Cool data embedded in the Bitcoin blockchain Illegal content of block 229k by
Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-07-16
These can be viewed at bitcoinstrings.com/blk00052.txt and are mostly commented on the "Wikileaks cablegate data" section of Hidden surprises in the Bitcoin blockchain by Ken Shirriff (2014).
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:followed presumably by one such prime starting with:The number is quoted e.g. at: www.computerforum.com/threads/illegal-prime-number.67782/
4 85650 78965 73978 29309 84189 46942 86137 70744 20873 51357 92401 96520 73668
- tx 237783998a6799264983150187a73ab6d116f2ba78d3e1f88529e95229f59d67 block 233620 contains another illegal prime starting with:
This one is quoted in a few places online in blockchain illegality discussions:49310 83597 02850 19002 75777 67239 07649 57284
- 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
Other Bitcon analysis:
- "Annotated blockchain project"Does the same as this page, just that it is an uncomprehensible mess of broken links. But they have soe good ideas!
- 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/
Their main techniques seem to be:and:mkdir binout for file in blk*dat; do echo "$file"; binwalk --dd='.*' "$file" -C binout/. --log=binout/"$file""res.txt"; donewhich seem promising.mkdir subfileout for file in blk*dat; do mkdir subfileout/"$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"; doneTODO 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"
- battery life:
- 2023-04: on-browser streaming + light browsing on Ubuntu 22.10: about 2h45. Too low! Gotta try buying a new battery.
- 2022-01-04 updated firmward after noticing that ubuntu 21.10 does not wake up from suspend seemed to happen every time when not connected to external power.
dmidecodediff excerpt:used the "Ubuntu Software" GUI as mentioned at: support.lenovo.com/gb/en/solutions/ht510810-how-to-do-software-updates-linux. Kudos for making this accessible to newbs.BIOS Information Vendor: LENOVO - Version: N1UET40W (1.14 ) - Release Date: 09/28/2017 + Version: N1UET71W (1.45 ) + Release Date: 07/18/2018After doing that, another update became available to: 0.1.56, clicked it and was much faster than the previous one, and didn't auto reboot. After manual reboot,dmidecodediffed again:plus a bunch of other lines.BIOS Information Vendor: LENOVO - Version: N1UET71W (1.45 ) - Release Date: 07/18/2018 + Version: N1UET82W (1.56 ) + Release Date: 08/12/2021 - 2021-06-05 upgraded to Ubuntu 21.04 with a clean install from an ISO. SelectedAfter this, the GUI felt fast, who would have thought that erasing a bunch of stuff would make the system faster!
- "Minimal installation"
- "Erase disk and install Ubuntu". Notably, this erased the Microsoft Windows that came with the computer and was never used not even once
- "Erase disk ans use ZFS"
- Encrypt the new Ubuntu installation for security
lsblkcontains:andzd0 230:0 0 500M 0 disk └─keystore-rpool 253:0 0 484M 0 crypt /run/keystore/rpool nvme0n1 259:0 0 476.9G 0 disk ├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 512M 0 part /boot/efi ├─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 2G 0 part │ └─cryptoswap 253:1 0 2G 0 crypt ├─nvme0n1p3 259:3 0 2G 0 part └─nvme0n1p4 259:4 0 472.4G 0 partlsblk -f:zd0 crypto_LUKS 2 └─keystore-rpool ext4 1.0 keystore-rpool nvme0n1 ├─nvme0n1p1 vfat FAT32 ├─nvme0n1p2 crypto_LUKS 2 │ └─cryptoswap ├─nvme0n1p3 zfs_member 5000 bpool └─nvme0n1p4 zfs_member 5000 rpooThen:contains:grep '[rb]pool' /proc/mountswhich gives an idea of how the above map to mountpoints.rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq / zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/USERDATA/ciro_czngbg /home/ciro zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/USERDATA/root_czngbg /root zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/srv /srv zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/usr/local /usr/local zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/games /var/games zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/log /var/log zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/lib /var/lib zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/mail /var/mail zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/snap /var/snap zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/www /var/www zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/spool /var/spool zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/lib/AccountsService /var/lib/AccountsService zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/lib/NetworkManager /var/lib/NetworkManager zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/lib/apt /var/lib/apt zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/lib/dpkg /var/lib/dpkg zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 bpool/BOOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq /boot zfs rw,nodev,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0
2020-06-06: dropped some lemon juice on the bottom left of touchpad. Bottom left button not working anymore... I'm an idiot. There are many other alternatives, but very aggravating, I'll replace it for sure. Can't find the exact replacement part or any videos showing its replacement online easliy, dang. For the T430: www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3lzV9uXRjU Asked at: forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-P-and-W-Series-Mobile-Workstations/P51-left-bottom-button-below-trackpad-mouse-left-click-stopped-working-possible-to-replace/m-p/5019903 Also I could not access it because you need to remove the HDD first: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Klawxc7T_Y and I can't pull it out even with considerable force, unlike in the video... And OMG, those button caps are impossible to re-install once removed!!! Then when I put the whole thing back together, the upper buttons were not working anymore. FUUUUUUUUCK. When first opening I pulled on it without properly removing the cap and it came off, but it didn't look broken in any way and I put it back in. Keyboard works thank God, so right black connector is fine, left white one oppears to be the one for upper keys and trackpoint, both of which stopped working. The hardware manual confirms that they are both part of the same device, so basically a mouse :-) TODO can it be bought separately from te keyboard? Doesn't look like it, photo of keyboard part includes those buttons. The manual also confirms that the bottom buttons are one device with the trackpad "trackpad with buttons", thus forming the second entire mouse.
2019-04-17: popup asking about "ThinkPad P51 Management Engine Update" from from 182.29.3287 to 184.60.3561, said yes.
- partition setup: askubuntu.com/questions/343268/how-to-use-manual-partitioning-during-installation/976430#976430
- BIOS:
- for NVIDIA driver:
- for KVM, required by Android Emulator: enable virtualization extensions
- TODO fix the brightness keys:
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