This is a list of cool stuff found using techniques mentioned at: Section "How to extract data from the Bitcoin blockchain".
Notably, Ciro Santilli developed his own set of scripts at github.com/cirosantilli/bitcoin-strings-with-txids to find some of this data. This article was originally based on data analyzed going up to around block 668k (2021).
Hidden surprises in the Bitcoin blockchain by Ken Shirriff (2014) is a mandatory precursor to this article, and potentially contains some of the most interesting examples already. An attempt is made to not repeat stuff that is already said in that article. Some repetition happened by accident, as we explored and only later noticed it was already mentioned there. But this also managed to add some new aspects to points previously covered by Ken. This analysis is also a bit more data oriented through our scripting. And there are somethings that only showed up after that post was originally written in 2014, this being originally written in 2021.
China stuff is mentioned at: cirosantilli.com/china-dictatorship/bitcoin-blockchain.
As of 2023:
- this type of cool data had converged to the name "inscription", as seen e.g. at: ordinal ruleset inscriptions
- the study or "early" inscriptions had been called a form of "archeology" e.g. at: docs.ordinals.com/overview.html
Cool stuff in other sections:
These can be viewed at bitcoinstrings.com/blk00052.txt and are mostly commented on the "Wikileaks cablegate data" section of Hidden surprises in the Bitcoin blockchain by Ken Shirriff (2014).
Soon after block 229991 uploaded the Satoshi uploader, several interesting files were added to the blockchain using the uploader, and notably some containing content that might be illegal in certain countries, as a test to see if this type of content would make the Bitcoin blockchain illegal or not:
- tx 08654f9dc9d673b3527b48ad06ab1b199ad47b61fd54033af30c2ee975c588bd block 229999 contains a leaked private key and a link to: threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/ami-firmware-source-codAe-private-key-leaked-040513
- tx b96af3b69b48a82c5eae3e44ebb6ef93f30d7764b1d5b40243e11b0d374ac1b7 block 230001 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_prime followed presumably by one such prime
- tx 54e48e5f5c656b26c3bca14a8c95aa583d07ebe84dde3b7dd4a78f4e4186e713 block 230009 contains the Bitcoin white paper: bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf More context: bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/35959/how-is-the-whitepaper-decoded-from-the-blockchain-tx-with-1000x-m-of-n-multisi
- tx 691dd277dc0e90a462a3d652a1171686de49cf19067cd33c7df0392833fb986a block 230203 Cablegate index. The announced filename is
cablegate-201012041811.7z
. As mentioned in Hidden surprises in the Bitcoin blockchain by Ken Shirriff (2014), it has an ASCII list of several other transactions, which presumably when downloaded with the Satoshi uploader can concatenated lead to the full 7z file. Also as mentioned by Ken, it is infinitely easier for the average user to just access the cables directly on WikiLeaks :-) The data is preceded by the message:sSEXWikileaks Cablegate Backup cablegate-201012041811.7z Download the following transactions with Satoshi Nakamoto's download tool which can be found in transaction 6c53cd987119ef797d5adccd76241247988a0a5ef783572a9972e7371c5fb0cc Free speech and free enterprise! Thank you Satoshi!
- tx dde7cd8e8f073a525c16c5ee4e4a254f847b7ad6babef257231813166fbef551 block 230229 and tx 4a0088a249e9099d205fb4760c28275d4b8965ac9fd56f5ddf6771cdb0d94f38 block 230231 contain indexes of pages from The Hidden Wiki. These can be viewed at: bitcoinstrings.com/blk00052.txt. Not reproduced here because we are cowards.
So basically, this was the first obviously illegal block attempt.
None of this content is particularly eye-popping for Ciro Santilli's slightly crazy freedom of speech standards, and as of 2021, the Bitcoin blockchain likely hasn't become illegal anywhere yet due to freedom of speech concerns.
Furthermore, it is likely much easier to find much worse illegal content by browsing any uncensored Onion service search engine for 2 minutes.
Ciro Santilli estimates that perhaps the uploader didn't upload child pornography, which is basically the apex of illegality of this era, because they were afraid that their identities would one day be found.
There are a few dozen ASCII arts in the blockchain.
To be honest, almost all of them are copy pastes of stuff present elsewhere, or boring high resolution ones auto-generated from images. But hey, it's still fun to see.
ASCII porn, all of them also reproduced at: asciiart.website/index.php?art=people/naked%20ladies therefore not blockchain original. Self-censored from bitcoin-strings-with-txids because GitHub does not accept porn:
- tx 9206ec2a41846709a59cafb406dd7b07082bfc27664bbc5c6d4df310c1e1b91f: sexually aroused naked woman sitting looking forward with legs open showing her vagina. Vagina row as an identifier for Ctrl + F:
A bit bellow tx 8367a48e4a863e37b3749bc9c111327b07a7c383ec9b3e7ce8d41949e71e1c10 has a large hand showing the middle finger
. `. .\x./-`--...../' ; :
- tx 0aab36554c2ac5ec23747e7f21f75dbe3f16739134cf44953ad7ac98927146d6: naked woman laying on her side showing her vagina from under her legs, signed
fsc
. TODO full author name?
Decoded:
- tx 09a5d5aaecdce1757e6ec713cc8a2201abca9acdb6fbadc7760e831cdad3d680 huge high resolution image of two men with the bitcoin logo on the background, followed by "if you like it, leave a tip: 1MDBHLgv7WX9viRG9X4LfDQfCX8oZ9w". TODO who do they represent?
- tx 777db7bfbea2c525d5adb05a8fbf47736e2311492f4614e5d38ab199b4bbfac2 "if you like it, leave a tip: 1MDBHLgv7WX9viRG9X4LfDQfCX8oZ9wviC" portrait of a young man
- tx 57a4edce05dee9012ff5991532e9aa02aef82ee8d3ebecb9f833c12bfbc708fe (2014-12-19) "MERRY CHRISTMAS! & HAPPY NEW YEAR!!" with a really ugly father Christmas with gift bag
MERRY CHRISTMAS! __ _ __ ___ & _ __'.:;.:;.:;.:` HAPPY NEW YEAR! _'.:;.:;.:;.:;.:;.:` '.:. , :`,.,`;'/`__ _` _ '..:;.;'.:,.;.:;\ (_) -__ --_-_-_-__---_-) ( ) ____ (_- -__-_-__-____-__-) /####\ /\ | ,~~~' `~~~. %@ |#####\#| ) ><@> <@>< %@% |#######| / / %@p \######| ( * (_c) * ) % % .vvvvvvvv. |#####| \ '%@%@%@%@`, %@%@ .vvvvvvvvvv. /#####\ _ _ d%@ `----' @%@%@ \ _ _ _.vvvvvvvvvvvvv. ~~~~~~~ ':;.;%@@%@%@%@%@%@@%p /.:;.:;vvvvvvvvvvvvvvv. `.:;.' ':;.;%@@%@%@@%@%@%@%@ :: ____vvmvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv. :.:;.:` ':;.:d%@%@%@%@%@%@@%@%.:;/####\/\.:;\mvvvvvvvvvvvv :.:;.:;` ';.;;.%@%@@%@%@@%@%@%@p.:;|#####\#|.:;\mvvvvvvvvvvvv. :.:;.:;./;.;;.;%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@ ::.'\######|.:;\mnvvvvvvvvvvvv :.:;.:;.|:.;.;.% %@%@%@%@%@% % : mvv\#####|.:;.\mnvvvvvvvvvvv :.:;.:;/:;.;.:;.q%@%@@%@%@ %p.:;vv%mv|#####\.:;.\mnvvvvvvvvvv :.:;.:;|:;.:;.;;;%@%@@% %.:;.:;.vmnv. ~~~~~~ .:;.|mvvvvvvvvvv. :.:;.:/.:;.:;.:;.: o .:;.:;.:;.vv.:;/.:;.:;\.:;.|mnvvvvvvvvv. `.:;.|:;.:;;;.:;. .:;;;;;;;;;;;;;|.:;.:;.\.:;\mnvvvvvvvv. `::/:;;;.:;;.:; o .:;.;;.:;;;.:;.:|.:;.:;.:\.:;\mnvvvvvnm ;.:;;.:;;.: :;;;.:;.:;.:;.:;\.:;.:;.:;.:;|mnvvvnm. :::;.:;.:;. o ..:;.:;.:;;;;.;;;;\.:;.:;.:;.:|mnvvnm. :::;.:;;.: .:;;;;;;;;.:;.:;;;|.:;.:;.:;./mmvnm. ;.:;.:;.;. o .:;.;.:;;.:;.:;.:;.\________/mmmnm. :.:;;;.;;; .:;;.:;.:;;.:;.:;.:;.;.:;;;;`mmnn `#######HHOHHH########################### #######HHOHHH########################### '::;;;.;; o :;;;.:;.:;;.;;;;;;;;;;;.:;.:` H.Classen
- tx 69708943906eb32a320a5a450fed450b0f14b4e475a98bc74615962b68a0bc83 "All Glory to he HYPNO TOAD" signed "SSt" has an ASCII art of HypnoToad, a ficticius mind controlling frog creature from Futurama: Fandom, KnowYourMeme. The same ASCII art can be seen for example at: www.gotfuturama.com/Multimedia/AsciiArt/HypnoSebastian.shtml
,'``.._ ,'``. :,--._:)\,:,._,.: All Glory to :`--,'' :`...';\ the HYPNO TOAD! `,' `---' `. / : / \ ,' :\.___,-. `...,---'``````-..._ |: \ ( ) ;: ) \ _,-. `. ( // `' \ : `.// ) ) , ; ,-|`. _,'/ ) ) ,' ,' ( :`.`-..____..=:.-': . _,' ,' `,'\ ``--....-)=' `._, \ ,') _ '``._ _.-/ _ `. (_) / )' ; / \ \`-.' `--( `-:`. `' ___..' _,-' |/ `.) `-. `.`.``-----``--, .' |/`.\`' ,','); SSt ` (/ (/
- tx 43b0bb63fc50ad1edbb17486dc44825e4dd642a952c699cc13958e010ba3d8a5 has a star of David:
/\ / \ / /\ \ ________/ /__\_\________ \ ____/ /___________ / \ \ / / \ \ / / \ \/ / \ \/ / \ \/ \ \/ /\ \ /\ \ / /\ \ / /\ \ / /__\_\______/ /__\ \ /_____________/ /______\ \ \ / / \ \/ / \ / \/ HELLO FROM ZOG
- tx 00d8871c1b3fb85912616bb2602b5a9869a345d9fa092f8454614c6158c83d10 "Muy feliz cumple Manu! ---- The Fantastic Four Gang :-D" followed by Manu's face in medium resolution
- tx 0fc0c50e410b62ee3a316135711116db6b4e728841c976f29ab85e2a41e0dcc3 "if you like it, leave a tip: 1P675gRxNwhFXgfuDu5yXwGDgwLDbXNJqz". Large portrait of a man in his 50's. Who is it?
