Terms of Service

Scrypt LLC (“Scrypt,” “we,” “us”) is a limited liability company organized in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Scrypt LLC is the Organizer of record for every Sprint, every Oracle door, and every prize described on this site. No other entity runs these contests.

You can reach us through the contact route published on satoshiscrypt.com. Notices about a prize, a disqualification, or a dispute must come through that route to count.

The Sprint is a contest of skill. Winning is determined by solving ciphers correctly, and by nothing else. There is no element of chance in who wins.

Entry is free and there is nothing to buy. No purchase is necessary to enter, to earn a head start, or to win. Buying merchandise does not enter you, does not improve your standing, and does not increase your odds. Nothing you can pay for affects the outcome of a Sprint.

The purse is funded by Scrypt LLC and announced before the race opens. It is not derived from entry fees, and it is not a share of merchandise sales. There is no arrangement in which the prize grows because you spent money.

Anyone eighteen or older may enter. There is no other gate. Entry is open worldwide, and because there is nothing to buy and nothing to pay, there is no reason to fence it by territory.

That is subject to the law where you actually live — void where prohibited. If the law where you are does not permit you to enter or to accept a prize, these terms do not override it and you are not eligible.

Employees, contractors and immediate household members of Scrypt LLC may solve for the record but may not hold a paid seat.

One person, one entry. Multiple accounts, shared submissions, or entries made on another person’s behalf are void, and every entry connected to the attempt is void with them.

Each Sprint is a set of ciphers, released as a single pack, whose solution names a place. The city is never published on this site or on any public surface — it is revealed by solving, and that is the whole of the puzzle.

The pack is released twice. Solvers who hold an Oracle door receive it first; the full field receives it forty-eight hours later. Both releases carry the identical pack, the identical ciphers, and the identical purse.

Every release and closing time is published in advance and stated in United States Eastern Time. Our server clock is authoritative for window enforcement.

An Oracle door is a free puzzle. The first correct answer on an open door claims it. Your first claimed door in a calendar month is the one that counts toward that month’s head start, so which door you pursue is your own choice.

Holding a door on the release date entitles you to the earlier pack and the earlier portal. It confers nothing else: no additional time on the clock, no scoring advantage, and no preference in a tie.

Doors do not expire. An unclaimed door from an earlier month stays open until someone takes it.

Each Sprint carries a fixed purse, announced before entry opens and split across a stated number of seats. For the September 2026 Sprint the purse is $575, split $345, $145 and $85 across three seats.

A seat that goes unclaimed rolls forward into the next Sprint rather than returning to us. This is a term, not a courtesy: money that enters a purse stays in a purse.

We may increase a purse before a race opens, and will announce it if we do. We will not reduce a purse after entry has opened.

Answers are adjudicated against a sealed answer key set before the pack is released. The key is encrypted at rest and is not accessible to anyone during a running race.

An entry is correct or it is not. Spelling, spacing and case are normalized before comparison; meaning is not. Partial answers do not score.

Where a published clue is later found to be defective, we will say so publicly, and we will resolve it in favour of the field rather than in favour of the house.

Seats are awarded on a weighted composite of two measurements:

Elapsed time — the interval between your portal opening and your final correct answer landing. This is your own clock, and it is the same length for every entrant regardless of tier.

Absolute time — the moment your final correct answer lands, measured against the race itself.

The composite is weighted 70% elapsed, 30% absolute. Elapsed time carries the greater weight deliberately: the head start moves your window earlier, and it must not also win the race for you.

If a composite score ties exactly, the earlier elapsed time takes the seat.

If those tie as well, we do not split the seat and we do not draw for it. A fresh cipher goes to the tied entrants and to nobody else, and the seat belongs to whoever solves it first. A contest of skill is decided by skill all the way down, including at the very bottom.

While a race is open, do not publish, post, stream or otherwise share an in-progress answer, a partial solution, or the city’s name. This is the one rule whose breach damages every other entrant, and we enforce it.

Also disqualifying: automated or scripted submission, interfering with the portal or its infrastructure, attempting to reach the answer key by any means other than solving, and impersonating another entrant.

A disqualified entry forfeits its seat. The seat passes to the next correct entrant rather than going unfilled.

Verification is by self-identification, and it happens over email. We write to the address that entered. You confirm who you are and that you are eligible, and you tell us how you want to be paid — the method is your choice, not ours, from whatever we can reasonably send to.

We may withhold a prize until that exchange is complete. If you do not answer within fourteen days of our first attempt to reach you, the seat passes to the next correct entrant.

Prizes are paid in United States dollars. You are responsible for any tax arising on a prize you accept, and where the law requires it we will report the payment.

Goods sold through our store are produced and shipped by third-party manufacturers. Delivery estimates are estimates. Title and risk pass on delivery.

Some products carry puzzle elements. Those elements are part of the object you bought — they are not an entry into any contest, they carry no cash value, and they do not affect a Sprint.

Damaged or misprinted goods are replaced. Tell us within thirty days of delivery and include a photograph.

The ciphers, puzzles, artwork, fiction, audio and site design are ours or licensed to us. Solving a puzzle does not transfer any right in it. Do not republish a pack, an answer key, or a solution set.

Work you submit to us — a contest entry, an artist submission — stays yours. Where we license it, the licence is the one stated in the agreement we sign with you at that time, and nothing on this page takes a broader one.

You may talk about a Sprint after it closes. Say what you like.

We collect the email address you give us, the answers you submit, and basic technical data needed to run the race and keep it honest. We use it to send you packs and announcements and to adjudicate.

We do not sell it. You can leave the record at any time using the unsubscribe link in any email we send you, and we will remove you.

We do not promise you will win. We promise only that you can. The purse is real, the answer key is set before the pack goes out, and no arrangement exists by which anybody reaches it except by solving. That is the whole of the guarantee, and it is the only one worth making.

The site is provided as it is. We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, that a puzzle is solvable within any particular period, or that a third-party service we depend on will stay available.

To the fullest extent the law allows, our total liability to you for anything arising out of these terms is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim, or one hundred United States dollars. We are not liable for indirect, incidental or consequential loss. Nothing here limits a liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

We may amend these terms. Material changes will be announced, and the date at the top of this page will move. A change never applies retroactively to a race that has already opened — the terms in force when a Sprint opened govern that Sprint to its close.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Disputes are heard in the state or federal courts sitting in Kentucky, and both of us consent to that.