Messages hidden in Bitcoin: headlines, memorials and everyday life

Someone put Rick Astley in a Bitcoin transaction.
There’s also a love story and a job application.

The links show decoded messages, extracted images, or the documented story.

1 SATOSHI’S HEADLINE
“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”

The first Bitcoin block carries a newspaper headline about another bank bailout. January 3, 2009.

https://t.co/rdAjOmnBJd

2 ANOTHER BAILOUT HEADLINE, ELEVEN YEARS LATER
“NYTimes 09/Apr/2020 With $2.3T Injection, Fed's Plan Far Exceeds 2008 Rescue”

F2Pool embedded this in block 629,999, the final block before the 2020 halving.

https://t.co/jO1AK1ynEi

3 A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL. AND THE ANSWER.
Block 416,236:
“Sun Chun Yu: Zhuang Yuan, will you marry me?”
Block 416,253:
“Zhuang Yuan: YES!”

https://t.co/l3fs4yxEDX

4 TETSU’S PROPOSAL TO YUKI
“Yuki will you marry me ? Tetsu.”

A proposal sitting in a transaction’s OP_RETURN data. The article below shows the message and a screenshot.

https://t.co/sjck8RxbFk

5 A RICKROLL
“Never gonna give you up”

Someone embedded Rick Astley’s lyrics in a Bitcoin transaction.

Of course they did.

Decoded text:

https://t.co/delxmHLW7t

6 LEN SASSAMAN’S MEMORIAL
“Len was our friend. A brilliant mind, a kind soul …”

Dan Kaminsky and Travis Goodspeed embedded a tribute and an ASCII portrait in 2011.

They also included an ASCII portrait of Fed chairman Ben Bernanke. The joke is part of the memorial.

The full text and both ASCII portraits:

https://t.co/hTlNk8MaVh

7 THE BITCOIN WHITEPAPER
The full PDF is embedded in a transaction with 948 outputs.

Bitcoin contains its own founding document.

Read the PDF:

https://t.co/DgQwSEirV8

How the on-chain copy is recovered:

https://t.co/0QoFGL1gM9

8 NELSON MANDELA
“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.”

This quote and a JPEG portrait were embedded across several transactions.

Extracted portrait:

https://t.co/irRkBX5RSR

Decoded message and its on-chain record:

https://t.co/V2zUqGnPuM

9 BITCOIN’S OWN LOGO
A Bitcoin logo image was embedded across two transactions back in 2011.

The image recovered from the blockchain:

https://t.co/meWoI4kHBQ

10 LATIN PRAYERS
“Benedictus Deus.”

The Eligius mining pool included Catholic prayers in its blocks.

Other people replied with messages like “I LIKE TURTLES” and “C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER”.

An argument recorded on-chain.

https://t.co/Ot6GuPEZN8

11 SKYNET AND A WASHING MACHINE
One transaction contains a story about someone mistaking radio noise for a failing washing machine.

It also contains a story about Skynet discovering nihilism, possibly shutting itself down, then failing to renew its domain.

Both are there. Same transaction.

The washing machine story:

https://t.co/HYzH5YHtVV

The Skynet story:

https://t.co/YNJO9BKXOi

12 ALICE IN WONDERLAND
Eight recipient addresses spell out a passage from Alice in Wonderland.

One contains “WereA11MadHere”.

The addresses and the passage they encode:

https://t.co/Hwl6hT1VN2

13 A JOB APPLICATION
“Dear hive team …”

Someone embedded a full cover letter addressed to the Hive wallet team.

A fairly committed way to apply for a job.

Read the decoded application:

https://t.co/TnFF7SOFVz

14 A DOWNLOADER THAT CAN DOWNLOAD ITSELF
Bitcoin contains Python code for extracting embedded files.

That includes the file containing the downloader itself.

The code claims a Satoshi Nakamoto copyright. That claim does not establish who wrote it.

Read the extracted code:

https://t.co/T2lNsbsCrT

15 A WIKILEAKS BACKUP
“Wikileaks Cablegate Backup”

A roughly 2.5 MB archive was spread across 130 transactions. Another transaction stores the index and instructions for retrieving it.

An exceptionally inconvenient storage device.

Read the decoded index and instructions:

https://t.co/RbJPzN9OBh