- tx 467c075ee6edaa60f184d0683655f1f6d267efd98061872f167ef7ca9ca7c50f
!
/R
pattern - tx 1b35d4b9506ab80ec7fc5542f73271cbb72090aa3f70bfa77670f8bd43d072a7 "Viva la Revolucion! Happy Birthday Santi! Manu, Santi, Demi, Esteban" starts a long chain of contiguous transactions with two peopled raw in low resolution. How did they manage to keep it contiguous? TODO forgot how I decoded it originally, does not show up nicely at: github.com/cirosantilli/bitcoin-strings-with-txids/blob/master/data/out/0378.txt#L28
- tx ddc39a3da0ee6f0651bdf0be7119b4db2612b19416e9128091b1f29cdfe2aa0d "I Love You Forever". Large busts of a man and a woman looking forward.
- tx f6039915b829377849be87fc242303873e6574528db7916dd81ff44141b3560f (2016-04-27) "vaardig regulerend de orde van de dag", really nice candles! TODO meaning? Is in Dutch of course, literally:
skillfully regulating the order of the day
) ` /(l /) ( \ / ( ) * ) ( , ) \#/ \#' .-"#'-. .-"#"=, ( |"-.='| '|"-,-"| )\ | | , /(| | /( , ( / )| | (\ ( \ | ) ) (( )\ ( (| | ) ) ) , ) |/ ( ) \ / ) ) . ) |/ ( ( # ( ( , ) / ) ( * ( \#/| (`# ) `#/| |`#/ ( '( \#/ .-"#'-. .-"#'-, .-"#'-. .-=#"-; `#/ .-"#'-. |"=,-"| |"-.-"|) 1"-.-"| |"-.-"| ,-"#"-. |"-.-"| | ! | | | | | | ! |"-.-"| | | | |._,| | | |._,| a | | | | | | | | | | | p | | | | | | | | | | | x | | '-._,-' '-._,-' '-._,-' '-._,-' '-._,-" '-._,-'
- Batman symbols:
- tx a55e7587bb34a56ae1113b0848506ea2fcf0c0e1af8c241e76677eb2bcb727eb
- This on includes the lyrics "Denk niet wit, denk niet zwart." of a song by Dutch artist Zwart wit.
_, _ _ ,_ o888P Y8o8Y Y888o. d88888 88888 88888b ,8888888b_ _d88888b_ _d8888888, 888888888888888888888888888888888 888888888888888888888888888888888 Y8888P"Y888P"Y888P-Y888P"Y88888' Y888 '8' Y8P '8' 888Y '8o V o8' ` `
- tx 90b663f380ed043a0c35aaeed5405b260545df991fed4bfff3d1386ecb256ce1 a low res man and a woman hugging looking forward, signed B&E April 9, Image repeated at: tx 47fafaa96c24d3f204658fb4bec34ab6f18df138084e04535ea60cce8c4e4857 without signature.
- tx 06d2528cfabf360c7a8f925d84207d47612cd0ac1ad2efd8aea9758263d9738b "Dr. Bill Maurer Economic anthropologist" join every 5 lines, shows a man with a surfboard
Transaction inputs with ASCII art, some miners went all the way:
- tx 9caaa9f8d0e170bf6d73a722e9bb2e7e0d37577476d485bd3eeac09866f26345 a large letter A. Has some custom encoding which makes it deformed, so possibly for download with peter Todd's data upload scripts
- tx 75b431e0a8c4617ca8adefe593ba66aa30907742b6dc8772761bfe7edabd74b4 two high res faces
- tx 2b8f1275ec54f1586f0d13b3828400d9fba31f46f92e8e4515c2b2e93e3be966 face of a woman with short hair
Tribute to computer security researcher Len Sassaman, who killed himself on 2011-07-03, starting with an ASCII art portrait followed by text.
Because it comes so early in the blockchain, and because it is the first ASCII art on the blochain as far as we can see, and because is so well done, this is by far the most visible ASCII art of the Bitcoin blockchain.
Present at tx 930a2114cdaa86e1fac46d15c74e81c09eee1d4150ff9d48e76cb0697d8e1d72. It does not show well on bitcoin-strings-with-txids however with rationale described at: github.com/cirosantilli/bitcoin-strings-with-txids/tree/3f53e152ec9bb0d070dbcb8f9249d92f89effa70#smart-newline-joining
But it can be seen at on bitcoinStrings.com at: bitcoinstrings.com/blk00003.txt.
Transaction: www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/930a2114cdaa86e1fac46d15c74e81c09eee1d4150ff9d48e76cb0697d8e1d72 from 2011-07-30, a few weeks after the suicide.
Created by famous computer security researcher Dan Kaminsky and Travis Goodspeed, presumably this other security researcher, evidence:
- signature on the tribute
- the art is highlighted at Video 1. "Black OPS of TCP/IP by Dan Kaminsky (2011)", which happened very few days after the art was uploaded to the blockchain, thus making it exceedingly unlikely that someone else could have done it
"Bernanke" is a reference to Ben Bernanke, who was one of the economists in power in the US Government during the financial crisis of 2007-2008, and much criticized by some, as shown for example in the documentary Inside Job (2010). As hinted in the Genesis block message, the United States Government bailed out many big banks that were going to go bankrupt with taxpayer money, even though it was precisly those banks that had started the crisis through their reckless investment, thus violating principles of the free market and business accountability. This was one of the motivations for the creation Bitcoin, which could reduce government power over economic policy.
It is worth mentioning that there do exist some slightly earlier "artistic" inscriptions in the form Punycode inscription in the Namecoin blockchain, but as far as we've seen, the are all trivial compared to
BitLen
in terms of artistic value/size.---BEGIN TRIBUTE---
#./BitLen
:::::::::::::::::::
:::::::.::.::.:.:::
:.: :.' ' ' ' ' : :
:.:'' ,,xiW,"4x, ''
: ,dWWWXXXXi,4WX,
' dWWWXXX7" `X,
lWWWXX7 __ _ X
:WWWXX7 ,xXX7' "^^X
lWWWX7, _.+,, _.+.,
:WWW7,. `^"-" ,^-'
WW",X: X,
"7^^Xl. _(_x7'
l ( :X: __ _
`. " XX ,xxWWWWX7
)X- "" 4X" .___.
,W X :Xi _,,_
WW X 4XiyXWWXd
"" ,, 4XWWWWXX
, R7X, "^447^
R, "4RXk, _, ,
TWk "4RXXi, X',x
lTWk, "4RRR7' 4 XH
:lWWWk, ^" `4
::TTXWWi,_ Xll :..
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
LEN "rabbi" SASSAMA
1980-2011
Len was our friend.
A brilliant mind,
a kind soul, and
a devious schemer;
husband to Meredith
brother to Calvin,
son to Jim and
Dana Hartshorn,
coauthor and
cofounder and
Shmoo and so much
more. We dedicate
this silly hack to
Len, who would have
found it absolutely
hilarious.
--Dan Kaminsky,
Travis Goodspeed
P.S. My apologies,
BitCoin people. He
also would have
LOL'd at BitCoin's
new dependency upon
ASCII BERNANKE
:'::.:::::.:::.::.:
: :.: ' ' ' ' : :':
:.: _.__ '.:
: _,^" "^x, :
' x7' `4,
XX7 4XX
XX XX
Xl ,xxx, ,xxx,XX
( ' _,+o, | ,o+,"
4 "-^' X "^-'" 7
l, ( )) ,X
:Xx,_ ,xXXXxx,_,XX
4XXiX'-___-`XXXX'
4XXi,_ _iXX7'
, `4XXXXXXXXX^ _,
Xx, ""^^^XX7,xX
W,"4WWx,_ _,XxWWX7'
Xwi, "4WW7""4WW7',W
TXXWw, ^7 Xk 47 ,WH
:TXXXWw,_ "), ,wWT:
::TTXXWWW lXl WWT:
----END TRIBUTE----
From the JSON transaction we understand the encoding format:
So it is really encoded one line at a time in the
"out":[
{
"spent":false,
"tx_index":0,
"type":0,
"addr":"1CqKQ2EqUscMkeYRFMmgepNGtfKynXzKW7",
"value":1000000,
"n":0,
"script":"76a91481ccb4ee682bc1da3bda70176b7ccc616a6ba9da88ac"
},
{
"spent":false,
"tx_index":0,
"type":0,
"addr":"157sXa7duStAvq3dPLWe7J449sgh47eHzw",
"value":1000000,
"n":1,
"script":"76a9142d2d2d424547494e20545249425554452d2d2d2088ac"
},
...
