Git commit allegedly from Satoshi embedded inside a Bitcoin transaction

https://blockchain.info/tx/77822fd6663c665104119cb7635352756dfc50da76a92d417ec1a12c518fad69

by jbaudanza • 13 years ago

162 68 13 years ago

jbaudanza8• 13 years ago

Here is the text of the commit:

    From a3a61fef43309b9fb23225df7910b03afc5465b9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
    From: Satoshi Nakamoto <satoshin@gmx.com>
    Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 02:28:02 -0200
    Subject: [PATCH] Remove (SINGLE|DOUBLE)BYTE

    I removed this from Bitcoin in f1e1fb4bdef878c8fc1564fa418d44e7541a7e83
    in Sept 7 2010, almost three years ago. Be warned that I have not
    actually tested this patch.
    ---
     backends/bitcoind/deserialize.py |    8 +-------
     1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 7 deletions(-)

    diff --git a/backends/bitcoind/deserialize.py b/backends/bitcoind/deserialize.py
    index 6620583..89b9b1b 100644
    --- a/backends/bitcoind/deserialize.py
    +++ b/backends/bitcoind/deserialize.py
    @@ -280,10 +280,8 @@ opcodes = Enumeration("Opcodes", [
         "OP_WITHIN", "OP_RIPEMD160", "OP_SHA1", "OP_SHA256", "OP_HASH160",
         "OP_HASH256", "OP_CODESEPARATOR", "OP_CHECKSIG", "OP_CHECKSIGVERIFY", "OP_CHECKMULTISIG",
         "OP_CHECKMULTISIGVERIFY",
    -    ("OP_SINGLEBYTE_END", 0xF0),
    -    ("OP_DOUBLEBYTE_BEGIN", 0xF000),
         "OP_PUBKEY", "OP_PUBKEYHASH",
    -    ("OP_INVALIDOPCODE", 0xFFFF),
    +    ("OP_INVALIDOPCODE", 0xFF),
     ])


    @@ -293,10 +291,6 @@ def script_GetOp(bytes):
             vch = None
             opcode = ord(bytes[i])
             i += 1
    -        if opcode >= opcodes.OP_SINGLEBYTE_END and i < len(bytes):
    -            opcode <<= 8
    -            opcode |= ord(bytes[i])
    -            i += 1

             if opcode <= opcodes.OP_PUSHDATA4:
                 nSize = opcode
    -- 
    1.7.9.4

mmahemoff• 13 years ago

How did you get from the linked page to that?

jack-r-abbit• 13 years ago

Click the link "Show scripts & coinbase" and it is in one of those.

v644• 13 years ago

Click on "Show scripts & coinbase" on the page, and it will appear under the output scripts unformatted. The poster added line breaks.

LoonyPandora• 13 years ago

To be able to see this information on the linked page, click on "Advanced: Enable" at the bottom of the screen. Then you'll see the "Output Scripts" section where this info is contained.

officialjunk• 13 years ago

there appear to be 3 transactions in total, related to this https://blockchain.info/address/1Lsc297azMbCDXKREnUuQWwMwKVE...

the output of the second transaction is: OP_DUP OP_HASH160 d9fc6bc120342fc43b2296876562e1d4c6536fda OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG

dmix• 13 years ago

How was this discovered? What does the commit change? Who was the transaction with? etc

jbaudanza8• 13 years ago

I'm very curious as to how this non-standard transaction made it into the blockchain. I have two guesses:

1) Whoever did this has access to enough hashing power to mine their own non-standard transactions into blocks.

2) $0.43 is unusually high for a transaction fee. Perhaps this is high enough to incentivize miners to include the tx in a block.

v644• 13 years ago

If you look at the output scripts of the transaction, this is a patch for the bug that was used to embed the patch in the transaction in the first place. Clever.

jbaudanza8• 13 years ago

That's very interesting. But is that enough to get the tx mined into the blockchain? Isn't it still a non-standard tx?

v644• 13 years ago

I'm not versed enough in bitcoin script to say definitively, but just guessing, it may be that the bug is that this is a way to get a non-standard txn mined.

orblivion• 13 years ago

Pulled a Homakov.

sirsar• 13 years ago

Is there a signature anywhere to prove that it was authored by Satoshi?

jbaudanza8• 13 years ago

No. So take it with a big grain of salt.

jayzalowitz• 13 years ago

While I eat my hash right?

jbaudanza8• 13 years ago

But regardless, it's still an interesting transaction.

maaku• 13 years ago

Maybe. Where did the inputs come from?

awayand• 13 years ago

I dont get it

darkstar999• 13 years ago

Same. Can someone explain the context/significance of this?

