📖 Introduction
Chia Friends is a collection of 10,000 unique NFTs on the Chia blockchain, launched in 2022 along with the release of the NFT1 standard by Chia Network Inc. But these aren’t just ordinary profile pictures—embedded within the collection is a complex puzzle that has remained unsolved for over three years. The creator embedded the puzzle with the simple hint: “A puzzle in profile pictures…that’s your only hint for now!”
Despite significant community effort and some progress, the complete solution remains elusive. The puzzle is known to involve the Playfair Cipher and potentially have multiple layers to solve.
🎨 The Creator: Seth Jenks
Seth Jenks (@sethjenks) is the talented designer and puzzle creator behind Chia Friends. Working nonstop for 23 days, Seth developed and designed all 10,000 pixel-art characters as part of Chia Network Inc.’s official NFT1 standard release.
The collection was created using Aseprite, Figma, Photoshop, and Bueno, combining technical skill with artistic vision to produce what has become the premier NFT collection on the Chia blockchain.
Beyond the beautiful artwork, Seth embedded an intricate cryptographic puzzle that has challenged the community for years. The puzzle demonstrates not only technical expertise in classical cryptography but also creative puzzle design that keeps solvers engaged while remaining solvable with the right approach.
Learn more about Seth’s work: sethjenks.com/work/chia-friends/
🎨 The Collection
Technical Details
- Blockchain: Chia
- Storage: IPFS (InterPlanetary File System)
- Format: PNG images + JSON metadata (CHIP-0007 standard)
- Special Cases: 2 animated GIFs (#880 and #9098)
- Transparency: 318 PNGs contain alpha channels
Metadata Traits
Each NFT contains various traits stored in CHIP-0007 format:
- Background: 63 unique values
- Body: 22 unique values (includes K32s and Timelords)
- Eyes: 15 unique values
- Hieroglyphs: 4 unique values (1, 2, 3, 4) – KEY PUZZLE ELEMENT
- Mouth: 28 unique values
- Accessories, Expression, Coins, Artifacts: Various optional traits
🔐 Understanding the Playfair Cipher
The Playfair cipher was invented in 1854 by Charles Wheatstone and was the first cipher to encrypt pairs of letters (digrams) instead of single letters. It uses a 5×5 grid of letters and encrypts messages by breaking text into pairs and transforming them based on their positions in the grid.
According to Wikipedia, the Playfair cipher was used by British forces in both World Wars because it was “reasonably fast to use and requires no special equipment—just a pencil and some paper.”
How Playfair Works
The basic rules for Playfair encryption/decryption are:
- Same Row: Replace each letter with the one to its right (wrapping around if needed)
- Same Column: Replace each letter with the one below it (wrapping around if needed)
- Rectangle: Replace each letter with the one in its row but in the other letter’s column
Connection to Hieroglyphs
The community has discovered that the hieroglyph values (1, 2, 3, 4) likely represent directional movements on the Playfair grid:
- 1: Right Right (move 2 positions right)
- 2: Down Down (move 2 positions down)
- 3: Right Left (move right then left, or vice versa)
- 4: Same row/column rule (standard Playfair rectangle rule)
This clever mapping allows the K32 NFTs (which contain hieroglyphs) to encode movement instructions across the Timelord grid, potentially revealing a hidden message.
🔍 Creator-Confirmed Hints
What We Know From Seth Jenks
- ✅ Playfair Cipher is involved – but it’s only ONE layer of the puzzle
- ✅ No steganography – the solution is not hidden in pixel data
- ✅ No exogenous clues – everything needed is in the collection
- ✅ Mint numbers don’t matter – creator did not control mint order
- ✅ Community can use the solution – it should have practical application
🗝️ The Key Discovery: Crescent = U
The APL Side Quest
To help the community solve a critical piece of the puzzle, Seth Jenks created a side quest that revealed the identity of one Timelord:
Seth also gave another tweet hint, which the community then learn could be deciphered with the KEYWORD of WACKY to be The Identity Of The Crescent Timelord Is Tied To Three Words In The Bueno Interview APL
- The letters “APL” were provided as a clue for the Bueno article about Chia Friends.
- APL corresponds to the What3Words location: “Artist.Plants.Loyal”
- This location points to The U at the University of Utah
- Conclusion: The Crescent Timelord represents the letter “U”
Important: The APL → What3Words connection was a side quest created by Seth to help the community unlock this specific piece. APL and What3Words are not part of the puzzle itself—they were external hints provided by the creator to get solvers past a critical hurdle.
This represents the only definitively known letter assignment in the Playfair grid. The remaining 24 letter-to-Timelord mappings remain a mystery.
🧩 Known Puzzle Elements
Hieroglyphs (Critical Component)
- Rarity: Only 15% of NFTs have hieroglyphs
- Location: Only appear on K32 body types
- Values: Exactly 4 numerical values: 1, 2, 3, 4
- Distribution: Uneven – value “2” appears most frequently (46.7%)
- Purpose: Believed to represent movements on the Playfair grid
Timelords (The Grid)
- Count: Exactly 25 unique Timelord symbols
- Grid: Forms a 5×5 Playfair square (standard cipher layout)
- Confirmed Letter: Crescent = “U”
- Remaining Letters: 24 letters (A-Z with I/J merged) – assignments unknown
K32s (The Messengers)
- K32 body types share symbols with Timelords
- K32s are the only NFTs that have hieroglyphs
- Believed to be the “message carriers” using hieroglyph movements
Community-Discovered Patterns
- Hieroglyph Movements: 1) Right Right, 2) Down Down, 3) Right Left, 4) Grid (same row/col rule)
- Coin Correlation: Each Timelord symbol has exactly 42 matching coins
- Transparency: 318 PNGs contain alpha channels (potential significance unknown)
🧩 Known Bugs
- #3372 Buterfly misspelling is confirmed as a “bug” by Seth.
- #1479 Infinity containing null instead of Infinity in the metadata is confirmed as a mistake by Seth.
❓ The Mystery Remains
Despite years of community effort, several critical questions remain unanswered:
- Letter Assignments: How are the other 24 Timelord symbols mapped to letters?
- Grid Ordering: What is the correct arrangement of the 5×5 Playfair grid?
- Additional Layers: What comes after the Playfair cipher?
- Final Solution: What is the ultimate message or key?
- Practical Use: How can the community use the solution “afterwards”?
🔗 Resources & Links
Official Links
Community Research & Articles
- Scotopic – The Race to Solve the Chia Friends Puzzle
- Bueno Art – Chia Friends Interview (APL/Crescent Discovery)
IPFS Hash: bafybeigzcazxeu7epmm4vtkuadrvysv74lbzzbl2evphtae6k57yhgynp4
💚 Purpose & Mission
Beyond the puzzle, Chia Friends serves multiple purposes:
- Profile Pictures: Unique digital identity on the Chia blockchain
- NFT Standard Showcase: Demonstrates the CHIP-0007 metadata standard
- Community Building: Brings together puzzle enthusiasts and blockchain advocates
- Charitable Mission: 100% of royalties donated to the Marmot Recovery Foundation
- Sustainability: Built on Chia’s energy-efficient proof-of-space blockchain
📑 Reference
Timelords
Coins
Keywords