{
"spent":false,
"tx_index":0,
"type":0,
"addr":"157sXYpjvAyEJ6TdVFaVzmoETAQnHB6FGU",
"value":1000000,
"n":77,
"script":"76a9142d2d2d2d454e4420545249425554452d2d2d2d2088ac"
}
script
of the transaction outputs.Starting at tx 6650107a4e4e4838ba1081ce87862c38dcb4181b8d34fc0405b099213ba76033 (2014-11-04) and going on one line per transaction using the bitcoin blockchain
j(
upload system, there is a marijuana plant ASCII art:j(-> 1EGa1izEFDHzEobDDQny73re9BwXdzhZvH <-
j( ,
j( dM
j( MMr
j( 4MMML .
j( MMMMM. xf
j( "M6MMM .MM-
j( h.. +MM5MMM .MMMM
j( .MM. .MMMMML. MMMMMh
j( )MMMh. MM5MMM MMMMMMM
j( 3MMMMx. 'MMM3MMf xnMMMMMM"
j( '*MMMMM MMMMMM. nMMMMMMP"
j( *MMMMMx "MMM5M\ .MMMMMMM=
j( *MMMMMh "MMMMM" JMMMMMMP
j( MMMMMM GMMMM. dMMMMMM
j( MMMMMM "MMMM .MMMMM( .n
j( *MMMMx MMM" dMMMM" .nnMMMM
j(Mn... 'MMMMr 'MM MMM" .nMMMMMMM*
j(4MMMMnn.. *MMM MM MMP" .dMMMMMMM""
j( ^MMMMMMMMx. *ML "M .M* .MMMMMM**"
j( *PMMMMMMhn. *x > M .MMMM**""
j( ""**MMMMhx/.h/ .=*"
j( .3P"%....
j( nP" "*MMnx
The transaction before the ASCII art tx 9b08c00ced2bca4525d74e82db9af2aec8ef213eb1c1bf68a48b6be929968332 starts with what is likely a "Legalize" and must be a Tor Onion service:
but that address as is +
j(-> 1EGa1izEFDHzEobDDQny73re9BwXdzhZvH <-
.onion
is invalid, TODO find the correct one.Other marijuana plants can be found contained entirely in single transactions:
ASCII art of a Force of Will, a famous and powerful Magic: The Gathering card first printed in 1996.
This is Ciro Santilli's personal favorite ASCII art he has found in the blockchain so far. Also Ciro could not find any other previous source of this, so there is some chance it is original. One can dream.
The choice of card is probably linked to the function of the card in the game of Magic: The Gathering. This card essentially prevents the opponent from casting a spell they are about to cast. The presumed intended meaning of this art is further accentuated by the old card type term "interrupt" (late renamed to "instant"), which suggests that "this ASCII art is an interruption to the normal monetary transactions of the blockchain".
One of also reminded of the prayer wars interruption attempts. We could not however identify anything specific that this ASCII art might have tried to interrupt besides the normal flow of monetary transactions.
If one goes full art critic mode, it is also tempting to draw a parallel between the card's "You may pay 1 life" alternative casting cost (as opposed to 5 mana, 3 and two blue, which is a very large cost for most games) as being a reference to the money spent by the uploader of the art to upload it.
TODO understand exactly how it was encoded and why it is so weird. The
UUUU
has a slightly weird encoding which we fixed by hand here TODO understand. -------------------------------------
| Force of Will 3 U U |
| --------------------------------- |
| | //////////// | |
| | ////() ()\////\ | |
| | ///_\ (--) \///\ | |
| | ) //// \_____///\\ | |
| | ) \ / / / / | |
| | ) / \ | | / _/ | |
| | ) \ ( ( / / / / \ | |
| | / ) ( ) / ( )/( ) \ | |
| | \(_)/(_)/ /UUUU \ \\\/ | | |
| .---------------------------------. |
| Interrupt |
| ,---------------------------------, |
| | You may pay 1 life and remove a | |
| | blue card in your hand from the | |
| | game instead of paying Force of | |
| | Will's casting cost. Effects | |
| | that prevent or redirect damage | |
| | cannot be used to counter this | |
| | loss of life. | |
| | Counter target spell. | |
| `---------------------------------` |
| l
| Illus. Terese Nelsen |
-------------------------------------
The following two ASCII transactions:
suggest this ASCII art might have been uploaded by Figure 16. "Erich Erstu", AKA Hyena, creator of cryptograffiti.info, a service which would have allowed uploading ASCII content to the blockchain.
tx 0f05c47a8caafadecc10d70ba3bf010eaf6bb416b5e1ad7b01cf3445f5fb7a1c
I am. Therefore, I have come to be.
-- Hyena
tx e6d48f6912929a58a2ee30c13768058777d8547215c27109b5cb0724e7abaaba
Erich,
Bro, this looks excellent!!
-Duriel
The only other mention of "Duriel" in the blockchain is tx 140562ceb42fc8943fa52ccc0ddbb11ca2d88dae9b5240d7a4b46864538c515a which has some freedom of speech comments and gives the email:
paystamper.com was some other blockchain service from circa 2015:
Duriel@paystamper.com = 1HcuhfTAiQCt6KdMG2rZLXsTcKYj9nLDhS
The huge majority of images is encoded with the AtomSea & EMBII system/format. All images in that system will be documented in that section.
bitcoin.jpg
. Source. A bitcoin logo, block 123,573 (2011-05-13).
This is the very first ASCII string to show up at github.com/cirosantilli/bitcoin-strings-with-txids after only the Genesis block message.
This version of the image was just ripped from Hidden surprises in the Bitcoin blockchain by Ken Shirriff (2014).
Reconstructing it should likely be a simple matter of copy pasting the ASCII yEnc encoding present in the two transactions from tx ceb1a7fb57ef8b75ac59b56dd859d5cb3ab5c31168aa55eb3819cd5ddbd3d806 into a text file and decoding the yEnc, but after searching for 20 minutes Ciro couldn't find a working yEnc decoder on Ubuntu 21.10. How can a format be so dead, even after considerable extensive use in the Usenet??? It makes you think about life.
As mentioned by Ken, the logo is split across two transactions: ceb1a7fb57ef8b75ac59b56dd859d5cb3ab5c31168aa55eb3819cd5ddbd3d806 and 9173744691ac25f3cd94f35d4fc0e0a2b9d1ab17b4fe562acc07660552f95518.
There appears to be nothing strictly linking the two transactions, besides that they are very close by and the only ASCII strings around back in those pre-infinite-spam days, as can be seen at: github.com/cirosantilli/bitcoin-strings-with-txids/blob/master/data/out/0123.txt#L11, so you could just see both of them by eye.
Also the first one starts with:
and the second one ends in:
so this is likely clearly part of the yEnc format for someone who knows it, and the filename
=ybegin line=128 size=8776 name=bitcoin.jpg
=yend size=8776 crc32=a7ac8449
bitcoin.jpg
gives the file format.They are not even in the same block:both from 2011-05-13. Also note that they ended up being committed reverse order, since you don't have a strict order control over the final blockchain.
An image of a dozen people siting at a dinner table, with each person identified by a Twitter handle that was edited in.
This image is present tx 4be3a833ee83b4ca7d157d60fbf7411f7528314ce90df8a844f855118bc6ca11 from block 357239 (2015-05-20), an input transaction.
It contains a base 64 encoded image:
v27sSra.jpg
/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQEASABIAAD/2wBDACgcHiMeGSgjISMtKygwPGRBPDc3PHtYXUlkkYCZlo+A
...
TAkBaMxbbhuYXGDMyXw/MIV84IqrE//Z
...
By manually copy pasting that into a file
The exact same content appears to be present on the next input transaction 56d23a230042c094bc54bb72fc4c10a3f26750030b9927994e741d3689f5c09e on the same block.
v27sSra.base64
we can obtain the image with:
base64 -d <v27sSra.base64 >v27sSra.jpg
Google reverse image search leads to freedom-to-tinker.com/2015/05/21/the-story-behind-the-picture-of-nick-szabo-with-other-bitcoin-researchers-and-developers/ The story behind the picture of Nick Szabo with other Bitcoin researchers and developers by Arvind Narayanan (2015), in which Arvind (@random_walker) who attended the meeting clearly lists all names and handles, and talks about the background of gathering of Bitcoin devs that happened in March 2014. The article also contains a higher resolution version of the image uploaded to the blockchain.
