Base58 messages
ID: cool-data-embedded-in-the-bitcoin-blockchain/base58-messages
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". As such, any embedded text is rather obfuscated due to this limitations, and people often resort to leet-like replacements such as '1' to represent 'I'.
This seems to be one of the earliest strategies used to encode messages into the Bitcoin blockchain. The first known example appears in 2011. Then starting November 2011, a large number of messages were inscribed n short successsion, presumably by a single person or small group.
Total burn addresses as a function of time found by Bitcoin Burn Addresses: Unveiling the Permanent Losses and Their Underlying Causes
. Although it is not solely focused on inscriptions and may also contain functional burn addresses, it is likely that the methods of Khatib/Legout capture the overall trend of base58 inscription counts.These messages were originally found with: github.com/cirosantilli/bitcoin-inscription-indexer#payload-size-out-utxo-2vals which tracks the largest transactions with unspent outputs.
Bitcoin Burn Addresses: Unveiling the Permanent Losses and Their Underlying Causes later revealed many new ones.
Bitcoin Burn Addresses: Unveiling the Permanent Losses and Their Underlying Causes later revealed many new ones.
Finding Base58 messages is intrinsically hard for a few reasons
- the words may be garbled by Base58 leet
- only very small ammounts of data can be encoded at a time, and all of it contains ASCII, so you can't just "find all long ASCII strings" as we started doing for other ASCII inscriptions a la
strings -n20
; you have to use some dictionary as a basis - the Base58 does not show up raw on the blockchain, as it is just a human representation for the actual binary data that does, so you can't just strings the blockchain, you have to parse it
The interesting following transactions contain base58 encoded messages on addresses, sorted chronologically, and heighlighted either due to their earliness or historical or artistic quality:
- tx 751ff11286a43da5d6cf7da8f5bc736e522bbd698ec03c76c63368e5260667e6, block 136463 (2011-07-15) seems to contain a bunch of names, possibly in the format First Name + Last name initial across 459 Outputs. It is very noisy, but feels too much coincidence not not be intentional. TODO understand meaning and origin, this one is fascinating:
1JameLs3Q9enoB7VT3bDc3XYoziRDqW7o6 1NeLLAADSPYk4wvzCbiac362DdTWNqnWxV 1MaRinaQFfRbEDoz5FvDaJoST1PsqQQhL7 1DioNTe4eHexc74CPPCwJMGPHaDE8za4BM 1JULiehNiV7SPqGiYoismHc5SePUvaijuB 1BobbyE2LXU3PMPG3uGgNAZicAasyqnuZ5 1JoaniEwAEfJEhBV8sNp14PDxGQAe5MGCz 1DWaiNezxpNiPfS9Fv1ydhexZeNTMj4of7 1JEANnAvfaCw5Mv4siZ9nKQms5hdwwJ92j 1LisTEn76TDDBorREtpqKGn3ddVbtVra56 1DontaevDw3rqi84VkZpZN6sAE2moRZEDH 1GrayCeqHU7sX46UfwBQWbgVAev7oHxash 1KaLeyMixsEBtGyRthJ898ykMtGYMBP7Te 1JaMiLvyAJAgM1W836JkUgrJFbUMT27H6p 1NUMeraLNjTDdahhCUToCyfvC8SXftsH8y
1MartinHaferkorncii112o11HdkMrtttD
on tx dab55eefd5cef495719a43bbd190c57c8ca60ecc45d630edf3442b2096965a97, block 152851 (2011-11-11) encodes the name:Likely:Martin Haferkorn
1EricLombrozoXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXWACBVB
appears on 3 separate transactions on 2011-11-24:Alsmost certainly this guy:www.officialusa.com/names/Sandra-Sandic/ suggests a link between Eric and Sandra sharing phone number (858) 461-1843 and residing at 12631 El Camino Real, San Diego, CA. Eric's LinkedIn marks him as living in San Diego, and Sandra's birthday is marked 1969-01-05, so matching the inscription year. The address shows as a regular appartment block on Google Maps, so maybe they are not crazy rich, or they have restraint. besthistorysites.net/name/eric-lombrozo reconfirms the address.- block 154630:
- block 154637: tx dea183908e40e0cebfee6a0d8362b299e07cf193fbc02ffd3308b43781eca208. This one is more interesting and also contains a second output, both at 0.005 BTCso possibly a wedding token of Eric with Sandra Sandic after two previous test transactions. This also possibly gives Sandra's birth year of 1969. Pinged him at: x.com/cirosantilli/status/1904212575211901129.
