The Original Permissionless JPEG

This website is dedicated to The Original Permissionless JPEG, an art project by Richard McDaniel aka Aphex that blends the fields of malware, Bitcoin, music, and digital art.

With name drops like Satoshi Nakamoto and Aphex Twin this is more than art. It's lore.

“Oh shit that's badass” —vx-underground (@vxunderground)

“Hahaha, that's hilarious.” —Peter Todd (@peterktodd)

“This is actually dope as fuck man” —Shinobi (@brian_trollz)

“this is kinda sick” —SHL0MS (@SHL0MS)

April 10, 2002 — Worm Makes Headlines

COMPUTERWORLD publishes an article documenting W32.Aphex@mm, a worm that spreads via AIM, IRC, and email, with a JPEG as its only payload.

"It is unique in that it has taken advantage of AOL Instant Messenger. This shows how virus writers learn to take advantage of new technology and social engineering to spread viruses." —Symantec

September 18, 2003 — Tibia Hacked

After gaining god mode, a hacker with the username "Master Aphexx" summons two demons in Tibia and goes on a killing spree.

"Important data had been manipulated and copied by the hacker." —CipSoft

Demons

November 7, 2003 — Malware: Fighting Malicious Code

The book Malware: Fighting Malicious Code is published, marking the first time AFX Rootkit is mentioned in a mainstream cybersecurity publication.

"A very real and particularly powerful rootkit that utilizes DLL injection and API hooking." —Ed Skoudis

December 29, 2003 — Sygate Vulnerability

SecurityFocus credits Aphex for discovering a DLL authentication bypass vulnerability in Sygate Personal Firewall.

December 22, 2004 — Tor Vulnerabilty

Roger Dingledine credits Aphex in a Tor commit for finding a SOCKS4 header crash bug.

"If you do socks4 with an IP of 0.0.0.x then we get tricked." —Roger Dingledine

June 13, 2005 — Analord 09 Release

Aphex Twin, under his AFX alias, releases Analord 09. Track B1 is titled "W32.Aphex@mm," referencing the worm by name.

Analord 09

June 15, 2009 — WIRED Article

WIRED publishes an article about TorFox, Aphex's custom Tor + Firefox browser bundle that used DLL injection to prevent network leaks. Around the same time, Aphex donated $10,000 to the Tor Project and became an official sponsor as Torfox.

"A better machete with which to navigate the jungle." —WIRED

December 17, 2009 — Bitcoin Email

Aphex receives a forwarded email from Satoshi Nakamoto via Eugen Leitl on the release of Bitcoin 0.2.

Bitcoin Email

July 13, 2010 — Bitcointalk Registration

Aphex joins Bitcointalk.org forum as user ID 369, just a few hundred registrations away from Satoshi himself.

August 4, 2010 — Bitcoin2Cash, LLC Formed

Aphex forms the first legally registered Bitcoin exchange business, predating all others in official formation.

September 17, 2010 — 25,000 BTC Received

First of several large Bitcoin transactions to 1CRZpkKKAt7G5uiK4JPBjBJGnozgiatFAs, linked to Bitcoin2Cash operations.

April 26, 2011 — UAH Bitcoin Talk

Aphex distributes 1 BTC scratch-off cards at a Bitcoin talk hosted at UAH by @TheRealPlato. It is the first example of a commercial Bitcoin physical bearer instrument. It predates Casascius coins.

"I used to hand these out to people. I still have some of the rejects." —Aphex

Bitcoin Scratch-Off Card

October 21, 2012 — Virtual Currency Schemes

The European Central Bank lists Bitcoin2cash in a footnote alongside Satoshi and Mt. Gox.

ECB - Virtual Currency Schemes

November 11, 2013 — Reddit Regret

Reddit user u/bitripped posts about selling 5,000 BTC to Aphex for $40 cash.

"At least I did better than pizza guy, I suppose; and he was happy he did it. I am too in a way." —u/bitripped

May 28, 2025 — JPEG Minted on Bitcoin

Aphex extracts the JPEG from the original worm binary and inscribes it on Bitcoin via Ordinals. Inscription #96901750 becomes known as The Original Permissionless JPEG.

May 31, 2025 — Magic Eden

Aphex lists The Original Permissionless JPEG on Magic Eden for 1 BTC.