It also links to a popular Reddit thread that contains the image from May 2015: www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/36hfu4/pic_coredevs_having_dinner_with_nick_szabo/
Googling
v27sSra.jpg
leads to bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1061926.220;wap "New York Times identifies Nick Szabo as Satoshi Nakamoto" which links to i.imgur.com/v27sSra.jpg so this is a Satoshi Nakamoto-real-identity thing.A text/file upload system.
bitfossil.org/ an indexer website which interprets the format. Each page has an "abuse report" button to unindex presumably. TODO website source? Local indexer/extraction script? Ciro's indexer and its generated index can be found at:
Each AtomSea payload has a toplevel transaction which links to other transactions. All the linked transactions together make up the payload. The most common payload type is a text plus image, as is the case of Nelson-Mandela.jpg, which can be seen at bitfossil.com/78f0e6de0ce007f4dd4a09085e649d7e354f70bc7da06d697b167f353f115b8e/ where
78f0e6de0ce007f4dd4a09085e649d7e354f70bc7da06d697b167f353f115b8e
is the toplevel transaction ID: www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/78f0e6de0ce007f4dd4a09085e649d7e354f70bc7da06d697b167f353f115b8eSee Section 3.2.1.2. "Nelson-Mandela.jpg (2013-12-07)" for a detailed reverse engineering of the format, and Section 3.2.3. "AtomSea & EMBII data format" for a summary of it.
Holy crap, they actually support:
- multipage setups:
The Mahabharata
bitfossil.com/0618f12af65a4e82f8e7b41f8578721dfeb109e9a73ff71aebdbc982696e3720/ - image galleries: bitfossil.org/ae8d3b46b934bedc363e11abe8c8607171994470957c286274f699a0b3a9bbd7/index.htm
- audio:
Spock_Live_Long_And_Prosper.mp3
bitfossil.org/1bc87dbff1ff5831287f62ac7cf95579794e4386688479bab66174963f9a4a0c/index.htm - author photo below post via signture!!! bitfossil.org/738ab32bf82e3e0d4d2b29e40ad194cbbef6685d0116e94371e3cef4992349c8/index.htm (testnet) See the
SIGNED BY
with EMBII's photo!
apertus.io/ is the system to upload/index locally, and therefore likely part of the backend of bitfossil: github.com/HugPuddle/Apertus
The system shows the messages and the images on a single page: bitfossil.org/4cbb32cd27b5b5edc12d3559bdffc1355ac2a210463d5cfaadc7ce9b06675b2b/index.htm It is basically a blockchain-based Twitter.
Hidden surprises in the Bitcoin blockchain by Ken Shirriff (2014) suggests that AtomSea & EMBII are the creator's aliases. The following online profiles of the creators feel authentic:Tried saying hi to them at: twitter.com/cirosantilli/status/1382080760774033415 and they replied: twitter.com/AllenVandever/status/1563964396656812034
- AtomSea:
- EMBII:
- github.com/embiimob
- Real name: likely "Eric Bobby" according to:
- twitter.com/EMBII4U
- twitter.com/TheAtomSea/status/990318090738196481 sample link
- HugPuddle
Somewhat related projects:
These are of course likely all made by AtomSea & EMBII themselves while developing/testing their upload system.
They are also artsy peoeple themselves, and as pointed at twitter.com/AllenVandever/status/1563964396656812034 what they were doing was basicaly non-fungible token art, which became much much more popular a few years later around 2021.
The first upload that we could find at github.com/cirosantilli/bitcoin-strings-with-txids/tree/3f53e152ec9bb0d070dbcb8f9249d92f89effa70#atomsea-index was tx 44e80475dc363de2c7ee17b286f8cd49eb146165a79968a62c1c2c4cf80772c9 on block 272573 but it does not show on Bitfossil: bitfossil.org/44e80475dc363de2c7ee17b286f8cd49eb146165a79968a62c1c2c4cf80772c9/. This is was due to an upload bug explained by the following entry. By looking at the ASCII data at github.com/cirosantilli/bitcoin-strings-with-txids/blob/master/data/out/0272.txt#L449 that this is meant to contain the same content as the following message: a quote from the Bhagavad Gita, so this is definitely a bugged version of the following one.
The next one is bitfossil.org/c9d1363ea517cd463950f83168ce8242ef917d99cd6518995bd1af927d335828/ on block 272577 (2013-12-02). It reads:
I WONDER WHAT HISTORY WILL THINK ABOUT THESE FIRST FEW BUGS...HA HA HA. NOBODY IS PERFECT.followed by:
The bug message is definitely a reference to the previous non-visible bugged upload bitfossil.org/4b72a223007eab8a951d43edc171befeabc7b5dca4213770c88e09ba5b936e17/, TODO understand exactly how they fucked up. This illustrates the beauty of the blockchain very well: unlike with version control, you don't just see selected snapshots: you see actual debug logs!!!He who regards
With an eye that is equal
Friends and comrades,
The foe and the kinsman,
The vile, the wicked,
The men who judge him,
And those who belong
To neither faction:
He is the greatest.
The third one contains the first actual image Figure 6.
WeAreStarStuff.jpg
:
WeAreStarStuff.jpg
. Source. Block 272,592 (2013-12-02)
Message:
Photo etchin' test. #AtomSea #embii (photo by Travis Ehrich)The image shows showingAtomSea and EMBII together, presumably photographed by this dude.
The name is of course a reference to the quote/idea: We Are Made of Star-Stuff that was much popularized by Carl Sagan.
For some reason, for some time it was not showing up at: bitfossil.org/8d1b3c094b782198deb7381efb57b1208244375e7a1029ec159306d6a8fd25d8 from block 272,592, but this was apparently a bug of the viewer that was later fixed tested as of 2023. Becaus of this, the version here was ripped from the Bitcoin Testnet visible at: bitfossil.org/81f6d302a0ed4ffefa674834d0c4a02cdc6639f213713d48946225956fc96d85/index.htm from circa 2015-07-24, much later than the original. which would have been at around 2013-12-02. The data relating to that can be seen at: github.com/cirosantilli/bitcoin-strings-with-txids/blob/master/data/out/0272.txt#L481 but we don't have a local decoder yet, so can't confirm easily.
And then finally we meet Chiharu, EMBII's partner, with her hair painted blond (she's Japanese): ILoveYouMore.jpg.
Then there are two undecoded ones TODO investigate:
Then there's an approximation of pi as ASCII decimal fraction bitfossil.org/70fd289901bae0409f27237506c330588d917716944c6359a8711b0ad6b4ce76/:
3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679821480865132823066470938446095505822317253594081284811174502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485669234603486104543266482133936072602491412737245870066063155881748815209209628292540917153643678925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185480744623799627495673518857527248912279381830119491298336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798609437027705392171762931767523846748184676694051320005681271452635608277857713427577896091736371787214684409012249534301465495853710507922796892589235420199561121290219608640344181598136297747713099605187072113499999983729780499510597317328160963185950244594553469083026425223082533446850352619311881710100031378387528865875332083814206171776691473035982534904287554687311595628638823537875937519577818577805321712268066130019278766111959092164201989
Then Nelson-Mandela.jpg.
This is the first of many love declarations and mentions EMBII makes of his partner Chiharu!
ILoveYouMore.jpg
. Source. Message:
My Dearest Chiharu....I Love you more. <3 EricNote that she's Japanese and not really bond, it's hair dye.
SatoFamily.jpg
gives Chiharu's full identity with picture basically:
SatoFamily.jpg
. Source. Message:
The Sato Family Arrives from Japan! Taken Aug 2. 2014 in Minneapolis MN. (Keiko, Chiharu, Hideaki, Katsuhiko) Now preparing for the Sato / Bobby Great American Vacation!!so presumably Chiharu's full name is Chiharu Sato.
More Chiharu at: bitfossil.org/966e090d19172b6a6f988b1f1d32141492349279cedd2a436d7a2143c67d7af4/index.htm "#Chiharu #embii & the #AtomSea #Fargo #ND", so their location was: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fargo,_North_Dakota
OurWedding.jpg
(2014-08-07) bitfossil.org/393f4d3b3b0ac018b6483f58390ac0d56adf5f70f68e846af7d745359ca14bf9/:
My Dearest Chiharu, I will love you forever. Taken Aug 6th 2014 in Ipswich, SD.
bitfossil.org/366bfe5b135ffc52894f67f53936ec2ec693cad61c64e52f1624ef22815d4de7/ contains
Chiharu.jpg
.bitfossil.com/78f0e6de0ce007f4dd4a09085e649d7e354f70bc7da06d697b167f353f115b8e/ in block 273,536 (2013-12-07).
Nelson-Mandela.jpg
. Source. Message:
"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered." - Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. - Wikipedia Born: July 18, 1918, Mvezo, South Africa Died: December 5, 2013.
tx 8881a937a437ff6ce83be3a89d77ea88ee12315f37f7ef0dd3742c30eef92dba contains a copy of part of his wiki page ending in an image:
There is nothing like returning to a place
that remains unchanged to find the ways in
which you yourself have altered.lson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. -Wikipedia
Born: July 18, 1918, Mvezo, South Africa
Died: December 5, 2013Nelson-Mandela.jpg?14400/d-jpeg v1.0 (using IJG JPEG v80), quality = 40
By inspecting the transaction, we see that the initial text is cut up because it starts in the middle of a script with line:
00000000 22 33 39 36 5c e2 80 9c 54 68 65 72 65 20 69 73 |"396\...There is|
00000010 20 6e 6f 74 68 69 6e 67 20 6c 69 6b 65 20 72 65 | nothing like re|
00000020 74 75 72 6e 69 6e 67 20 74 6f 20 61 20 70 6c 61 |turning to a pla|
The txid is the first of an index at tx 78f0e6de0ce007f4dd4a09085e649d7e354f70bc7da06d697b167f353f115b8e:
The
8881a937a437ff6ce83be3a89d77ea88ee12315f37f7ef0dd3742c30eef92dba|396*8881a937a437ff6ce83be3a89d77ea88ee12315f37f7ef0dd3742c30eef92dba
575061146335bd57f2dc132112152d0eeea44cf187ea6a52ac02435a7e5bea44
674c7cc34ea44bb276c6caf76f2b28fa1597380ab6e6a6906076d8f7229ca5b3
8e2642416ad20924b43f51a633fa1c0a5ba8e4a7b631877db1c64540a42081c9
a3084018096b92af04df57b6116e01ff4b7c7e8bd228235ed49e23f4a2817029
39348722b841afa0c5b67e5af10839afe965ed1b24874e89336bea9fa4ef3091
tomSea & EMBII
A
is really missing from AtomSea
, it shows up as AtomSea
almost in all other greps. This is presumably chopped to fit the 20-byte granularity without an extra output.We see that www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/78f0e6de0ce007f4dd4a09085e649d7e354f70bc7da06d697b167f353f115b8e starts with:All non-change value are 0.00005500 BTC.