1969SandraSandicXXXXXXXXXXXXXvdEiU
In 2023 this Sandra Sandic on Facebook liked this post related to a show in San Diego, giving a possible profile. At this post she links to this story about Erik Finman, young Bitcoin millionaire, thus establishing an interest link between that profile and Bitcoin. She also has various posts in Bosnian, so she speaks the language and is likely a first generation immigrant.1BitTaLkTVChristmasSpeciaLXXRix9Ea
is repeated a dozen times on transactions between tx 8e2bacf9971ce1a29d69d1a0484bfaa198257cc116530c7415ab6c38ae54ebc3, block 154721 (2011-11-25) and 2011-11-27.It is a quick ad for the BitTalk.tv Christmas Special by Matthew N. Wright. bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3025298.0 mentions he is the founder bittalk.tv and co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine. TODO is the video still watchable somewhere? Also announced at: bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=52712. As of 2025, the domain had been reappropriated as a SolarMovie mirror. It is quite likely that all the large set of message that follow were inscribed by him. Related:- www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/ruo73/matthew_n_wright_scammer_of_bitcoinmagazine_and/ Matthew N. Wright, scammer of BitcoinMagazine and BBBB (2012)
- www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/znhsj/matthew_n_wright_apologizes/ Matthew N. Wright "apologizes" (2012)
Later on there is also another variant addresses11Bitta1ktvchristmasspecia1WNDvAa
on repeated almost 300 times on tx ace9524519577138ca98ec01651758fd1e5ec33ce0110c6681eccba0e716cc7a, block 155545 (2011-12-01)Other likely mentions of Matthew N Wright:11MatthewLovesmandaXXXXXXXXabCJPY
on tx d7c57205d69420dc7f4593b4de0806c9ec96f4755b64315cd034bd4b0b90dc2a, block 155698 (2011-12-01) has a quick love declaration:Matthew loves Amanda
1MatthewNWrightisaScammer124DNsfX
is etched twice
- tx 28ccf29cfcc9f82d42793db770e7c7894d61ccf3d18299f34bda2e54415da287, block 154769 (2011-11-25) contains a short excerpt from Alice in WonderlandOriginal text referred to:
1But1DontWantToGoAmongMadxxxzDmyW6 1Peop1eA1iceRemarkedxxxxxxxxxuLyKu 12ohYouCantHe1pThatxxxxxxxxxzCjyMs 19SaidTheCatWereA11MadHerexxyTvEir 191mMadYoureMadxxxxxxxxxxxxxvwA4Up 1HowDoYouKnow1mMadSaidA1icexxZA4Nr 12YouMustBeSaidTheCatxxxxxxxz2tFa2 12orYouWou1dntHaveComeHerexxvtHbqq
But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad." "How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here."
- tx 3bbd94d22346a3bfb44257293e10c3b5c9ee39230c1cd358bdce2bf03c61ba0b (block 154965 , 2011-11-27) contains 49 base58 messages on a single transaction transcribing this version of the Emerald Tablet, a type of mystical medieval text:Some of the messages weirdly have "xoxo" inserted into them, not sure why, e.g.
12TisTrueWithoutALie22222221wT3qjn 1CertainAndMostTrue2222222225YPnJF 12ThatWhich1sBe1ow1sAs222221y3G7mv 12ThatWhich1sAboveAnd2222221vxkcEq ... 1AboutTheWorkingsofTheSun1zzyWJtfm
The full decoded text is:12TheFatherofTheWho1eWor1d2249xs5g 191sHereXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXo72uqJv 191tsPower1sWho1e1f1tHasXoXoWhYr3M 1BeenTurned1ntoEarth222222221soWAL
It is true, without error, certain and most true,
That which is below is as that which is above, and that which is above is as that which is below, to perform the miracles of the one thing.
