Solving Bulltardia; A Treasure Hunt Hidden in a Bitcoin Comic
Bulltardia is the story of Bitcoin wrapped in a comic; written and illustrated by artist Dim Zayan. The story follows the adventures of a hot-headed honey badger named Bit who is tasked to bring a moonstone back to the moon. Even though the story is set in an imaginary world, it reflects on our reality as most of the characters and places are based on real people and events that are part of the ongoing history written by Bitcoin.
Buried in the story was also a treasure hunt worth 10 million satoshi (0.1 BTC) or roughly $5,100 USD at the time of this writing.
Below I will explore the 12 keys for the mnemonic phrase and all the associated hints I had for them. Following that I will go over the full solution for the master key (mnemonic passphrase).
The 12 Keys (mnemonic phrase)
During the course of the hunt, I was subscribed to Dim’s patreon account. This gained myself bonus hints (and some other cool stuff including a physical copy of Bulltardia Season 1 Book 1). All hints I had are shown here. As for which were public vs private, I leave as an exercise for the reader should they so desire.
Key 1
Hints:
- The first key is one of the reasons the Honey Badger don’t care
- The first key is developed over time
- The first key a six letter word
- The first key led to a bad habit
- The first key makes you feel invincible
- The first key is an adjective
- The first key starts with an I
Solution: immune
Key 2
Hints:
- If Bit was to listen to Shepard Fairey, he would do the second key
- The second key is in episode 3
- The second key is about listening to the elders
- The second key is about toning it down
- The second key is a verb
- The second key starts with a R
Solution: reduce
Key 3
Hints:
- The third key is a four letters word
- The third key defines the badger’s journey
- The third key defines episode 8
Solution: long
Key 4
Hints:
- The fourth key is a seven letters word
- The fourth key is done by a bull in episode 3 and a bird in episode 4
- The fourth key starts with a W
- The fourth key refers to an interaction between Bit and another character
Solution: whisper
Key 5
Hints:
- The fifth key is a verb describing the arrival of the cardinals on Mothership. Actually, it describes getting on just any ship
- Five letters for the fifth key
- The fifth key starts with a B
- Around the campfire take a character add a character the key of five you’ll acquire
Solution: board
Key 6
Hints:
- Bit walked into the sixth key when entering the forest
- The sixth key is a synonym to a word in one of the episodes title
- No one would enjoy falling in the sixth key
Solution: trap
Key 7
Hints:
- Chikun’s ninth key is being another key
Solution: chef
Key 8
Hints:
- The eighth key is a mark of the cardinals vanity
- The eighth key is soft to the touch
Solution: velvet
Key 9
Hints:
- As you can see in episode 2, although it is not mentioned directly, Bit has many of the ninth key
- Remove one letter from a word written in the Codex page of Bulltardia Season One Book One, and you’ll have the Ninth Key
- Chikun’s ninth key is being another key
Solution: talent
Key 10
Hints:
- The tenth key has to do with personal care
- The tenth key has three consonants
- From one furry to another the key is to take action and keep those claws in order you’ll look ten times better
Solution: clip
Key 11
Hints:
- The bulls have the eleventh key
- The eleventh key usually comes in a pair
Solution: horn
Key 12
Hints:
- The twelfth key is a 5 letter word mentioned by Bit
- There is a T in the last key
- The last key is in episode 8
Solution: until
Misc Hints
There were other hints which could not be contributed to a specific key but helped with the overall solution:
- Two keys appear in Episode 6
- Goldie is not the last key nor the first key either Though Goldie thinks he’s one a dozen no one agrees with it, sir
- Mellivoras and Monsters bellies filled with hunger would all be relieved with the messenger key (turned out to be a hint for Key 7)
- Goldie is no chicken (also turned out to be a hint for Key 7)
The Master Key
Recently, Dim realize he had accidentally placed a passphrase on the mnemonic. Mistakes happen and such is life. What are you gonna do? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Dim came up with a few options and let the Telegram channel for the hunt vote and decide on the fate of this master key. The majority of the people voted to put the passphrase in a standalone puzzle. Myself, personally I voted that the passphrase just be released since it was never supposed to be there, but I got outvoted (and such is life and what are you gonna do).
Dim released the following image and instructions for the master key puzzle:
To solve the final puzzle, one will need to find 17 words from the characters engraved in the stone in the image below and strike them. The unused characters will reveal the name of an ancient deity adored by the first generation of the ELITE tribe. The proper name has to be spoken with the cipher of their original language to unlock the treasure chest.
3. Current destination
3. Chemical compound
4. he gets pretty excited
4. It was seen in a dream
4. A religious party
5. A daughter
5. Eagle of the church
5. Milked by Bit
5. They run
5. its market sucks
6. Not welcome
6. Will become Doge
6. A typical family
7. The man with the plan
9. With it, you will know true freedom
9. Where the dissidents go
10. Blazing in one’s vision
The tablet appears to be just a substitution cipher. We start by mapping each symbol to a letter, starting with A:
From here the easiest course of action is to begin to find answers for the 17 words. The number before each word, we can guess, is the number of characters in the word. We can also assume that all 17 are probably about the comic. For brevity, the final answer to all 17 are below. Note that in reality, enough were solved to solve the substitution cipher, and then the remaining were solved.
3. Current destination = GOX
3. Chemical compound = FUD
4. he gets pretty excited = ELON
4. It was seen in a dream = OMEN
4. A religious party = FIAT
5. A daughter = LODRA
5. Eagle of the church = CHASE
5. Milked by Bit = COBRA
5. They run = BULLS
5. its market sucks = BEARS
6. Not welcome = CHIKUN
6. Will become Doge = KABOSU
6. A typical family = NORMIE
7. The man with the plan = SATOSHI
9. With it, you will know true freedom = MOONSTONE
9. Where the dissidents go = REKTLANDS
10. Blazing in one’s vision = MOTHERSHIP
The full solution with the solved the substitution cipher and found words is as follows:
Now we must back to the remaining instructions:
The unused characters will reveal the name of an ancient deity adored by the first generation of the ELITE tribe. The proper name has to be spoken with the cipher of their original language to unlock the treasure chest.
The remaining characters, in order, form NGUMAMONENE . This is the infamous cryptid the Nguma-monene. Dim let it be known in Telegram that the password contained no hyphens. We’re told the proper name has to be spoken. That gives us Ngumamonene . Next we are told to speak it in the cipher of the original language of the first generation of the ELITE tribe. This threw some people off, but is fairly straightforward. There are a couple ways to think about this, and both lead to the same answer:
- The first generation of the ELITE tribe is the Cult of the Dead Cow. Their original language that they invented is 1337 (or “Leet”).
- ELITE by itself is an obvious reference to 1337. Just google “ELITE cipher” and check the first results.
Therefore, we must convert the passphrase to 1337, which gives us Ngum4m0n3n3 .
And there we have it, the final mnemonic immune reduce long whisper board trap chef velvet clip horn until + passphrase Ngum4m0n3n3 that unlocked the wallet for 0.1 BTC.
Note that this was a team effort by myself, pogob and a few other members of the NB treasure hunting team.
Special shoutout and thanks to Dim for an entertaining 9 months of treasure hunting and comics. Keep those comics coming!
