---
title: "q"
description: "A one letter Stacker News account that forgot the BIP38 passphrase of its own paper wallet and gave the coins to whoever can guess it"
canonical_url: "https://puzzles.agntn.dev/authors/q"
---
# q

> A one letter Stacker News account that forgot the BIP38 passphrase of its own paper wallet and gave the coins to whoever can guess it

<author-facts author="q">



</author-facts>

## Who this is

One letter. That's the whole handle. q grabbed it back when Stacker News was new and single letters were still up for grabs, and q was just the first random one nobody had taken. No hidden meaning, q says so in the thread. A bit disappointing for a puzzle author, but honest.

October 6, 2023. q posts [Brute force and the coins are yours](https://puzzles.agntn.dev/collections/bitaddress). A bitaddress.org paper wallet from years back, BIP38 encrypted, passphrase gone. q already went through the old passwords and got nothing. So instead of letting the coins sit there forever, q hands them to anyone who can guess better.

And there's a message in it. The passphrase is "not an extra security layer", q says, just an extra step before the coins go to every bitcoiner. Pretty brave take on your own wallet. Also a great sales pitch for a puzzle, and the coins are still there, so the passphrase isn't exactly agreeing.

## What the record says

Three facts, from the post and one reply. The wallet with the forgotten passphrase. The point about passphrases. The story behind the name. What q remembers about the passphrase itself isn't here, that's hints on the [puzzle record](https://puzzles.agntn.dev/collections/bitaddress), because it's about the puzzle, not about q.

## The record

```ts [src/collections/bitaddress.ts]
static readonly author = party("q", {
  key: "q",
  kind: PartyKind.Person,
  about: "Stacker News account that gave away a paper wallet whose BIP38 passphrase it had forgotten, …",
  profiles: [profile("stackernews", "https://stacker.news/q")],
  facts: [
    fact("Posted the encrypted key and the address of a bitaddress.org paper wallet made some years earlier, …", THREAD, { date: "2023-10-06" }),
    fact("Called the giveaway a demonstration that a passphrase is not an extra security layer, …", THREAD, { date: "2023-10-06" }),
    fact("Took the name q when Stacker News was new and single letters were still free, …", comment("276411"), { date: "2023-10-06" }),
  ],
});
```


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