Playing "Minecraft" for 1 Hour, Earned 1 BTC?
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Playing "Minecraft" for 1 Hour, Earned 1 BTC?
When he opened "Minecraft" as usual on Saturday, the gears of fate had already begun to turn...
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Cookie
When you clicked on this article, you might have had one of two reactions—did the editor return from UC training? Did the editor accidentally type something wrong? But this time, the story we're about to tell you matches the title exactly. This magical tale took place last Sunday.
Last Sunday, November 3rd at 5 a.m., Rodarmor, founder of Ordinals & Rune protocols, posted a short tweet consisting of only three sentences.
Even before he offered further hints, many players in the comments realized it was an 8-hour timed puzzle game—the very last line of his tweet. And the prize? Precisely the first sentence: "cactusseeds".
Let’s first introduce the prize. "Cactusseeds" is part of "Dia De Pixales," a sub-collection of the zeroth inscription (the very first inscription since the inception of the Ordinals protocol) personally inscribed by Casey. "Dia De Pixales" is an original art series created by Casey, which is showcased on his personal website.
You could even say "cactusseeds" is a "grandchild inscription"—a sub-sub-inscription derived from the zeroth inscription. The image below clearly illustrates how the "parent-child inscription" mechanism enables fully decentralized, on-chain NFT collections to be built on Bitcoin, even without smart contracts.
The topmost inscription here is the zeroth inscription; for other projects, this could also be a TXT inscription representing the collection name. The second-level inscription can represent the collection's logo—in this case, it's actually a GIF animation cycling through the nine "skulls" of the "Dia De Pixales" collection. The final layer contains the individual NFT image content. Through these hierarchical links, NFT collections can be intuitively organized and presented on-chain to users, even without being listed on any marketplace.
Why is this grandchild inscription named "cactusseeds"? That question goes directly to Casey. However, here we can observe how specific NFTs within a collection are named—by intentionally selecting satoshis with corresponding names.
Back to the puzzle. What did the second sentence—"25138 / 29746"—mean? Six hours later, at 10 a.m., Casey revealed the answer:
Now the mystery was solved—"25138 / 29746" were Minecraft coordinates pointing to Casey’s location on the 2b2t server. Shortly afterward, Casey himself confirmed it:
First person to find me gets cactusseeds
This was no easy task. 2b2t is known as "the oldest anarchy Minecraft server." Founded in December 2010, the server is notorious for its ruleless environment and highly destructive subculture. The absolute freedom has turned 2b2t into a "beautiful hell."
For a new player entering 2b2t for the first time, simply leaving the "spawn area" is extremely difficult, let alone reaching the coordinates specified by Casey. These challenges include but are not limited to:
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The spawn area is severely destroyed and filled with traps left by veteran players.
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Reaching Casey's designated coordinates requires gathering sufficient resources; otherwise, players will die from starvation long before arriving.
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New players may be continuously harassed or attacked by veterans within the spawn area.
Take a look at the render of the spawn area below. This image is already four years old—the spawn area is covered in lava, resources are extremely scarce, truly a "hell on earth..."
Almost an hour later, the winner emerged. @Rhynohowl1 became the first person to locate Casey on the 2b2t server, and Casey immediately transferred "cactusseeds" to him.
In fact, this player likely spent even less time than expected finding Casey. It's certain he didn’t know what Ordinals were before this—he might not even have been a crypto user at all. This conclusion comes from analyzing his tweets. After calling his newly acquired "cactusseeds" an "NFT," Ordinals enthusiasts corrected him in the replies: “It’s not an NFT—it’s an inscription!” Additionally, his past tweets were few and contained no references to crypto whatsoever.
He even posted a follow-up tweet responding to the Ordinals community: “Sorry, not an NFT—it’s an Ordinal.”
So how did someone like him learn that Casey was giving away such a significant inscription? Was there insider information ("front-running")? No—because the information reached a Twitch streamer named riths, who primarily broadcasts gameplay on the 2b2t server.
But why did this information end up with a streamer who only broadcasts weekly on Saturdays and doesn’t have a large following? Because Bruno_UTXO, co-founder of the Bitcoin NFT project INK, visited the live stream and shared the news. He even publicly offered @Rhynohowl1 1 BTC to buy "cactusseeds" during the broadcast.
This interaction became the primary source behind the widespread belief that @Rhynohowl1 instantly earned 1 BTC after the event. In reality, @Rhynohowl1 listed the inscription on Magic Eden for 10 BTC, and the highest offer he has received so far is 0.33 BTC. His decision to list it at 10 BTC may stem from a reply Casey made:
"10 BTC, or bust"
Another Ordinals influencer, @cbspears, stated in his video that he would pay 5 BTC to purchase "cactusseeds."
Life is full of surprises. For @Rhynohowl1, before everything happened, it might have just been another ordinary Saturday (Sunday in our timezone). He turned on his computer, launched Minecraft, entered the 2b2t server, and simultaneously watched and chatted in riths’ Twitch stream. Suddenly, a message appeared—an unexpected quest to find the founder of Ordinals & Rune protocols within the virtual world of Minecraft. When that influential figure from another digital realm appeared before him in what might have seemed like an unremarkable Minecraft avatar, he walked away with 1 BTC.
Since launching the rune "MEMENTO•MORI," Casey has become more active, making efforts to promote the rune ecosystem. After concluding this puzzle game, early yesterday morning, Casey posted a long thread expressing that he doesn't want to act like a typical "chief hype officer" from other ecosystems, constantly shilling specific tokens. Instead, he invited suggestions on effective ways to advance the rune and broader Ordinals ecosystem.
Following Casey’s statement, "MEMENTO•MORI" surged by as much as 45%. As previously reported by BlockBeats, this rune—launched personally by Casey—briefly fell below a $10 million market cap after minting ended, prompting players to jokingly remark: “Casey sucks—Vitalik’s dog is better.” After Casey’s recent engagement, sentiment around "MEMENTO•MORI" has warmed significantly alongside its recovering price.
Will runes get better? Only time will tell. And the story of “earning 1 BTC by playing Minecraft for an hour” isn’t over yet. Likewise, only time will reveal, as the ecosystem and Bitcoin itself evolve, at what price "cactusseeds" will eventually sell.
But for now, this story is already extraordinary enough.
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