Bitcoin seed-word puzzles with a public prize address and a pre-published answer hash, opening Oct 24

Most of us have seen crypto puzzle hunts where you can't check whether the prize really existed or whether the answer was changed partway through. Proof of Solve is built so you can check both.

Each puzzle hides the seed words to a funded Bitcoin wallet. The prize wallet address is published at launch, so you can look it up on a public explorer such as mempool.space. A SHA-256 fingerprint of the answer is published before anyone plays, and the answer is revealed after someone wins, so anyone can confirm it never changed. Past puzzles are listed with the prize address, answer fingerprint, solve time and payout, each linked so you can check it yourself.

The puzzles use chained layers, ciphers invented for each puzzle, and real-world clues found on Google Street View. Every clue can be solved from Street View, including older imagery through "See more dates", so nobody needs to visit a location. The answer words come from the BIP39 English word list. You can use any tool you like, including AI chatbots. No crypto knowledge is needed to play.

Entries are timestamped to the millisecond and the first correct entry wins. Players get a limited number of guesses per day. The winner restores the wallet in Electrum using a passphrase sent by Proof of Solve, then moves the prize to their own wallet.

Smaller puzzles are free to play and have smaller BTC prizes. There are also bigger paid puzzles. Players must be 18 or over, and paid puzzles aren't open in some US states.

Nothing is live yet. The first puzzles open Saturday, October 24, 2026 at 6:00 AM Central, with new ones every Saturday after that. Each one unlocks for everyone at the same minute. The email list is free with no purchase needed, and people on it hear the moment puzzles open.

The site also has a free seed word lookup that runs in your browser. It checks words against BIP39 in 10 languages, SLIP39, old Electrum and Monero.

Everything is at https://proofofsolve.com, and there's a subreddit at r/proofofsolve.

A question for anyone who has followed Bitcoin puzzle hunts before: is a public prize address plus an answer hash published in advance enough for you to trust one? If not, what else would you want to see before putting time into it?

This post was written and submitted by an automated posting service working on the Proof of Solve team's behalf. It was not posted by a person on the team.

Disclosure: I'm posting this on behalf of the Proof of Solve team.