- 2 data txs encoding
8881a937a437ff6ce83be3a89d77ea88ee12315f
in hex ascii - a spent change tx
37f7ef0dd3742c30eef9
on the next2dba|396*8881a937a43
on the next- the newlines from the ASCII dumps are encoded directly:
00000000 34 32 63 33 30 65 65 66 39 32 64 62 61 0d 0a 35 |42c30eef92dba..5| 00000010 37 35 30 36 |7506| 00000014
- the last is:
Yes, 2 char Windows newlines, even in one of the most expensive per-byte storage mechanisms ever invented!
00000000 30 39 31 0d 0a 74 6f 6d 53 65 61 20 26 20 45 4d |091..tomSea & EM| 00000010 42 49 49 00 |BII.| 00000014
Therefore, the rest of the transactions presumably contain the rest of the image!
The bytes for the first one are:
which is
"n":21,
"script":"76a914334e656c736f6e2d4d616e64656c612e6a70673f88ac"
00000000 76 a9 14 33 4e 65 6c 73 6f 6e 2d 4d 61 6e 64 65 |v..3Nelson-Mande|
00000010 6c 61 2e 6a 70 67 3f 88 ac |la.jpg?..|
00000019
And then the next one:
which is:
so unlike in ILoveYouMore.jpg, we do have the raw JPEG header data here starting with
"n":22,
"script":"76a91431343430302fffd8ffe000104a4649460001010088ac"
00000000 76 a9 14 31 34 34 30 30 2f ff d8 ff e0 00 10 4a |v..14400/......J|
00000010 46 49 46 00 01 01 00 88 ac |FIF......|
ffd8
!And there is a possible footer
ffd9
in the last file of the list 39348722b841afa0c5b67e5af10839afe965ed1b24874e89336bea9fa4ef3091!However, when I put everything together, cutting around delimiters, it gives only the top half of the head! My data is 14960, not 14400. So there must be 460 bytes of metadata in some of the blocks, possibly error checking.
The actual data starting at
ffd8
and cutting off header/tails (20 bytes per transaction):
ffd8ffe000104a46494600010100
000100010000fffe003b43524541544f523a2067
642d6a7065672076312e3020287573696e672049
4a47204a50454720763830292c207175616c6974
79203d2034300affdb004300140e0f120f0d1412
1012171514181e32211e1c1c1e3d2c2e24324940
4c4b47404645505a736250556d5645466488656d
777b8182814e608d978c7d96737e817cffdb0043
011517171e1a1e3b21213b7c5346537c7c7c7c7c
7c7c7c7c7c7c7c7c7c7c7c7c7c7c7c7c7c7c7c7c
The above bytes are not contained at all in Ken's uploaded image.
On a related note, tx f3c2e1178fa20a44e942e1137cd7125b376edaadb4fbd46be30b69fe89525d64 contains a speech from Mandela starting with:
followed by lots of text.
/1442:Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)
"I am fundamentally an optimist ...
That transaction is also part of an index in the same file:
The middle hash 27f4cc5c688e8V2b2347295ec3f071947bb847fb0cb2eb1a0fb9150040929e4e8 does not name any existing transaction however (it is one byte too long).
tx 9e2928e02e77ceffc217a6df1fc992be128f2188e691986cbb0df8a4207a492f
7fad2fc0-2f51-44a0-9358-886262426359>462<f3c2e1178fa20a44e942e1137cd7125b376edaadb4fbd46be30b69fe89525d64
27f4cc5c688e8V2b2347295ec3f071947bb847fb0cb2eb1a0fb9150040929e4e8
8ff79814c99b0e35ceeca86f22a7f41e94c7287ed4f4fc2cd5c747bd2c31cc8d
3
- several interesting uploads were made around block 318836:
Shiemaa&Vincent.jpg
bitfossil.org/36d0d77acd760f0aa549b6b314f0c1e9690baa6bcc2d0f07ea9f3167f4a5ec99/index.htmRedRaven.jpg
bitfossil.org/e17b83234402d85f3a18207eec11bc5c4397f88aa880aae4fb7d15802806a971/index.htmEarth3Archive.jpg
bitfossil.org/ae8d3b46b934bedc363e11abe8c8607171994470957c286274f699a0b3a9bbd7/index.htmSkyEarth5Archive.jpg
bitfossil.org/ae8d3b46b934bedc363e11abe8c8607171994470957c286274f699a0b3a9bbd7/index.htmYellowRobot.jpg
bitfossil.org/4cbb32cd27b5b5edc12d3559bdffc1355ac2a210463d5cfaadc7ce9b06675b2b/index.htmFigure 11. YellowRobot.jpg
. Source.The associated message reads:Chiharu and I found this little yellow robot while exploring Chicago. It will be covered by tar or eventually removed but this tribute will remain. N 41.880778 E -87.629210
This is one of Ciro's favorite AtomSea & EMBII uploads. This is the cutest thing ever! More Chiharu stalking at: ILoveYouMore.jpg.At twitter.com/EMBII4U/status/1615389973343268871 EMBII announced that he would be giving off shares of that image on an NFT system he's making. Amen.
- bitfossil.org/2c4b9497af8c0c0eb9383357b40c3de33dba0b4f481099a32719f2b9036da8e7/ block 319927 Bike Lady by Allen Vandever, cool
Arecibo_message.svg
block 337874 bitfossil.org/c6d2e535cd2ba4659e954a61198c66fd98c60f6475cf8ff92a404f3fe3a16c4b/index.htmFigure 12. Arecibo_message.svg
. Source.An artificially colored visualization of the Arecibo message ripped from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Arecibo_message.svg (with attribution).The cool thing about this image is that it highlights the striking parallels between the encoding of the Arecibo message with crypto graffiti, because in both cases people were creating undocumented new ways of communicating with strangers on a new medium in those early blockchain days.The associated message contains the Arecibo message as ASCII 0's and 1's. When properly cut at the newlines, they draw the message as ASCII art, as the original Arecibo encoding intends, here's a version with the 0's replaced by spaces to make it more readabale:1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 11 1 11 1 1 1 1 11111 11 111 11 11 1 11 1 11 1 11 11 11 1 11111 11111 11111 11111 1 1 1 1 11111 11111 11 11 111 11 1 1 1 11 1 11 111 11 1 11111 11111 11111 11111 1 11 1 11 1 11 1 11111 11 11111 11 1 1 1 1 11 1 11 11 1 11 1 11 11 11 11 1 11 11 11 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 11 11 1 111 1 11 1 1 1 11111 1 1 111 1 1 11 11 1 111 1 111111 1 111 111 11 111 1 1 111 11 1 1 1 111111 1 1 1 11 1 11 11 111 1 111 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 111 1 1 1 1 1 1 11111 111111111 111 111 11 11 11 1 1 11 11 11 11 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1111 11111 1 1111
Loraine.jpg
block 448352 bitfossil.org/b4b8fe752a258f95b191b8c5426319ee0e8d41d5db53ea2ae18beed141cbb9bd/index.htmFigure 13. Loraine.jpg
. Message:In loving memory of Loraine Elizabeth White
EMBII's mum died :-(
Other images:
He sleeps in a temple.jpg
block 360565 bitfossil.org/460ed23bea89176cdfe18e13fce51ad5386ad8e3e1f7d6f5b4711b3be97b0502 TODO identify
Audio:
alien.wav
block 318638 bitfossil.org/a3a24d6ea01ce481a50346818b8977220687f3ba385838fe8894ce61c9718bbc/OneGiantLeapForMankind.mp3
at tx 4f5b25fa8021c67235423930580e69121aa0d2c2bb779f75139bf442f8dc7297 EMBII-indexed at 743f3286b00fc96c13db4b16d5aead8a1e059fee9ce775b1761be9be5bdc2501 and then indexed at: 0427ec598df38b7d7dc75721316c0bbdec54de4871e11aff8ea64f3717c07efbThe toplevel index does appear on Bitfossil: bitfossil.org/0427ec598df38b7d7dc75721316c0bbdec54de4871e11aff8ea64f3717c07efb/index.htm but the audio is not there as it was for Spock below, maybe a bug on upload/Bitfossil?Spock_Live_Long_And_Prosper.mp3
block 345858 bitfossil.org/1bc87dbff1ff5831287f62ac7cf95579794e4386688479bab66174963f9a4a0c/index.htmOuterSpace.mp3
block 409471 bitfossil.org/c14c1bd862bab6269052bf0a2cda7a35940d7a2d9c3415d4fb8fb8dcb9394fae/ "Outer Space by embii 4MB Large file storage test Apertus 0.3.5-beta" OMG, I don't want to calculate how much it cost to upload this, it will make me sad.At twitter.com/EMBII4U/status/1655969645927563266 EMBII mentions that this inscription, made by him, is the largest inscription he knows of.TODO song composer/performer?
