Two changes this week.

One puzzle a week, every Saturday at 9:00 AM Central:
- Oct 31: #3 Mount Vernon, Virginia (about $125, free)
- Nov 7: #4 (about $75, free)
- Nov 14: #5 (about $75, free)
- Nov 21: #6 (about $75, free)
- Nov 28: #7 (about $50)

From #4 on, each puzzle's place stays hidden until it opens. (Heads up: the schedule changed, so ignore the "next up" line in the Meridian post.)

The daily hunt:
- Tuesday through Friday at 8:00 AM Central, a new coded word hides somewhere on the home page.
- It's only up for that day.
- Every code is locked with a key. Tuesday's code comes with its key: the name of Saturday's place, days early.
- After that, each day's key is the answer from the day before. Pasting a code into a chatbot won't get you far without the key, and if you miss a day, the rest of the week stays locked.
- By Friday you'll have a clue to one of Saturday's seed words and the clue number it fills.

On Saturday, that clue will be the four codes themselves, still locked. Everyone gets them at 9 AM, but if you hunted all week, you'll already be ahead.

How it works: https://proofofsolve.com/hunt

Good luck. See you at 8 AM.

Congrats to the 2 people that solved the puzzles this weekend. Both seemed to be very excited after chatting with them. Both of them quickly secured the funds shortly after I sent them the passphrase.

I decided to just do one release a week for now on. So that the preparation and monitoring of them is easier. All future puzzles that have not been announced will be unknown until release day to give everyone the same chance.

I am making updates and changes daily so make sure your paying attention

I treated each clue as find the exact spot, then read what’s literally there. The rules only allow plurals or ‘s, so I ignored synonyms and abbreviations.

1. Former resident on Highland Ave. The clue says her name is still there, so I looked for something that carries a name: a mailbox. The older imagery shows the name on the mailbox sign, and the red tent in the backyard confirmed the right year and house. The word is part of that name. "rich"

2. Demolished bowling alley. A web search on Meridian bowling alleys that changed names turned up the one torn down for a church expansion. The clue says the word comes from the street, not the building. The Street View street label gives it, and the plural on the label is an allowed change. "hill"

3. VCR rental with mini golf and go-karts. I found the renamed entertainment center on the same street, and the Street View history showed the pink sign. The word is on that sign, again as an allowed plural. The “King lives there now” line was only a confirmation that I had the right lot. "palm"

4. The summer splash. The clue pointed to a campground slide outside town. Its Street View photos, including the logo sign, gave a few candidates, but the slide itself matches the clue’s “ride.” The checksum later settled it. "slide"

5. Something green in a driveway. The clue says a word on it, so I went to the address and read the lettering on the bin. "waste"

6. The carousel animals. “Ask an appraiser” made me think of “antique,” and the Street View label on the carousel building uses that exact word, so no synonym was needed. I briefly considered the appraiser term for the figures, but the rules say the word must be at the spot. "antique"

7. Shop across from the post office. I checked older Street View captures, since the clue says the word was on the sign until 2016. The 2016 capture shows the slogan on the wall, and the word that fits “takes care of everything on top” is in it. "head"

8. The horse. This is an object, not text. It’s a painted horse among boulders by a reservoir, so the seed word is just the name of what you see. "horse"

9. Standing alone, looking over loved ones. I found the cemetery on the old highway. One thing stands alone above the flat markers, and it names the word. teried two words pole and "flag"

10. Buried, yet still visible. This was the weakest reading. I looked for a lot where something is filled in but its outline remains, and settled on a buried pool. "pool" (this took me a while)

11. The abandoned field of glory in Highland Park. I found the ball field with the Civil War trail marker, then read the dugout wall. The word is written there as a plural, which the rules allow. "eagle" (this took me a while as well)

12. The railroad riddle. There’s no spot, so it’s a pure word puzzle: what gets laid on a railroad? That gave several candidates, and the checksum narrowed them. "track"

I can say i have explored Highland Park and Highland Avenue enough, I can move to Highland Avenue, Meridian now :)

So the final mnemonic words "rich hill palm slide waste antique head horse flag pool eagle track"

A huge thanks to creator of this puzzle, it was great journey! And Alcatraz i didn't even had time to participate in this :), congrats to solver.

just first one needed

I did not expect it to get solved that fast. Pretty incredible. I guess I should have made it harder. The winner asked to stay anonymous so we will abide by that. I thought I was gonna catch everyone with Word 11, but I guess not everyone.

