placement.

Interesting idea!
I was wondering if anyone was trying to do this anytime soon with only QR codes.  Geocaching is a unique and a intuitive experience when someone wants more education on learning new things about Bitcoin. Since these things could endure the rain and other whether issues, there shouldn't be any problem promoting/locating.

I wouldn't be that surprised if these things were in every State and Country.

Good Job.

Sorry for the delay in responding, I have been away. I will consider your offer as I get a plan together. However I have to figure out a way to do this that does not open the opportunity to cheat. It's not that I would not trust you, but ideally there should be no need for trust and no way to even theoretically cheat.
In any case it will be January before the next cache is ready. I am currently looking at places in Africa. However I'm still in the planning phase.

Anyway thanks for the offer. Perhaps there is a fun role for you in some crazy game. When that time comes I can send you a PM in any case. I also want to see someone find these caches and tell the story.

Well, I'm in Iceland right now staying in a hotel not far from this spot.  If anyone wants me to, I'll drive to the anchor in the next day or two and thoroughly investigate, just in case the rocks shifted around or something.  Shall I?

With kind regards,

Starhop

@Starhop, Hey what did you find out? Was it still there?

And to anyone who may have found the cache, remember to mover it to a wallet you control by Jan. 1st. If it is not claimed I will be moving it to another remote place on planet Earth.

I believe it was either washed away or destroyed/taken by someone who has no idea what it is. The rock was light and placed so that a person climbing up or trying to slide down could unintentionally move it. A bitcoiner would've moved it to a private address right after finding.
I really like this game, wish more people would play and make it worth it for us to make a race for it. I'd love to take part in a real treasure hunt one day, especially in Europe.

Thanks for your kind comments. I am a bit bummed out that nobody claimed it. When the new year comes I will move the funds to a new cache in Africa and it all starts over. I plan on doing this until it's gone, even if the value of the prize goes to silly heights.

Those silly heights may be whats needed to bring in a larger crowd of people and really make it a race. Good luck!

Thanks man. If Africa goes unclaimed and the price goes way high I may make the next destination under the Ocean somewhere.

May I ask exactly where in Africa?

I hope that one day you will be visiting the Philippines because there are a lot of treasure hunters here and Bitcoin enthusiasts I am happy because I am actually one of them. ;D To be honest majority of the enthusiasts here in my country has financial problems as in so I think this game is a really big help to each and everyone of us and to whoever will find the cache. I never heard of this type of game here before and I am looking forward to participate on it when it's near to my place. This is actually a nice, fun and profitable idea.

I hope you print the wallets using bio-degradable material.

Thanks man. If Africa goes unclaimed and the price goes way high I may make the next destination under the Ocean somewhere.