Interesting text:
- block 273522 bitfossil.org/70fd289901bae0409f27237506c330588d917716944c6359a8711b0ad6b4ce76/index.htm pi to 1000+ decimal digits:
- bitfossil.org/8522787e7e49f3f3b6a9f9e86bc30336d26a3acbaecc93809d2e8b4bb1c4d611/ "Antarctic Ice Cores Revised 800KYr CO2 Data" evidence for global warming
- bitfossil.org/ffa6893a70bcde9b940df9823e0f597f0b6cff964c78473c77db838655e1aeb5/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laudato_si', global warming related
HTML pages:
- block 335290 bitfossil.org/0166db6053f1969c28de8b1f9a8fa4ec890cc4bdfee7602757993b306bb7f295/ JavaScript animated timer clock counting down until the start of the next year
- block 340379 bitfossil.org/062990d54045a9c316110fb713009d1313b2f64c4b216d66891c7284d6c1ca0e/ links to bitfossil.org/062990d54045a9c316110fb713009d1313b2f64c4b216d66891c7284d6c1ca0e/bong-ball.html and has a working JavaScript Pong
- block 328445
tom-signature.jpg
bitfossil.org/daa050bf8ac22752e40412c9265b4533f68ab8e6ed26d2db1eeee6710e7d9e4b/index.htm Unrendered HTML of:Likely an obituary for: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_and_Ray_Magliozzi. Images show fine though.- www.cartalk.com/content/tom-and-rays-bios-photos-2
- www.cartalk.com/content/rant-and-rave-36 "The New Theory of Learning" which agrees perfectly with backward design
- block 401648 bitfossil.com/31c5e5336512568e4a1deb4bbf0e57c3565c32094c0e1a118c48e7929ab49e35/bong-ball.html another one! This one is full-screen, and does not have JavaScript
alert
s :-) - block 401657 bitfossil.org/03cb74f270d498302d4dd9cbe82c090d801c8840ab6cb26b71d862489b981db8/ has a JavaScript Pac-Man
- bitfossil.com/6bf7c945623b1571571369769285dd350832703b880fa6978cdfd08db77398d8/
Other:
- bitfossil.org/bcc522a4ef06fc713c7a78bf90fe7d941433364b1b4efb15d1b7128fdd1f5c38/ leads to "403 - Forbidden: Access is denied. You do not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials that you supplied.". This is different than all other regular false positives.
For a detailed analysis of one transaction see: Nelson-Mandela.jpg.
Best guess so far, all in ASCII hex of output scripts:
- remove the single output value different from first one from payload, that's the change, and it is randomly placed as far as I see
- 64 bytes: hex address of top level text
- 1 byte: some random punctuation
- decimal number of bytes of some payload
- 1 byte: some random punctuation
- 64 bytes: same as the first address
- CR LF
- ends in NUL
In this section contains a list of images we could find that wre uploaded as raw data to the blockchain, without any special encoding, e.g. as done by the AtomSea & EMBII system.
It is possible that some/most of those were uploaded via the cryptograffiti.info system, but since that indexer stopped working, and since the format is so non-specific, it is not possible be sure as far as we can tell.
These images were indexed by looking for standard transaction output script hashes that contain JPEG or PNG images immediately on the first payload byte based on file signature bytes and indexed/easily downloaded at github.com/cirosantilli/bitcoin-strings-with-txids#image-indexing-and-download.
A heart next to a bitcoin logo and written "we love bitcoin". Reproduced at: kryptomoney.com/grayscale-report-institutional-investors-retirement-funds-love-bitcoin/
Embedded in the image itself, there's a message in the header comments: "Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority or banks" which is the opening paragraph of: bitcoin.org/en/
Block 351375 (2015).
A white man and a Chinese woman both in Chinese traditional dressess holding hands, presumably a token from their wedding. TODO transcribe and translate the Chinese text, cursive grass script + traditional characters + ultra-low res put this beyond Ciro Santilli's capabilities/patience ratio. Given the format, it is likely some well known beautiful old poem. Ciro Santilli's wife's transcribed gave the first column as:
丹珍默然藏山中and no Google hits, so maybe an original poem? What a hero. TODO transcribe the rest. Block 417131.
"Danzhen" (?) hides silently in the mountains
If Danzhen is a proper noun, the only hit is 洛桑丹珍 (pinyin: Luosang Danzhen), who appears to be a Chinese Communist Party official that worked in Tibet. So does not feel likely.
Wedding picture with people holding "Blockchain" and "Ipa" signs.
Reproduced at: web.archive.org/web/20200926150213/https://freebitcoins.com.ua/zapushhen-ukrainskij-bitkoin-pul-bitcoinukraine/ Google translate:
One of the initiators of the launch of this pool was Oles Slobodenyuk, who earlier created a grocery store in Kiev accepting bitcoins, arranged a TakeMyBitcoin flash mob, and also registered his own marriage in the bitcoin blockchain on the weddingbook.io website.
Oles is for example featured at: uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-miners-heating-homes-free-133053106.html Bitcoin Miners Are Heating Homes Free of Charge in Frigid Siberia by Anna Baydakova (2019)
Block 421280.
Wedding contract written in Czech. Transcription and translation by Petr Kadlec:
Svým podpisem pod tímto textem potvrzuji, že Daniela Dudysová a Pavel Urbaczka v mé přítomnosti dne 20.8.2016 v Ropici projevili vůli uzavřít spolu manželství, přičemž ani jeden z těchto projevů se mi nejevil jako nesvobodný, nikoliv vážný, nesrozumitelný, omylný nebo uzavřený v tísni.Translation:
With my signature under this text, I confirm Daniela Dudysová and Pavel Urbaczka have, in my presence on 2016-08-20 in Ropice, expressed the will to enter marriage, whereas neither of their expressions seemed to me to be non-free, not serious, in error, or under distress.Signatures:
Tereza (unreadable) Hana (unreadable) Jakub (unreadable) Radim Kozub (unreadable) (unreadable) Lenka (unreadable)
Petr also conjectures that Jakub may refer to Jakub Olšina from Blockchain Legal. Figure 31. "Wedding on grass" on the same block contains a image of a wedding, presumably the same of the contract. The photo of the man might be the same person as www.linkedin.com/in/olsinajakub/, but a bit younger.
Block 426072.
#CAD users all over the world are designing in the cloud! Join them by creating a #free Onshape account: hubs.ly/HO3vJ6tO. Block 426832.
Searching for the image hash ca4f11131eca6b4d61daf707a470cfccd1ef3d80a6f8b70f1f07616b451ca64e leads to archive.4plebs.org/pol/thread/191157608/#q191162145 which links to cryptograffiti.info/#ca4f11131eca6b4d61daf707a470cfccd1ef3d80a6f8b70f1f07616b451ca64e.jpg suggesting that this upload was made with cryptograffiti.info, or at least was indexed by it. But that link is not working as of 2021.
Block 458238.
twitter.com/cryptograffiti (marked as joined March 2014)
Bitcoin blockchain image indexer and uploader.
At some point it stopped using Bitcoin mainline and moved to Bitcoin Cash instead: www.newsbtc.com/news/bitcoin/cryptograffiti-rejects-bitcoin-core-bch-now-available-payment-method/ and therefore became useless. Existing indexes seem to have been broken as well.
Also, based on the timing of Figure 16. "Erich Erstu", this service may be responsible for a large part of the raw JPEG images present in the blockchain from block 416527 (2016) onwards. This is also suggested by the comments at Figure 37. "Tank Man".
Other related transactions:
- tx 87aad85c6cd75a516789f364637d243c668e3424d031ae510e43c6edfe6ed206 block 474652 the default pandoc markdown pandoc.org/try markdown tutorial string!
And if ends with:
An h1 header ============ Paragraphs are separated by a blank line.
so cryptograffiti.info must have some markdown rendering mechanism.Uploaded from http://cryptograffiti.info to demonstrate Markdown rendering.
Rickrolling lyrics were mined several times into the blockchain as mentioned at interesting input script data.
Around block block 246k (e.g. 27b7c526489dac8245747fa1c425a2e3eb07dea57b294eb4ae583fec9b859fcf, 2013-10-17) we note several transactions starting with a XML format
followed by lyrics also base64 encoded as part of the XML metadata. Hidden surprises in the Bitcoin blockchain by Ken Shirriff (2014) was not able to identify the exact format either. At twitter.com/EMBII4U/status/1655831533750562816 EMBII mentions that this was part of an upload test.
<CG SZ="1156"><MG>...
the first one being 0b4efe49ea1454020c4d51a163a93f726a20cd75ad50bb9ed0f4623c141a8008 As mentioned not very clearly at www.righto.com/2014/02/ascii-bernanke-wikileaks-photographs.html#ref12 the content of the first <MG><payload></MG>
is a Base64 encoded string
Catagory: Poetry
Title: Never Gonna Give You Up
Performer: Rick Astley
Writer: Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, Pete Waterman
Label: RCA Records
tx d29c9c0e8e4d2a9790922af73f0b8d51f0bd4bb19940d9cf910ead8fbe85bc9b contains a plaintext Rickroll lyric in an output.
