Ciro Santilli @cirosantilli 35

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 contains the link:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_prime
followed presumably by one such prime starting with:
4 85650 78965 73978 29309 84189 46942 86137 70744 20873 51357 92401 96520 73668
The number is quoted e.g. at: www.computerforum.com/threads/illegal-prime-number.67782/
- tx 237783998a6799264983150187a73ab6d116f2ba78d3e1f88529e95229f59d67 block 233620 contains another illegal prime starting with:
49310 83597 02850 19002 75777 67239 07649 57284
This one is quoted in a few places online in blockchain illegality discussions:
- www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1akyy4/comment/c8yel60 "What happens if someone inserts illegal content into the block chain?" (2013-03-19)
- news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8055243 "Filecoin – Data storage network and crypto-currency based on Bitcoin" (2014-07-18)
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.

Bibliography:

bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=191039.0 "WTF - Kiddy Porn in the Blockchain for life?" (2013-04-29) on the Bitcoin Forum

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Bibliography by

Ciro Santilli 35  Updated 2025-02-26  +Created 1970-01-01

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Other Bitcon analysis:

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)
"Annotated blockchain project"
- etherpad.mit.edu/p/r.e33d2e7230fafc0612a0f2e7ebc87bae
- etherpad.mit.edu/p/r.19b7b3e2c5ea08a61cb0bef0aeb213fd image list (February 8, 2017) We tried going over it, but it is just too much work, the huge majority of the results are just AtomSea & EMBII so not that interesting.
- archive.ph/Zz7m5
- www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/5wax5v/a_group_is_working_on_building_a_fully_annotated/
- archive.4plebs.org/pol/thread/111742853/
Does the same as this page, just that it is an uncomprehensible mess of broken links. But they have soe good ideas!
Their main techniques seem to be:
```
mkdir binout
for file in blk*dat; do echo "$file"; binwalk --dd='.*' "$file" -C binout/. --log=binout/"$file""res.txt"; done
```
and:
```
mkdir subfileout
for file in blk*dat; do mkdir subfileout/"$file"; done
for file in blk*dat; do echo "$file"; hachoir-subfile --category=image,video,audio,container,archive,misc "$file" subfileout/"$file" > subfileout/"$file""subfile.txt"; done
```
which seem promising.
These are installable on Ubuntu 23.10 with:
```
sudo apt install binwalk hachoir
```
TODO how to they automatically map back to transaction IDs? There is a line "Script to add the TX ID to each file." Our attempts: Section "Get transaction id from position in dat file"

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