A code hidden in a painting that gave access to Bitcoin wallet worth $50,000 (£35,500) has been cracked after nearly three years.
The puzzle, designed by a crypto artist known as @coin_artist and Rob Myers, was created in early 2015.
A private key contained within the artwork enabled its discoverer to access an online wallet containing 4.87 Bitcoins, worth nearly $50,000 (£35,500) at the time.
And the account was finally drained last week.
A 30-year-old programmer claimed the funds after searching online for puzzles to do with cryptocurrencies, Technology website Motherboard reported.
He reportedly lived in a country where it was "not safe" to own Bitcoin and therefore wanted to remain anonymous.
The painting, named "TORCHED H34R7S", formed the final part of a series of minor puzzles that had to be solved for a chance at finding the key.
A string of binary - a series of zeroes and ones - was encoded in rows of flames painted around the edge of the canvas.
The colour and shape of each flame represented a four character segment of the binary series.
A further part of the code was secreted in six ribbons of different lengths in the bottom right-hand corner of the painting.
Once the codes were worked out and linked together, the programmer used a simple computer programme to translate the full binary sequence.
The title of the painting references William Shakespeare's poem The Phoenix and the Turtle, @coin_artist told Motherboard.
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