And as all things were from the one, by means of the meditation of the one, thus all things were born from the one, by means of adaptation.
Its father is the Sun, its mother is the Moon, the Wind carried it in its belly, its nurse is the earth.
The father of the whole world is here.
Its power is whole if it has been turned into earth.
You will separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the dense, sweetly, with great skill.
It ascends from earth into heaven and again it descends to the earth, and receives the power of higher and of lower things.
Thus you will have the Glory of the whole world.
Therefore will all obscurity flee from you.
Of all strength this is true strength, because it will conquer all that is subtle, and penetrate all that is solid.
Thus was the world created.
From this were wonderful adaptations, of which this is the means. Therefore am I named Thrice-Great Hermes, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.
It is finished, what I have said about the working of the Sun. 11111111LeonhardEu1er111126nxjP
on tx 80ddf2e7e04922e2cbf6e744dbf47aec02d781505d8b2c4ee5f725b8882ddb2d, block 155051 (2011-11-28) is a tribute to Swiss mathematician Leonhard EulerFigure 3. Swiss mathematician Leonard Euler. Source. Off-chain image.- 024b093afb54f69426c5624f09a5f2d3791ce20513225cbb42d333ad72f8576e, block 155256 (2011-11-29) has two self-explanatory outputs:
Just A Two Line
Test112JustATwoLine222222222221vcJxpZ 11111Test111112222222222222LiApa
- tx 8f64d2b7a762767e3870c4aee95f8c7b5439cf02cf7d7e5d99b6e39967ecada8, block 155256 (2011-11-29) encodes the poem "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" by Shakespeare 22 addresses starting with:Full original text:
11Sha111CompareTheeToAXXXXXVnRohE 11SummersDayThouArtMoreXXXXUcpgnX 11Love1yAndMoreTemperateXXXUu485j ...
More Shakespeare follows at tx 0ae2eaaa9cddafba89b4c92d074f4e5254cbf7691cbe7f64660bf549c7071147, block 155383 (2011-11-20) has a passage from Romeo and Juliet starting with:Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.Full original text:11TisButThyNameThat1sMyXXXXWabTZh 11EnemyThouArtThyse1fThoughXNRG4J 11NotAMontagueWhatsMontagueYEJDfM 111t1sNorHandNorFootNorArmXVNeFEV
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? That which we call a rose,
By any other word would smell as sweet.
So Romeo would - were he not Romeo called -
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself. - Various other notable texts follow on 2011-12-01:
- tx 1f9606f267cc398356663b14d1a7a3591e3da06572893394c14975a6fc11798f, block 155467 (2011-12-01) contains an excerpt from Newton's Principia starting with:Full original text[ref]:
11Ru1e1WeAreToAdmitNoMoreXXazQ96z 11CausesofNatura1ThingsThanZAQ9ig 11SuchAsAreBothTrueAndXXXXXZyzfQp 11SufficientToExp1ainTheirXVSC2gY
RULE 1 We are to admit no more causes of natural things, than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.RULE II Therefore to the same natural effects we must, as far as possible, assign the same causes.RULE III The qualities of bodies, which admit neither intension nor remission of degrees, and which are found to belong to all bodies within reach of our experiments, are to be esteemed the universal qualities of all bodies whatsoever.RULE IV In experimental philosophy we are to look upon propositions collected by general induction from phenomena as accurately or very nearly true, notwithstanding any contrary hypotheses that may be imagined, till such time as other phenomena occur, by which they may either be made more accurate, or liable to exceptions. - tx 89010c791c9d7ed24affa1d638b12179d2ca7ec91704fe906834386f43a8101d starting at