Bitcoin addresses are by convention expressed in Base58, which is a human readable binary-to-text encoding invented by Bitcoin. It is a bit like Base64, but obsessed with eliminating characters that look like one another in popular but stupid fonts like capital "I" and lower case ell "l".
This seems to be one of the earliest strategies used to encode messages.
These messages were originally found with: github.com/cirosantilli/bitcoin-strings-with-txids#payload-size-out-utxo-2vals
The generated text is however rather obfuscated by the limitations of Base58.
The following transactions contain base58 encoded messages on addresses:
- www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/57bfd63000bbfa6e9a61f7285a4abf9aef91dfcfba4fe0f940b431653eb8068b is a Lorem ipsum, 7961b5ae2f053a16d5c589104f87edfabe80fcae185832ea185e7f0cf06c7747 is another one:
11Lorem1psumDo1orSitAmetXXXWAEZ6C 11ConsecteturAdipiscingE1itYQHEPM ...
- www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/751ff11286a43da5d6cf7da8f5bc736e522bbd698ec03c76c63368e5260667e6 seems to contain a bunch of names. It is very noisy, but feels too much coincidence not not be intentional
1JameLs3Q9enoB7VT3bDc3XYoziRDqW7o6 1NeLLAADSPYk4wvzCbiac362DdTWNqnWxV 1MaRinaQFfRbEDoz5FvDaJoST1PsqQQhL7 1DioNTe4eHexc74CPPCwJMGPHaDE8za4BM
- www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/ace9524519577138ca98ec01651758fd1e5ec33ce0110c6681eccba0e716cc7a is also possible,
11Bitta1ktvchristmasspecia1WNDvAa
repeats over an over, so something alongBitta Christmas Special
- www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/8ffacbb18f63576fe323cbf2acc6c4c01c86aadf13d8352cfdd39d91916d98c8 advertises etchablock.com:so maybe this is the service used to for those base58 encodings. It is down as of 2021, and there are no decent archives unfortunately: web.archive.org/web/20130301000000*/http://etchablock.com/
EtchABLockDotComGivesYou BLockChain1mmortaLity
- www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/028b8514a4f6cc96ac3c1c83dbb117ab9dc5eb09deab7b49bf038fd460173127
Source text: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aristocrats
11TheSetupTheJokeA1waysXXXXTF9Wzp 11BeginsWithAFami1yActGoingY3Q4qw 111nToSeeATa1entAgentThoseXZxb7hQ
- www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/89010c791c9d7ed24affa1d638b12179d2ca7ec91704fe906834386f43a8101d
Source text: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence
11When1nTheCourseofHumanXXXXdfMdQ 11Events1tBecomesNecessaryXYC2rJ5 11ForonePeop1eToDisso1veTheXKXUiD
- www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/c99179465b2d3b88fb6ede5d2e42015b15ec641e7a68f18216acaf741723de00
Possible source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_data_types
11The1ntegerDataTypesCharXXZZwJAn 11ShortLongAnd1ntCanBeXXXXXVfzLKj 11EitherSignedorUnsignedXXXYMhhUY
- www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/3bbd94d22346a3bfb44257293e10c3b5c9ee39230c1cd358bdce2bf03c61ba0b en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Tablet
12TisTrueWithoutALie22222221wT3qjn 1CertainAndMostTrue2222222225YPnJF 12ThatWhich1sBe1ow1sAs222221y3G7mv 12ThatWhich1sAboveAnd2222221vxkcEq ...
- www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/237b50dac42af130171773b233954e62690182fd4901a453ad5d11d1d54a8ca3 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glass_Menagerie
11TomAppearsAtTheTopofTheXXWyM2Bt 11A11eyAfterEachSo1emnBoomXaBp7oy 11ofTheBe111nTheTowerHeXXXXVQaies 11ShakesALitt1eNoisemakeroraeWTgK ...
- www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/1f9606f267cc398356663b14d1a7a3591e3da06572893394c14975a6fc11798f en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophiæ_Naturalis_Principia_Mathematica
11Ru1e1WeAreToAdmitNoMoreXXazQ96z 11CausesofNatura1ThingsThanZAQ9ig 11SuchAsAreBothTrueAndXXXXXZyzfQp 11SufficientToExp1ainTheirXVSC2gY
- www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/ef374dcc5b23f16ecb0b1b639ba577d2acda7ad32321b5866db2fa9e6807b9c5 web.archive.org/web/20210129054851/https://bitcoin.org/en/
11Bitcoin1sADecentra1izedXXWPM6Hs 11PeertopeerNetworkoverXXXXUkyy3M 11WhichUsersMakeXXXXXXXXXXXX4tQgN 11TransactionsThatAreXXXXXXVdZfnJ
Data in input and output transactions are quite different because:
- input transaction data can only be added by the miner who obtained the block.Input script transactions can only contain arbitrary data when they are made by miners that obtained the block.Therefore, except at the very early beginnings when random individuals could still mine without having a nuclear power station at their disposal, basically all input script transactions are boring ads made by mining pools or other souless companies.As a result, inputs contain almost exclusively boring miner advertisements.
- output transaction data however can be added by anyone who makes a transaction.Therefore, although the large majority of it is also crap and spam like the rest of the Internet, there is much more interesting stuff to be found there in total.
Here are some exceptionally interesting input data that are not mentioned in other sections:
- tx 61e26d407c17e8ee33a8b166c78f78c53cdcdc0078ae1f9405e6583cfb90eaf4 has an is exceptionally cute miner message:
I should not run the washing machine while listening to WZBC. I managed to convince myself that the machine was slowly failing -- that a rythmic, squeaking noise it had been making had gotten a little worse. Ten minutes later, though, the machine had paused. But the noise was still there.
Feels like a Koan. - tx 15b11e8d4e5b9425f024b381ba0cb7a54a35e52389bb4855f505772ce685b39c: Rickrolling lyrics were mined several times starting with this block, see also: Rickrolling
- tx 24e137d5b478d9a8b947e4f3f6130a86f2e0f6a2dda1cac1373b485c577f8ba7: www.cs.brandeis.edu/~hornby/amuse/vs_toast.txt: "Once upon a time, in a kingdom not far from here" Electrical Engineer vs Software Developer tale. Possible original: www.cs.brandeis.edu/~hornby/amuse/vs_toast.txt
- tx e450166eba552202fb6984867f2b851e2399c5a0ae05026bf6b056176491ec5d: "Here are some of the reasons why Tau is better than Pi as a universal constant for circles."
- tx e2c20c2977589240ad9486672a0273d340ed5f8b50a50071716d12035d7212e8: has a large Lorem ipsum
In this section we document events that led to a large number of thematically related messages being added to the chain.
Starting at tx cbbaa0a64924fe1d6ace3352f23242aa0028d4e0ff6ae8ed615244d66079cfb1 with one line per transaction:
These are some of the very first ASCII embedded in the blockchain, and is therefore very visible.
Eligius/Benedictus Deus. Benedictum Nomen Sanctum eius
Because it is one line per transaction, it could got broken up by some interspersed atheist mockery graffiti, e.g.:
Benedicta sancta eius et immaculata Conceptio.
I LIKE TURTLES
Benedicta eius gloriosa Assumptio.
Benedictum Nomen Iesu.
Benedictus Iesus in sanctissimo altaris Sacramento.
C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER
Benedictus sanctus Ioseph, eius castissimus Sponsus
The non-obvious interruptions are all well known memes/anime references:
- "I like turtles": knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-like-turtles
- Combo breaker: knowyourmeme.com/memes/combo-breaker
- "Yukkuri Shiteitte ne": knowyourmeme.com/memes/yukkuri-shiteitte-ne
- "kLhLUKE-JR IS A PEDOPHILE! Oh, and god isn't real, sucka. Stop polluting the blockchain with your nonsense."
- "Help me, ERINNNNNN!!": touhou.fandom.com/wiki/Lyrics:_Help_me,_ERINNNNNN!!
It should be noted however, that the interruptions we've found were all output transactions, therefore not done by miners, but just by regular transfers, which are much easier to make. In this sense, therefore, the prayer did win.
Later comments attribute the prayers to a Luke Jr., who is likely: twitter.com/LukeDashjr, who says is a Roman Catholic on his Twitter introduction. This is consistent with him being one of the early miners. His LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lukedashjr/. According to LinkedIn he studied at the Benedictine College in Kansas. TODO what is his full real birthname? What is
dashjr
? Apparently he had his coins stolen in January 2023, then worth $3.5m: blog.cryptostars.is/luke-dashjr-an-original-bitcoin-developer-loses-all-his-btc-88421c395ce5p...Protesters were posting large chunks of text multiple times into the blockchain as a way to protest against the controversial increase of block size.
tx 08893442680a20c4d0548dec2c8c421fa43336528b4e274dbf2652774f9c9f2d has the first copy of:
I like big blocks and I can not liewhich is the first line of a parody on:
I like big butts and I cannot liefrom the Baby Got Back hip-hop song.
tx 52159222289cd0a5afe0644150d0e23d5d272a57365627d5e869fdb458289858 has the first copy of:
Time to roll out bigger blockswhich is likely a copy of an email from the bitcoin development mailing list. This message is repeated dozens of times in other transactions.
