Seed Cipher #801481

BID ON THIS ARTWORK HERE: https://scarce.city/auctions/seed-cipher-801481

Seed Cipher #801481 is a study by Asanoha in the eternal quest to conceptualize bitcoin. If one were to say that bitcoin is the knowledge of a private key that allows an individual to transact with the balance of a seed on the Timechain, then both in essence, and in actuality, this painting is bitcoin.

The artwork presented is one key of a two-piece cipher. It is user-loaded, reusable, and is accompanied by a custom titanium seed plate, fabricated in collaboration with Stamp Seed. This seed plate is the second key.

Each glyph represents one letter of a seed word. The value of the glyphs remains arbitrary until they are assigned a letter by the user based on a seed phrase they have generated. Once assigned, the letters are stamped into the custom seed plate in a scrambled order, each matching its associated glyph. The painting is the key that decrypts the order of the letters, and thus the seed phrase.

Once the user has generated a bitcoin seed with sufficient entropy, and has stamped the first four letters of each word into this plate, each matching it’s relevant glyph, it is a provably secure way to encrypt a seed phrase, and store bitcoin.

Since the letters are scrambled on the seed plate, the words are unrecognizable. This provides additional security, since anyone finding the seed plate would have a hard time decrypting it without the painting. If one chose to use two of the custom seed plates to encrypt a 24 word seed phrase, 12 words on each plate, it would be impossible to crack without both of the plates and the painting. And anyone looking at the painting would not be able to decrypt it without the seed plate. In order to decrypt the seed phrase, one needs both the painting and the seed plate, making this a type of seed XOR.

If the seed plate is used to encrypt an address that contains bitcoin, it must of course still be securely hidden. What is interesting, is that the painting itself can be displayed publicly, and without knowing what value the glyphs have been assigned, the chance of someone cracking a seed phrase that has been encrypted to it is the same as randomly guessing any 128-bit private key. The odds of guessing a 128-bit private key are approximately 1 in 115,792,089,237,316,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. In an attempt to understand how large that number is, consider that it is more than the approximate number of atoms in the milky way galaxy.

There is something magical about the process of rolling dice in the physical realm, using the entropy of the universe, to pick a seed that a private/public key pair is derived from, in order to sign digital transactions of a monetary unit backed by thermodynamic energy. It is utterly fascinating to then take this modern wonder of digital cryptography in the form of a mnemonic phrase, which is sort of a reverse substitution cipher itself, and encrypt it using a physical painting of an ancient glyph-based substitution cipher.

Combining simple cryptographic methodology developed over a thousand years ago with some of the most advanced cryptography of today, this artwork eloquently bridges the past and present, the physical and digital. It is also an interactive art piece, a collaboration between the artist and the patron, as one might say it is not complete until the seed plate has been stamped with some amount of bitcoin, hidden within its titanium surface.

Along with a variety of Bitcoin symbology, iconography, and cryptography, Asanoha creates geometric artwork. The shapes and patterns he paints and draws speak to the same mathematical truth bitcoin is built upon. Transcending the borders, ideology and flaws of man, both bitcoin and sacred geometry honor the fundamental structure of all life and the universe itself. Whether perceived from a scientific or spiritual perspective, they both remind us that everything is connected. As bitcoin is the newest and purest form of thermodynamic energy storage and transference, sacred geometry is the oldest and purest form of illustrating and contemplating the mysterious and wonderful formula known as life, the universe and everything.

Asanoha is currently in his second year of a tattoo apprenticeship with a world renowned sacred geometry tattoo artist. He works primarily by hand with oil based metallic paint pen, acrylic and canvas. He creates fine art limited edition serigraph prints. He also utilizes a variety of digital tools and other mixed mediums. He creates only physical artwork and does not make any form of NFT’s, Ordinals or Inscriptions. Asanoha works to conceptualize the mystery of bitcoin in an elegant fashion, inspiring the viewer to ponder its intricacies, while simultaneously promoting the sound money values of integrity, morality and honesty.

Asanoha is also the Art Director at Bitcoin Trading Cards btc-cards.com, and he is the Ops Director at thesimplestbitcoinbook.net.