A bitcoin scavenger hunt is coming to university campuses this fall. Known as Satoshi’s Treasure, college students will have the chance to search for a $1 million BTC prize.
Satoshi’s Treasure Is Here for Players to Enjoy
Satoshi’s Treasure is operated, as one source puts it, by a “mysterious company based on a tropical island.” Thus, it’s important to note right away that there’s likely to be some risk involved with the venture. Not much is known about the company beforehand, so students should probably be a little wary, though figuring out the company’s identity is allegedly part of the game.
The entire event is sponsored by Primitive Ventures. Hundreds of separate cryptographic keys will be placed in several hidden locations throughout the globe. It is up to the students participating in the game to find as many as they can. Representative state students will be able to claim the price once they find up to 400 keys and splice them together.
At press time, about 40 separate clues have been released regarding the locations of these keys, and as many as 100,000 students have signed up for email updates regarding additional evidence and game participation rules.
The game’s co-creator Eric Meltzer explained in a statement:
A lot of these students want to learn about blockchain and crypto, but their universities haven’t caught up with them yet. We’re looking to provide resources for a lot of these different student groups.
The game will begin with a North American tour of approximately 20 college campuses which will feature what the creators call “mini hunts” and educational meetups that focus on decentralized exchanges and crypto wallet technology.
Jonathan Calso, who heads a blockchain group at the University of Michigan, says that these workshops are great networking opportunities for students looking to get noticed by schools’ engineering divisions. He states:
This helps us get more visibility from the engineering department, economics and computer science departments as well. The clues incentivize you to discover new websites and tools… to play around with a bitcoin wallet a bit and to see what the technology can do.
Bringing in Outside Players
Co-founder of the game Jessica Wang says that she’s coordinating activity amongst several university representatives in Asia and Oceania to help students abroad become involved if they so choose. She explains:
Students are the future of this industry, so we’re going to put small prizes, like one bitcoin, into this game to attract mores students. We’re going to hide more physical location puzzles globally… We’re going to have one [key] piece at a university in Asia and another in a university in the U.S., so they’re going to need to network with each other… Top cryptography foundations and teams will create more puzzles on their end.
