= Cool data embedded in the Bitcoin blockchain
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{tag=articles}
{tag=Ciro Santilli's naughty projects}
{tag=Ciro Santilli's data projects}
{tag=Inscription (Blockchain)}
{tag=Digital preservation}
= Ciro's Bitcoin Inscription Museum
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This is a collection of cool data found in the Bitcoin blockchain using techniques mentioned at: <how to extract data from the Bitcoin blockchain>{full}. Notably, <Ciro Santilli> developed his own set of scripts at https://github.com/cirosantilli/bitcoin-inscription-indexer to find some of this data. This article is based on data analyzed up to around block 831k (February 2024).
Drop some <Bitcoins> at \b[3KRk7f2JgekF6x7QBqPHdZ3pPDuMdY3eWR] if you are loaded and like this article in order to support some much needed higher educational reform: <sponsor>{full}.
When this kind of non-financial data is embedded into a blockchain some people called an "<inscription (Blockchain)>". The study or "early" inscriptions had been called a form of "archaeology"https://docs.ordinals.com/overview.html{ref}http://blockchainarchaeology.com/{ref}. Since this is a collection of archeological artifacts, we call it a "<museum>"!
One really cool thing about inscriptions is that because blockchains are huge <Merkle trees>, it is impossible to censor any one inscription without censoring the entire blockchain. It is also really cool to see people treating the Bitcoin blockchain basically like a global social media feed!
Starting on December 2022, <ordinal ruleset inscriptions> took the bitcoin blockchain by storm, and dwarfed in volume all other previous inscriptions. This museum focuses mostly on non-ordinals, though certain specific ordinal topics that especially interest he curators may be covered, e.g. <Ordinal ruleset inscription porn> and <ordinal ASCII art inscription>.
<Hidden surprises in the Bitcoin blockchain by Ken Shirriff (2014)> is a mandatory precursor to this article and contains the most interesting examples of the time. But much happened since Ken's article which we try to cover. This analysis is also a bit more data oriented through our usage of scripting.
Artifacts can be organized in various ways:
* chronologically
* by <media type>, e.g. <images> vs <text>
* by <themes> or events, e.g. the <Prayer wars> or <Mt. Gox' shutdown>
* encoding, e.g. <AtomSea & EMBII> vs <raw images>
In this article we've done a mixture of:
* <themes>: if multiple items fall in a theme, we tend to put it there first
* then by <media type> if they don't fit any specific theme
* then by encoding
* and finally chronologically within each section
Who said it was easy to be a museum curator!
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