Is it legal for me to leave a Pass Phrase at the South Pole?

I’m not sure exactly where I should ask this, so I’ll try here.

I’m going to the South Pool soon, and I wanted to leave a stainless steel plate with a wallet pass phrase on it containing a small amount of crypto.

I just want to see how long until somebody makes the return trip just to access those funds.

Is there anything I should worry about by doing this?

I love geocaching and have left previous pass phrases around the US years ago, and each had 1 ETH. Only 4 of the 12 were accessed. US law is OK with it, but Antarctica is under different laws.

Thoughts?

Edit: So it sounds like I should be fine doing it.
Any prep I should do to the stainless steel plate so it holds up for the time it’s there? Bare metal with the words punched in was my plan.

Also, the remaining ETH drops are around Chicago, Philly and SF. I don’t remember the exact cords as they were placed a couple years ago. Best I can remember was one near Monk’s and one near Hotel Vitale.

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44 thoughts on “Is it legal for me to leave a Pass Phrase at the South Pole?”

  1. You are going to make some penguins really rich. Their whole dynamic might change as their society crumbles due to the recklessness of the new elite.

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  2. So there are 8 passphrases our there? With 1 eth on them?

    You my friend are a pretty cool dude.

    Are they just random hoping for someone to find or part of a geocache or do you have a riddle or something?

    I’m thinking of that guy who hid treasure in the mountains.

    One day those eth could be worth insane amounts of money. The search for them could be epic.

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  3. That would be illegal. By treaty you can’t leave anything in antarctoca without explicit permission. At best someone would see you leaving it and tell you not to, or it would be round later and shipped off as trash. Worst case it could be traced to you and you’d get in legal trouble.

    They take it quite seriously because if everyone left a memento at the south pole there would be a small hill of them.

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  4. Only swag I found when I went geocaching with my son about 10 years ago was erasers and chewing gum. Good for you with the eth swag.

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  5. So there’s 8 wallets remaining with 1 ETH each just waiting to be found in the US… How rich are you that you don’t care about all that ETH?

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  6. This is amazing. Can you tell us more about this? How often you do it, when/where we’re some found? What makes you decide to leave it here vs there? Do I just google geocaching to learn all about it?

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  7. return trip? there is internet at south pole station.

    you are not supposed to leave or take anything during your deployment/visit. it’s not necessarily illegal, but it’s unethical. also, if you are going there as a grantee or support, the national science foundation watches for reddit posts about antarctica, so be careful what you post here. anecdotally, i know of one person who lost their seasonal job because of nonsense posted on reddit was traced back to them, and they were uninvited back the following season.

    source: deployed as support personnel to 3 US stations on antarctica

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  8. I’m North of Chicago and my wife and I would be interested in geocaching around Chicago, do you remember where you posted the coordinates or clues?

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  9. …government of Antarctica gives zero shits about dead bodies left there, why would they care about a geo cache?

    /s

    …because there is no gov’t of Antarctica, sad I have to add this bit in.

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  10. This is amazing. Can you tell us more about this? How often you do it, when/where we’re some found? What makes you decide to leave it here vs there? Do I just google geocaching to learn all about it?

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  11. I think it’s a great idea. I’m not sure how it would be different than any other geo caching. Do it!!! I would love to know if anyone claims it!!

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  12. Amazing idea and very cool you’re heading to the south pole! Best of luck with the trip.

    Shouldn’t be an issue leaving the seed phrase there in itself. You could also leave the wallet address for donations. It’s be happy to send a bit that way if you keep us updated on what happens 👍

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  13. Yeah, according to sources it depends on when you’re leaving your seed phrase there, so uuhm… when and at what time are you arriving there?

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  14. I’m assuming you believe that if it was taken by an individual, you had them on camera taking it, then they were investigated and turns out they were the ones who withdrawn the crypto. You think it would be a form of stealing right? As it’s like dropping your wallet with cash inside and someone picking it up and keeping it for themselves. Seems reasonable to ask however I would just include, ‘Myself, the owner has left this passphrase here for you to redeem, if it’s not already been taken. Yours sincerely, Anon’.

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