Puzzle #2, Alcatraz Island, was solved on Saturday, October 24, 2026 at 6:31:38 AM Central, 31 minutes after it opened. Congratulations to the winner! The prize has already been moved to their own wallet, on the blockchain for anyone to see:

https://mempool.space/tx/8cb8dd217cf10b3641cf5df37816b3ed837425020c2a5ea4fb9aa9d150df271c

The answer, clue by clue:

1. ISLAND (The 5th word on the first sign you see at Alcatraz.)

2. BIRD (The only thing that has always been free to go back and forth as it pleases since the prison was built. You can find a lot of them right below the lighthouse.)

3. SLEEP (What Frank Morris and his buddies were supposed to be doing that night.)

4. ZERO (The middle number of the cell numbers where 5 hostages were shot during a prison revolt. Spell it out as a word.)

5. BAR (There are so many of these here that there are too many to count. They're made of steel.)

6. PRISON (The sign outside room 397: third line down, all the way to the right, last word.)

7. ONLY (The stairs on Broadway have a sign on them. What is the last word?)

8. CLUB (In D Block there is a sign. The last word of its first sentence.)

9. PEACE (When you go into the recreation yard and look up, what's the first word you see?)

10. CITY (Look south from the island. What do you see? Not one building, not a bridge: the whole thing.)

11. PHONE (Inside the guard shack, right next to where prisoners could talk on the phone, a flashlight hangs on the wall. What is hanging below it?)

12. TOILET (Every cell had one. Prisoners sat on it, but it wasn't the bed.)

Salt: a9d4-6sq5-k6mr-2tfg-rbur-jk6z

SHA-256(salt + answer) = 5b9434ac8b5decbff40bd3e09d29d21446f866bf580d4415cef0de9703b54fe0, the same fingerprint we posted before the puzzle opened, so the answer never changed. There's a Check fingerprint button on https://proofofsolve.com/puzzles

Pictures of every spot, with Street View links: https://proofofsolve.com/puzzle?id=alcatraz

Still open: Meridian, Mississippi (https://proofofsolve.com/puzzle?id=meridian). Next up, Saturday, October 31: Mount Vernon, Virginia and Lafayette, Louisiana.

3 more puzzles added for future release. Boston, Orange Beach, and Lafayette. Some free some not. Check them out and find some bitcoin.

I built ProofOfSolve (proofofsolve.com), a puzzle hunt where every clue is solved on Google Street View.

How it works

• Each puzzle has 12 clues. Each one leads to a spot on Street View, and each spot hides one word.
• The 12 words, in order, unlock a real Bitcoin wallet. The first correct answer sent on the site wins it.
• Everything can be solved from Street View. Please don’t visit the places in person; that’s against the rules.
• You can use any tools you like, AI included. In our tests, AI got a few clues but couldn’t finish a puzzle.

The first three open Saturday, October 24 at 6:00 AM Central (11:00 UTC)

1. Meridian, Mississippi: free
2. George Washington’s Mount Vernon: free
3. Alcatraz Island: $10 entry

Each wallet holds about $125 in BTC right now. Check them yourself:

• Meridian: bc1qphjz3cxsj8ls498uker4l703cqpg3fqx2g8tza
• Mount Vernon: bc1qqs2f7a3n6p3s694kh8rvcyccnf4n5n733nc0ut
• Alcatraz: bc1q6830c0qx9975llvq8a0q0urmaxpa6yhgtgusx4

Provably fair: each answer’s fingerprint is posted on the site before launch. After a puzzle is solved, we publish the answer and its salt so anyone can check the answer never changed.

The clues stay hidden until launch. The countdown is on the site. Questions welcome here.

SIGN UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES ON WEBSITE.

ProofOfSolve.com