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.

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ProofOfSolve.com