Last year I organized a Seed Phrase Hunt for the community, and the response was incredible. The puzzles, the collaboration, the thrill of the chase – it was everything I hoped it would be.
So I’m doing it again. But this time, I’m playing the long game.
The vision
This hunt is designed to be hard. Not “solved in a weekend” hard – more like “this might take months” hard. The idea is simple: with ANT at its current price, we have a unique opportunity to build a prize pool now that could become something truly remarkable as the network grows. Imagine the reach we could generate with a prize pot that’s grown 10x or more by the time someone finally cracks it.
Timeline
The hunt won’t start until the network is stable enough for permanent data storage and accessible to a broader audience. Expect all puzzle pieces to be released Q2 2025 at the earliest. This gives everyone plenty of time to contribute – whether that’s a one-time donation or slowly converting your node rewards into the prize pool for a steady build-up.
Collaboration with Autonomi
I’ve been in touch with Jim, and he’s enthusiastic about helping out. We’re planning to hide some puzzle pieces in upcoming Autonomi social content – turning this into a proper marketing event that boosts engagement across the board.
Contribute to the prize pool
I’ve already seeded the wallet with 1,500 ANT + ETH for gas. If you want to help make this hunt legendary, you can send contributions to:
0x4F207491e537e78D6CD3e75a368b2B1728148df8
Every bit helps – and who knows what that ANT will be worth by the time someone finally solves it.
Stay tuned
More details on puzzle format and mechanics will follow as we get closer to launch. For now, consider this your invitation to be part of something big.
I’m not gonna lie, I have not heard of Cicada 3301 until you mentioned it. I’ve really been reading into it these last days and I’m really intrigued. I am close to finalizing the 2.0 hunt concept, I don’t think it’s anywhere near the difficulty of Cicada 3301 (I’m arguably not smart enough myself to come up with it ). But it’s already way too difficult for the current price pool.
I’m really hoping that this hunt will keep a bunch of people occupied for a few months, if not years. It would be a dream to see the pricepool run up as the network grows larger and really becoming a publicity stunt. I’ve personally dedicated all my nodes to the address and they will remain at that adres till someone finds the key.
This could also become a massive disappointment where nobody is willing to take the effort to crack the hard puzzles I’ve came up with. But I’m optimistic and excited at the same time
In terms of difficulty one has to factor in that ppl will probably use AI to solve the riddles… not sure if that’d be cheating and if there is a way to prevent that?
I cannot prevent it in every way, but I’ve definitely made sure that most of it is not just asking AI and be done with it There is definitely no cheating, everything is allowed, as should be in a good hunt imo.
). But it’s already way too difficult for the current price pool.