ChuckMcM• 13 years ago

Satoshi, the "Creator" of BitCoin went 'dark' and nobody knows who or where he is. So any "hint" of his existence is big news in the Bitcoin forums and elsewhere. While its an imperfect analogy it is sort of like having an image of the Virgin Mary appear on the toasted side of a bagel.

hobs• 13 years ago

Except way less likely.

tocomment• 13 years ago

Can anyone explain this like I'm 5? I'm really not following what's going on here.

jbaudanza8• 13 years ago

You're not supposed to be able to embed messages inside of bitcoin transactions. But this person who claims to be Satoshi did just that. He/she/them embedded a git commit that fixes a bug in the Electrum server. This bug is perhaps what allowed the non-standard transaction to slip through.

Hope this helps.

doublec3• 13 years ago

It's always been possible to embed messages in transactions and the blockchain in general. It's full of stuff if you look.

s_q_b• 13 years ago

As a follow up, one of the few things we know about "Satoshi Nakamoto" is that his name is not Satoshi Nakamoto. It's a pseudonym, perhaps a nom de guerre, of the creator or creators.

Bitcoin is a really amazing piece of software and algorithm engineering. It is highly unlikely, although not impossible, that it was designed by a single individual. The scale, relatively bullet-proof crypto design (most systems are rigorously peer reviewed and still break), and the massive potential impact on global finance all point to a nation-state as the designer.

PG actually launched a thread with the same conclusion, and it seems eminently plausible to me.

scott_karana• 13 years ago

To add to jbaudanza's comment: Satoshi is the creator of Bitcoin, and hasn't been publicly active in a few years.

rajivtiru• 13 years ago

Summary after reading all the comments:

To actually see the message click the link "Show scripts & coinbase"

This is a non-standard transaction. This type of transaction burns bitcoins(bitcoins don't go anywhere.)

This transaction was first mined by the pool called Eligius. The Eligius pool allows non standard transactions if the transation is relayed to it directly.

The message is also not signed(PGP) correctly by Satoshi(Bitcoin creator).

NowhereMan2• 13 years ago

The problem here is that Satoshi has a GPG key, and this message is not signed with it.

http://bitcoin.org/satoshinakamoto.asc

saraid2162• 13 years ago

Which would be bigger news? That someone who isn't Satoshi managed to do this, or that Satoshi has reappeared after years of silence?

NowhereMan2• 13 years ago

Anyone can embed messages in a Bitcoin transaction. It looks like this one was sent using a transaction script.

http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/3440

dylangs1030• 13 years ago

That Satoshi reappeared, by an order of magnitude. It would be news either way, but people have been searching for him/her/whatever "Satoshi" is for years now.

adulau• 13 years ago

Regarding his PGP, it's interesting to see who (at least which key) signed his public key:

http://pgp.circl.lu/pks/lookup?op=vindex&search=0x5EC948A1&f...

I assume none of the key verified his identity before signing it ;-)

cyanbane• 13 years ago

Sorry I am not up on all the code intricacies with bit coin, but is this a way to publish a batch of text anonymously? Is that what the author is trying to show (a new communications channel) or is that something already known to the bitcoin community?

wmf• 13 years ago

It's definitely known, although I think most nodes drop transactions with weird stuff in them to prevent bloating the block chain with child porn.

nwh3• 13 years ago

Seeing as the author messed up and made the transaction unspendable, it's clearly not Satoshi actually authoring the patch. Just somebody playing around.

nullc• 13 years ago

It's intentionally non-spendable, by doing so it keeps that data from having to be stored forever in the dataset used for block validation.

nwh3• 13 years ago

Have a look at the transaction again. It looks like it was meant to be spendable.

ronaldx• 13 years ago

Why is creation conflated with omnipotence?

nwh3• 13 years ago

If you wrote an entire system of opcodes and a currency around them, you wouldn't mess up on an obscure rule and render your coins unspendable.

jlebrech• 13 years ago

You could technically encode an message within the 8 decimal places.

Git commit allegedly from Satoshi embedded inside a Bitcoin transaction

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