A treasure hunter has just discovered the $100,000 prize hidden in the Massachusetts woods

In the woods of Massachusetts, someone has discovered a treasure: a small, strangely marked spiral of 24-karat gold worth more than $25,000. The figurine was part of a scavenger hunt called Project Skydrop and contains instructions on how to access an additional $87,600 worth of Bitcoin.

The project’s organizers – video game developer Jason Rohrer and artist Tom Bailey – announced the hunt on September 19. Participants could pay $20 to receive daily clues to the exact location of the treasure, which was located somewhere within a 500-mile circle in the northeastern United States. .

The challenge would last three weeks, with organizers unveiling a smaller search diameter each day. The project’s website was also regularly updated with new images from a hidden camera at ground level aimed at the golden statue.

“Many of us spend quite a bit of time watching other people have adventures in movies. We wanted to turn those imaginary adventures into something that people could actually experience,” Rohrer said in a statement. “Project Skydrop brings all these elements together to create a real-world experience never seen before.”

Real gold treasure in a shrinking circle

The hunt ended Oct. 1 at 5:19 p.m., when an unidentified individual bent down to retrieve the golden coil from its hiding place in the woods, surveillance footage shows. At that time, the search area was limited to a 27-mile circle within Massachusetts.

The treasure was found days before the planned conclusion of the hunt. As Rohrer tells NBC10 BostonEli Rosenberg: “Many of these treasure hunts take far too long and no one ever solves them – or [they are] solved and immediately destroyed by someone, which spoils the whole thing.

Rohrer is best known for his work on the 2007 game “Passage” and the artificial intelligence chatbot Project Decemberand he was the subject of the first museum overview focusing on the work of one video game artist. When working with Bailey, the duo wanted to make people feel like they were part of a grand adventure.

“Imagine you have your earbuds in and are listening to a John Williams score,” Bailey said in the statement. “You’ll see the gold artifact right in front of you in the forest. You reach out and take it. It’s like a real Indiana Jones treasure hunt, except your face doesn’t melt when you actually look at the treasure.

What is Project Skydrop?

The person who found the treasure, which is 99.99 percent pure gold, was dressed in Adidas sneakers. However, they did not film themselves – a requirement of Project Skydrop to claim the Bitcoin prize. As Rohrer tells Times Union‘s Patrick Tine and Mike Goodwin, the discovery of the treasure eight days before the deadline is a ‘strange mystery’. Some competitors have noted that the finder should be disqualified.

Rohrer and Bailey have not yet heard from the person who found the treasure, and they have not yet released the prize money. “We’re not going to send $87,000 into the void,” Rohrer added.

Rohrer plans to revisit the treasure’s hiding place, which has not yet been revealed, to retrieve his video equipment and leave a marker that will last “hopefully forever,” he says. The goal of Project Skydrop was to organize a treasure hunt for themselves, Rohrer says Times Unionto evoke the “sense of mystery and awe” audiences get from watching fictional heroes discover hidden objects, and to inspire participants to get outside.

“We’re just trying to get people out from behind their screens and into the world,” Rohrer told NBC10 Boston. “Every time we go for a walk or do something outside, we never regret it, so we just try to bring that experience to people who might not otherwise get it.”