---
title: "IAMABananaAMAA"
description: "Started r/bitcoinpuzzles in December 2013 and put a puzzle up the same evening. A GIF with 1 mBTC inside, marked easy. That lasted thirteen minutes."
canonical_url: "https://puzzles.agntn.dev/authors/iamabananaamaa"
---
# IAMABananaAMAA

> Started r/bitcoinpuzzles in December 2013 and put a puzzle up the same evening. A GIF with 1 mBTC inside, marked easy. That lasted thirteen minutes.

<author-facts author="iamabananaamaa">



</author-facts>

## Who this is

A Reddit account. I Am A Banana, AMAA. The record knows the handle and what it posted, nothing more.

On December 22, 2013 the account opened r/bitcoinpuzzles. [The welcome post](https://www.reddit.com/r/bitcoinpuzzles/comments/1thi7z/meta_welcome_to_rbitcoinpuzzles/) set the one rule: hide a private key in a video, an image or a text, and put at least 1 mBTC on it. Then came the [GIF puzzle](https://puzzles.agntn.dev/collections/iamabananaamaa), and less than a minute later [a post on r/Bitcoin](https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1thjlz/) inviting everyone over.

The puzzle said easy. The author spent the evening in the comments from a phone, admitting it should've been medium and dropping hints. After the solve, Wickex described the chain as "Part recognition, part trial and error!" The author's reply: "Mostly trial and error.. 

Six hours after the GIF came [a second puzzle](https://puzzles.agntn.dev/collections/iamabananaamaa#how-the-caesar-riddle-works), four lines of text under a verse signed by Caesar. The key was the four lines themselves. Asked later how it worked, the author said "I don't remember it off the top of my head" and described a Caesar shift. The shift doesn't give the key.

## What the record says

Two facts, both from the author's own posts that day. The welcome post gives the rule. The r/Bitcoin post gives the timing, 51 seconds after the puzzle. Everything about the solve lives on the collection page, because it's the solver's comment, not the author's.

## The record

```ts [src/collections/iamabananaamaa.ts]
static readonly author = party("IAMABananaAMAA", {
  key: "iamabananaamaa",
  kind: PartyKind.Person,
  about: "Started r/bitcoinpuzzles in December 2013 and put a puzzle up the same evening: a GIF with 1 mBTC inside. Marked it easy. Took that back within the hour.",
  profiles: [profile("reddit", "https://www.reddit.com/user/IAMABananaAMAA/")],
  facts: [
    fact("Opened r/bitcoinpuzzles with a welcome post: hide a private key in a video, image or text, and put at least 1 mBTC on it.", WELCOME, { date: "2013-12-22" }),
    fact("Announced the subreddit on r/Bitcoin a minute after posting the GIF puzzle.", ANNOUNCEMENT, { date: "2013-12-22" }),
  ],
});
```


## Sitemap

See the full [sitemap](https://puzzles.agntn.dev/sitemap.md) for all pages.