NULL hides it in plain sight and tells you almost nothing. Everything you need is already public and already verifiable. Knowing where to look is your problem.
Replayed from the chain, line by line. The only thing missing is the answer.
No account, no sign-up, nothing to install.
A riddle points at something real on the chain: an address, a transaction, a note somebody left behind. Plain English. Easy to read. Hard to answer.
Everything is public. The block explorer shows every transaction and everything written into one. The work is knowing which thread to pull, not decoding anything clever.
Your answer is checked on your own machine and only a hash goes out. The earliest correct entry wins and the contract pays it. NULL never touches the money.
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A prize sits inside a contract before a clue is ever published. The contract decides who won, using rules fixed when the riddle was created that nobody, the game master included, can change afterwards.
It cannot take a prize back. It cannot pay a friend. It cannot decide halfway through that your answer does not count. Those functions do not exist.
| Prize funded | before the clue |
| Winner | earliest correct entry |
| Your answer | hashed on your device |
| Payout | automatic |
| Operator can claw back | no |
| Operator can pick a winner | no |
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