A Paris artist has painted a street mural infused with contemporary meaning – and 0.26 bitcoin (currently about $1,000 worth) is hidden within its brushstrokes. The artist, Pascal Boyart, is claiming to have painted a “puzzle” into the mural which, if unraveled, will give access to the bitcoin stored at 1NqPwPp7hEXZ3Atj77Ue11xAEMmXqAXwrQ. (No one has solved the puzzled as of press time!)

A high resolution image of the mural is available online. Boyart says that, although some information can be gleaned by observing the online photo, “To solve the puzzle enterly, you must be physicaly [sic] in front of the mural.”

The clearly visible bitcoin donation address and QR code associates the preeminent cryptocurrency with the profusion of iconography brandished in the mural. The image itself is a modern reinterpretation of the famous Eugène Delacroix painting, Liberty Leading the People (La Liberté guidant le peuple in French), painted in 1830 during the French Revolution which toppled France’s monarchy.

liberty.png(source: Wikipedia)

Yellow Vests – A Bitcoin-Powered Revolution?

Boyart’s painting swaps armed 19th century revolutionaries with today’s so-called Yellow Vest (French: Gilets Jaunes) protestors, a protest movement that was initially sparked two months after the French government announced an end to some fuel price subsidies. The price hikes have apparently hit a nerve with many French, as the ongoing protests seem to center around issues of economic inequality and economic justice.

Protesters have been engaging in running street battles with riot police in France’s capital and elsewhere in the country. The wave of protests has lately even gone international, with a copycat protest hitting the UK capital London a few days ago, as well as other examples outside France in recent weeks.

Some have already associated the character of the protests with bitcoin’s apparently dissident origins – with its genesis block famously referencing national bank bailouts during the 2007-8 financial crisis.

CryptoGlobe recently reported on Max Keiser’s call for Yellow Vest protesters to convert their euros to bitcoin, and spark a flight from the French banking system. He tweeted last month that “French want sovereignty from global banks. [The] whole world wants sovereignty from global banks. Only #Bitcoin offers sovereignty. Support the global exit from banker occupation. Buy Bitcoin, Crash Banks.”