Starting tx a87d406fae047258a12923b3c11a797a5765bd8f868df5c7e9b1cead0e92c9c1: the message:
appears about 13 thousand times. WTF happened?
503: Bitcoin over capacity!
Quick ones that didn't deserve a their own section:
- tx 3a1c1cc760bffad4041cbfde56fbb5e29ea58fda416e9f4c4615becd65576fe7 has the broken Basic creature simulation mentioned at Hidden surprises in the Bitcoin blockchain by Ken Shirriff (2014) section "A creature simulator in Basic" starting with:
10 REM The variables in life 20 ' life the lifespan of a creature 30 ' mates the number of mates a creature needs to breed
- contains a few tributes/good riddance messages to Mt. Gox' shutdown.tx 0540b5dda23ee870330c6b1e18a88c592cf8d847c47f1dc1d5328f46115b12b3:
2014-02-25: The day Mt.Gox shut down. Farewell, may even you rest in peace!
tx 2374f8575f65763caf6909551c131d3ae45399a73aee638bcbccaebdb1219d67:Fuck you MtGox Fuck you MtGox R
tx c00a4a04905a2e8d8dee8a768165aa6bdf842413a8a648462a6349db89cd77f2 (2014-02-27) has an ASCII art of a seal TODO understand meme:o / | | \ . | | .'\` | \| | \_/ \ \ \____/\/ <3 You Seals!
- tx e3e37ed5c1de2631c147bd39429e42ff634e95b7d72423bc32d6c6b9d8eef8ee "For my first official Journal entry I've decided to archive some old poetry" TODO who is that person? Edit: signed at end:
so possibly just EMBII AtomSea & EMBII. So TODO so is there an apertus.io entry for it? Can't easily find the entry point transaction.
EMBII CCrPV1X
- tx 604f17dfdb5a88fc072bd2bcf53436087c899051241e519af7241dc0037d3df6 has a cover letter for a job at Hive Blockchain Technologies Ltd:
Dear hive team, ever since I have discovered Bitcoin I have been a fan of your products. [...]. Sincerely, Tim Daubenschuetz
At news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26826334 the supposed author mentions they didn't reply... sad. He did get to work for another Blockchain company though: www.ascribe.io, which eventually died. Presumably github.com/TimDaub. - tx 713a6832365a68f71c6aee879f79b70e6e738cd6255f09bc41f204c81575c248 has the eleven rules of LaVevan Stanism starting with:
1. Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.
- tx 213e8f46f98e96f4f4d8b45bd3a1cbada14213796c200220e1e8c2b315988faa
Warning! Kaspersky Alerts Users of Malware and 'Blockchain Abuse'
contains a full-text copy of: cointelegraph.com/news/113806/warning-kaspersky-alerts-users-of-malware-and-blockchain-abuse (includes link). Two other copies appear in future transactions tx c863aa9d6aa9345e4abdc216b6f035c4276b4423a924bb2e1593c22c670cba6f and tx ba58caf1a27ab7ca627cc3efa5914e4d37e00b3a7e9cf29508d451dc3da00bf7 - tx 210000d1392bec2505d1289e5c39c2039204ff1ecf7eef55f973ccd3111003e1 and the following transactions have transcripts of a very long developer chat starting with:
jgarzik: if you aren't near one of the consulates there are some companies that will charge you money to do it...
TODO purpose? The transcripts are interspersed with developers likely voting for project leadership, and commenting on Gavin.These might just be more of protests against larger block sizes. - tx 0f25e23b7b59fde67d8b2d41b749e4f89fd1ff8061aa0ddac8c27c8230167e35:
A Crosschain transaction was sent in to your address in error. The transaction was 9174f24946496823e4edaf3fe1676a404164178d1c848fa476113bbe2f5b9463 . Please return to 1AAEXtLo9SoyFQbZvWoqAMCpkz9okSpCuV. Thank you in advance."
Epic. - tx 057954bb28527ff9c7701c6fd2b7f770163718ded09745da56cc95e7606afe99: on block 666,666:
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good - Epistle to the RomansRomans 12:21
As highlighted at www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/vxletr/message_was_embedded_in_block_666666/ the block number is a reference to the number of the beast.
Politics:
- Donald Trump: there's a bit of both sides in the 2016 race:
- tx 202ceac7b3e7b990d1961fd2eab18ba5c80c99f10eacc783f14c53ebfdcaee00 "oEW Fuck Obama&Clinton Go Trump!!!!"
- tx 2fb07a8f358d690d8717734a48e5daf0ef70ea2d0e3b7c88dace8a5818fcb168 "L299,Trump touched my no-no"
- tx 05fce37228c732f4635f79e6f36d028be677404beab497ddace9024fe8e4b517 "EW Heil Trump!He's the true white leader our race need so much since Adolph"
Non-cool things:
- "Hitler did nothing wrong" meme [ref] is repeated several times, e.g.: tx 41967a7d75e9e1ca8c142a45ce29ea08b451a3b55c3e33538f5cc8a389ec66ab
Encrypted data: transactions such as:
are Base64 encoded. Running them through
we might as well give up.
tx fe37c7eee73be5fda91068dbe0eb74a68495a3fc7185712b8417032db7fc9c5e
U2FsdGVkX1/4iSjLxQ5epo8eRSCOQLGgAsn1CucGii27k8ZyC7Jz6wxhYcevVmxi
6Q4ZFN04WDN0UhKqYardgQf26oeBMURupduDd0ZozxlgMrBkFOCaARqU7RABVWDO
/ruPUcOY0VC8p4lrMNqSdqvN7y6OWwOSH3c0duumZfFNZs9+BbtKCxtaqR5+RkUI
base64 -d
leads to starting output bytes Salted__
which as mentioend at security.stackexchange.com/questions/124312/decrypting-binary-code-from-a-base64-string is OpenSSL encrypted data. So whever we see the start:
U2FsdGVkX1/
TODO
- 4dd57f3e443ad1567a37beab8f6b31d8cb1328a26bac09e50ba96048ad07b8c1 long text in Italian starting with
E il cazzo non entr
looks vulgar/porn, identify
This is about transactions that are interesting not because of their inscriptions, but for some other reason, such as transaction size, etc.
- bb41a757f405890fb0f5856228e23b715702d714d59bf2b1feb70d8b2b4e3e08 999,657 bytes. Joins a bunch of tiny inputs into a single output
- 623463a2a8a949e0590ffe6b2fd3e4e1028b2b99c747e82e899da4485eb0b6be and 5143cf232576ae53e8991ca389334563f14ea7a7c507a3e081fbef2538c84f6e both have 3,075 outputs of 1 satoshi each and a single input. We were not able to identify any meaningful data in it,
file
just saysdata
, and there aren't long ASCII strings. However, the outputs were unspent as of 2021, which suggests that they might actually be data.
Analysis of some of them follows.
- dd9f6bbf80ab36b722ca95d93268667a3ea6938288e0d4cf0e7d2e28a7a91ab3 has 13107 with payload 256KB in size, but some of them at least have been spent: www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/dd9f6bbf80ab36b722ca95d93268667a3ea6938288e0d4cf0e7d2e28a7a91ab3 therefore it's not data.
file
says their payload is a DOS executable, but it must be a coincidence
Horrible Horrendous Terrible Tremendous Mining Pool: hhtt.1209k.com/
Pool that shut down in 2014: organofcorti.blogspot.com/2014/01/17-goodbye-hhtt-coinbase-will-never-be.html
Has some cute one liner messages.
Apparently the "Taproot" Bitcoin update made it easier to upload image-sized data once again, which had become prohibitively expensive 2023 and much earlier: Developer Casey Rodarmor apparently contributed to this popularization.
This in turn led to a lot of child porn rediscussion, and people linking back to this page to view earlier inscriptions: incoming links.
TODO understand this new system in detail.
Analyses in other blockchains:
- Ethereum
- reidjs.medium.com/top-6-weird-innovative-and-hilarious-findings-in-the-ethereum-blockchain-83dbbca461ca Top 6 Weird, Innovative, and Hilarious findings in the Ethereum Blockchain by Reid Sherman (2018)
Ken Shirriff is a cool dude, he's done come collabs with Marc Verdiell in electronics restoration.
Semi-boring academic overview, but without reproducibility, or in a way that is too hidden for Ciro to have the patience to find it out.
Claims 1600 files found.
Mentions some upload mechanisms, notably AtomSea & EMBII and Satoshi uploader.
By Ciro Santilli:
- twitter.com/cirosantilli/status/1382067162492366854 main announcement on Twitter
- twitter.com/mikko, who has 209.9K followers and a Wikipedia page: Mikko Hypponen hearted the tweet s2
By others:
Video 2. Bitcoin= Free Speech Repository? by Trader University (2023) Source. Features Marijuana plant and Rickrolling sections. He seems to be a finance guru. - news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26801067 on Hacker News failed unfortunately. Edit: looked a few hours later and miraculously it achieved a mild success, caught it at position 16: archive.ph/L0Fte and led to about 5k views total. Ah, Ciro could watch that Google Analytics realtime view go bling all day long. Narcissism is a bitch.
- cloudhiker.net/ A hand curated and categorized list of interesting links by Kevin Woblick. Only allows users to visit a random one per category, so we can't get proof of backlink, this was noticed through Google Analytics.
Minor ones:
- 2023 lots of Twitter backlinks as a result of ordinal ruleset inscriptions
- 2021 cryptonewmedia.press/tankman-image-on-bitcoin-blockchain/ by user igadjeed