11When1nTheCourseofHumanXXXXdfMdQ
: Declaration of Independence - tx f7ca83a8a2e1c78efdfde0791d99a567ddaa60805c3b5b857bc7ec14ec2c8204 starting at
11AVa1id1dentifier1sAXXXXXXcrnyki
: likely contains an excerpt of the C or C++ standard. Possible source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_data_types. - tx 028b8514a4f6cc96ac3c1c83dbb117ab9dc5eb09deab7b49bf038fd460173127 starting at
11TheSetupTheJokeA1waysXXXXTF9Wzp
: The aristocrats by HP Lovecraft, which talks about the The Aristocrats joke pattern - tx bd513d9ee605ead1a299c9dfb77de1127bf651c54d99820e9be8b40cef8c8dfe starting at
11Si1ex1sAnAcronymForXXXXXXcujTa5
talks briefly about SILEX (separation of isotopes by laser excitation) - tx ef374dcc5b23f16ecb0b1b639ba577d2acda7ad32321b5866db2fa9e6807b9c5, block 155494 (2011-12-01) contains the intruction from the bitcoin.org website: web.archive.org/web/20210129054851/https://bitcoin.org/en/
11Bitcoin1sADecentra1izedXXWPM6Hs 11PeertopeerNetworkoverXXXXUkyy3M 11WhichUsersMakeXXXXXXXXXXXX4tQgN 11TransactionsThatAreXXXXXXVdZfnJ
- tx 05ee60dfb92795c79e46e106f52bbdbc1006eba0837ed9e4ad99d9b214eb5fcf, block 155538 contains a tribute to Archimedes:original text at: mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Archimedes/
11ArchimedesWasANativeofXXXXJsj6W 11SyracuseSici1y1t1sXXXXXXXaYF4CE 11ReportedBySomeAuthorsThatXjFBcV 11HeVisitedEgyptAndThereXXXYVzj58
Archimedes was a native of Syracuse, Sicily. It is reported by some authors that he visited Egypt and there invented a device now known as Archimedes' screw. This is a pump, still used in many parts of the world. It is highly likely that, when he was a young man, Archimedes studied with the successors of Euclid in Alexandria. Certainly he was completely familiar with the mathematics developed there, but what makes this conjecture much more certain, he knew personally the mathematicians working there and he sent his results to Alexandria with personal messages. He regarded Conon of Samos, one of the mathematicians at Alexandria, both very highly for his abilities as a mathematician and he also regarded him as a close friend.
- tx 237b50dac42af130171773b233954e62690182fd4901a453ad5d11d1d54a8ca3, block 155545 (2012-01-01) contains an exceprt from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glass_Menagerie
11TomAppearsAtTheTopofTheXXWyM2Bt 11A11eyAfterEachSo1emnBoomXaBp7oy 11ofTheBe111nTheTowerHeXXXXVQaies 11ShakesALitt1eNoisemakeroraeWTgK ...
- tx 57bfd63000bbfa6e9a61f7285a4abf9aef91dfcfba4fe0f940b431653eb8068b, block 155494 (2011-12-01) is a Lorem ipsum and tx 7961b5ae2f053a16d5c589104f87edfabe80fcae185832ea185e7f0cf06c7747 (2011-12-05) is another one:
11Lorem1psumDo1orSitAmetXXXWAEZ6C 11ConsecteturAdipiscingE1itYQHEPM ...
- tx 1f9606f267cc398356663b14d1a7a3591e3da06572893394c14975a6fc11798f, block 155467 (2011-12-01) contains an excerpt from Newton's Principia starting with:
- tx 8ffacbb18f63576fe323cbf2acc6c4c01c86aadf13d8352cfdd39d91916d98c8, block 156164 (2011-12-05) advertises etchablock.com by repeating the following 3 messages 80 times:decoding to:
11EtchABLockDotComGivesYouXZHcYVz 11BLockChain1mmortaLityXXXXYRZD5m 11VisitEtchABLockDotComNowXTbeZZ9
More ads can be seen at:etchablock.com gives you blockchain immortaility. Visit etchablock.com now.
