Artist Marguerite Driscoll recently released the third painting in her Bitcoin puzzle series via Twitter, Venture Beat reports.
Part of a series entitled The Legend of Satoshi Nakamoto, after the creator of Bitcoin, Driscoll’s art explores the themes of mystery, cryptography and obsession. Internet users who successfully manage to decipher the hidden message in her paintings can claim a prize worth 4.87 bitcoins (or about $1,400).
The puzzles are incredibly complex. So much so that Driscoll published a 32-page solution to her last puzzle.
The artist told Venture Beat in an email: “I was doing freelance work for emerging start-ups. Then I found myself making friends with the folks at the relative media outlets and started making portraits.”
Inspired by the members of the Bitcoin community she encountered, Driscoll started integrating the concept of Bitcoin into her art. “Mystery has always intrigued us, art on its own is a cryptic puzzle, but what happens when we combine art that literally conceals the patterns and data that lead to money? I wanted to find out.”
However she didn’t expect the enormous reaction that her puzzles have unleashed online.
“I honestly wasn’t prepared for how many people took to it. It was staggering. I also didn’t anticipate how emotionally attached people would become to the puzzles. People made friends and formed teams, there was a range of personalities who morphed into characters within the pages of the forums. The puzzle evolved into an emotionally saturated adventure novel.”