I understand it can be surprising to think that a meditation focused crypto project could revolve around the themes of gambling and addiction. In fact out of all the currently solved clues, none of them address this topic. It wasn’t until a week ago that I started to see hints of this theme, and once the dice started rolling it began to seem all too obvious. I’d like to invite you all to look at some of my recent research on Ryoshi’s new project, which looks at Tsuka through the lens of casinos and addiction.
The messages
May 29th
Ryoshi sends a message to a mystery wallet, Table in Latin.. is md right?. This clue translates to Mensa, a group which Matt Damon is part of (md). It’s certainly a clever riddle, but what could be the deeper reason for sharing this message? I decided to dig deeper, which led me to discover that Mensa released a book in 1999 called American Mensa Guide To Casino Gambling: Winning Ways. This book essentially teaches the reader how to have the best possible chances in gambling. This led me to question if Table in Latin could also be a reference to a game table in a casino. A guide to gambling, a game table… more on that later.
A few messages later the same day Ryoshi drops several encoded seed words of the initial 12 that have since been cracked. One of the seed words is dragon which seems intentional. Another is crime, which reminds me of an article I recently read in the Guardian surrounding the current casino development in Osaka where locals are concerned about Osaka becoming a center for organized crime.
A few hours later Ryoshi sends an intentional eth amount of 0.0001969 to another mystery wallet. After some digging, I discover 1969 is the year Landmark Casino opened in Las Vegas. This was a very early casino which foreshadowed the gambling metropolis that is Vegas today. Note there is another Landmark Casino located in Macau. Coincidence? Again, more on that later…
Finally on that same day, Ryoshi links to Maythous’s twitter where Maythous replied to a tweet comparing meme coin trading to gambling. The tweet describes how the average man cannot afford to go to Vegas or Macau (explicitly naming these two places), so now they trade shit coins instead.
This led me to wonder if Ryoshi is setting up a metaphor, perhaps stating that crypto trading is the future shape of gambling. Also that humans will always crave the dopamine of having a chance to get rich quick, whether its a scratch off, a table at a casino … or a shit coin.
At this point I’m beginning to see that addiction could be a central theme woven through the Tsuka journey.
May 31st
Ryoshi sends another odd eth amount of .000002019 to himself. Do you remember the convo at the Casino in Macau. The word Casino is unexpectedly capitalized. After some research I find that 2019 was the year of Devcon 5 in Osaka (supposedly where shib was created). Keeping in mind that Ryoshi is a master of multilayered clues, I continue digging to discover that 2019 was also the original year that the MGM VP predicted a casino could be built in Osaka (the city legalized gambling in 2016 and is still working towards creating the first casino in Japan). Currently the tension between MGM and the city of Osaka seems to be coming to a head, and as mentioned previously, there are recent articles in The Guardian talking about this.
June 2nd
Ryoshi links to a seemingly random twitter belonging to Will Johnston, a christian hiker of sorts. Scrolling through this twitter I find photos of a trip to Disneyland. A light bulb goes off in my head, and I recall the messages from Ryoshi that Alex Hern quoted in his Guardian article. According to Hern, Ryoshi wrote to him saying
I guess it’s like Mickey@waltdisney.com vs Mickey@protonmail. Is mickey@protonmail a scammer if he builds a theme park? We don’t know.
Mickey@waltdisney … Mickey … at … waltdisney. I look through Will Johnston’s photos again, and there it is, a gigantic Mickey Mouse head on a ferris wheel. I’ve looked at this clue from many angles and concluded the hint could be WHEEL. Not only is wheel a seed word, but it seems like a Ryoshi thing to do – leading me to a massive wheel to indicate the idea or concept of wheel. Through the lens of casinos, I begin to think about roulette wheels… more on that later.
June 4th
Ryoshi sends the screenshot of a wallet with ~1.5 mil. The timestamp says 5:55. The number 555 is a number that is repeated often through Ryoshi’s messages. There are many religious connections, but knowing how Ryoshi rolls there’s clearly more to it. After some digging I find that the address of the Landmark Casino in Macau (different from Landmark Casino in Vegas) is 555 Avenida Da Amizade, or Avenue of Friendship in Portugese. Frenship anyone?
At this point I begin to feel as though Ryoshi is taking us on a journey of human addiction and gambling. Charting the gambling metropolis of Vegas to the gambling metropolis of Macau, perhaps currently to Osaka, and then into the future of crypto. Keep in mind the current casino development in Osaka was referred to in the Guardian as Osaka’s answer to Vegas and Macau.
June 6th
Ryoshi sends, for the second time, the same eth amount of .000002019 to himself, this time including the coordinates to a corner store in Osaka, Japan. I managed to translate the name on the awning of the store from street view: たばこ which means “tobacco”. In the theme of addiction tobacco seems like a fitting clue. I perceive this to represent the idea of addiction in Osaka. And what’s more is that tobacco is a seed word.
June 17th
Ryoshi sends an eth amount of 0.01958 to another mystery address. A quick search reveals that The Stardust casino in Vegas opened in 1958. Dust is a seed word. Coincidence? Looking further (and this could be a stretch) in an image search for Stardust casino there are some iconic images of girls riding a rocket sculpture at the casino… Elon?
July 24th
Ryoshi sends the message when we achieve what we have been destined to do. The tables will be turned. Again referencing a table, and the idea that it will be turned in our favor. In a gambling sense this could mean that the house will no longer have the advantage. Remember the Mensa publication I mentioned earlier?
Roulette
The layout
The multiple Table hints combined with the smack on the head WHEEL clue led me to consider that another aspect of the Tsuka puzzle could revolve around the concept of a roulette table. Interestingly a roulette table has 3 blocks of 12 numbers in which players bet on. It seems almost too convenient that seed phrases also have 12 numbers. Could there be two more “blocks” to crack? In another context Ryoshi even sent messages including the words first block.
The numbers
Taking this further, Ryoshi has been sending weird eth amounts over the last few months. Typically a decimal followed by a varying amount of zeros then an intentional number. So far no one has mentioned what they could mean. Looking at it from a roulette perspective I notice that Ryoshi has sent eth amounts 35 and 17. In roulette the payout for a single number bet is 35:1, and the payout for a double number bet is 17:1. Ryoshi also sent a number ending in 28. On a standard roulette wheel 28 is the first number next to zero.
Currently I’m charting these numbers, along with other casino clues, to see if they could connect seed words for the second and third “block” of the roulette table.
What could this all mean?
The progression of gambling in humanity is very interesting and relevant in the face of many of Ryoshi’s teachings around meditation and price irrelevance. Ryoshi puts philosophy before risk, and encourages us to invest in pure ideas, such as community, decentralization, and meditation rather than investing in trends or impulses.
The research in this article could also provide more hints to a potential future utility of Tsuka. In a very early Ryoshi message there are some legible Reserve Protocol errors, including one about an Rtoken. It’s possible that Reserve could issue a new stable coin in addition to RSV, one backed by a unique basket — this time not by other stable coins, but instead by some balance of volatile assets, somehow channeling stability through an understanding of gambling and addiction in the crypto space. Or on a long shot I wonder if Tsuka could relate to the MGM Casino development in Osaka. After all dragons are a common casino theme.
Thanks to all the early researchers on this project whose work is necessary in the unfolding of Tsuka, and shout out Ryoshi for motivating us to learn important skills in the quest towards true decentralization. I hope for this article to help the Tsuka community push forward in the journey.