- tx 12a8866ea85a8a6838d77cc67ce74ef190a074bc822572f4a82daad00fd980d6, block 156119 (2011-12-05) seems like an alphabet test:
111111111a11111111111b11dC8yHQ 111111111c1111111111111dWctEU9 111111111111e1111111111W7v25m 111111f1111111111111111g11WfG2p8 1111111111111h111111111WdQPXP 11111i111111111111j1111111bL5SyF 11111111k111111111111111XV7PT9D 111L1111111111111111111m111YmYGPJ 1111111111111111n11111U4Rs6D 1111111111111o111111111cLV3wA 11111111p11111111111111qW1RK1A 1111111111111111r1111VRWJZs 111111111111s1111111111VUeyXS 11111111111t11111111111Vq1Wm3 11111111u111111111111111bVpCYE 111111111v11111111111111XoV17A 11111111w1111111111111111YyEFv6 111111111x11111111111111XvZPGp 11111111111y11111111111Y1hDo5 111111111111111zXXXXXXVSn6d5
- tx 31331de21d321766fcac556d7233ad0e3918bc78c7af22b99373569c07d4f30c, block 158772 (2011-12-23) has a quick love declaration by a Chinese dude to his Chinese dudesspresumably the man's name is "Ye Chunnan", possible profile: github.com/finway-china
11YechunnanLoveChenchenYeziSsezJQ 11ForeverXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXWcSE4Z
- tx bf40e4a1c2546747bc800a085e7145d921a9f402aaf4040c155ff5d0df9cc999, block 161202 (2012-01-08) encodes:
11When1DieBuryMeDeepLayTwoXVEY5jv 11SpeakersAtMyFeetAPairofXXTyrHor 11HeadphonesonMyHeadAndXXXXYUSvnd 11ALwaysPLayTheGratefuLDeadWdq4Xo
Related quote mention: www.reddit.com/r/quotes/comments/w51yfg/comment/iwnxk9i/When I die, bury me deep, lay two speakers at my feet, a pair of headphones on my head. Always play the grateful dead.
- tx 3a027fadac6ac2d9cf54480667465ba6ad88b7b3c1de62e1cb34cd06a44243ac, block 161267 (2012-01-08) has a birthday wish:
11HappyBirthdayStephenXXXXXZL6eQZ 11HawkingXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXRu9FPe
Happy birthday Stephen Hawking
- 1BrianDeeryWasHereCaryNCUSAy1hRCCC on tx c584dd7d3e9ba9776d61ae91f801371e21e434b9d8dab3c81850301433a50fcb, block 188657 (2012-06-12) is a check-in by a Brian Deery at Cary, NC, USA. Most likely:
- 1PavedWithGodAndSomeTeensionXudq5X on tx 3e1572ca351d743d7bf627bc844da8f3bdc84eab4a9d27934a8dba30a2e05fe1, block 371894 (2015-08-28) is the largest likely burn that we know of with a single transaction, totalling 1.61803399 BTCIt is unclear what this means exactly and we can't find any pre-existing soruces, but it seems to be a variant of the well known:
Paved With God And Some Teension
Related:
- www.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/comments/3kqdjv/a_list_of_bitcoin_addresses_used_to_intentionally/
- github.com/BranndonWork/bitcoin-bulk-balance-check/blob/master/burned.csv
- bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=85935 Coins sent to the great wallet in the sky (2012-06-07)
- bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=90982.285 Rare address hall of fame (2015)
- bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=917913.0 Burn Baby Burn! - Compiling all Bitcoin burn addresses by fairglu (2015)
- bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=553449.0 Longest most impressive VANITY (2014)
- bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=558604.0 Custom Bitcoin address? (2014)
- medium.com/@westkate37/burned-bitcoins-d9b15b3699d6
- www.bitcoinwhoswho.com/blog/2018/12/29/2-btc-burned-in-2018/
- bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/70241/whats-with-this-address-1111111111111111111114olvt2/125931#125931
- bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/49625/whats-the-point-of-bitcoin-eaters mentions in particular
1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE
- kf106.medium.com/interesting-addresses-on-the-bitcoin-blockchain-e0956f06ec01 has some interesting monetary ones, not inscriptions
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