[SERIOUS] Don't Trust, Verify. How to look for Iconic Messages in your own Full Bitcoin Node. The Hard Way

As I mentioned a while back, I have some blockchain nodes running on my home lab VMs just for fun and to help out the community. One of them is my own Full Bitcoin Node, so I don't have to rely on outside websites to check my transactions.

Today, I was feeling a bit bored, so I decided to check if I actually had the whole "blockchain" stored at home. I looked for special messages using some basic commands. Below, I will provide the "commands" for conducting blockchain searches. If you want to do this yourself, you can find instructions on how to set up your own node from the Bitcoin.org website.

The commands basically consists in these steps:

- bitcoin-cli getblockhash <blockid>: to get the hash for a specific block, we need this to use the following command.

- bitcoin-cli getblock <blockhash> 2: To retrieve the block data along with transaction data, we use the command getblock. Adding the 2 ensures that transactions data is included. This allows us to utilize a tool like jq to manipulate the output and extract desired information—the raw transaction data in hexadecimal form. This hexadecimal data is further processed using a tool like xxd, converting it from hexadecimal to readable ASCII text, and then using hexdump to compare the two sets of data.

The final command looks something like this: bitcoin-cli getblock <blockhash> 2 | jq '.tx[<txindex>].hex' | xxd -r -p | hexdump -C

Let's start verifying the top 3 messages embedded in the Bitcoin blockchain:

1. The Times headline in the Genesis block: This is particularly evident in the initial block of Bitcoin, known as the Genesis block. Satoshi Nakamoto, the enigmatic originator of the protocol, included this message. It comprises the exact headline from The Times' front page on January 3, 2009, stating: “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”, Let's see if that's true. Here we don't use a <txindex> because the Genesis block only has 1 transaction.

bitcoin-cli getblock 000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f 2 | jq '.tx[].hex' | xxd -r -p | hexdump -C

2. The 2020 Bitcoin halving message: The final Bitcoin block with a subsidy of 12.5 BTC was mined by f2pool_official and contained the following message in its coinbase transaction: "NYTimes 09/Apr/2020 With $2.3T Injection, Fed's Plan Far Exceeds 2008 Rescue". Here the <txindex> is 0, let's check again:

bitcoin-cli getblock 0000000000000000000d656be18bb095db1b23bd797266b0ac3ba720b1962b1e 2 | jq '.tx[0].hex' | xxd -r -p | hexdump -C

3. The biblical message in block 666,666 to guard against the “Mark of the Beast”: As January 2020 marked the arrival of block 666,666, it seems that a miner or user made a clear choice to enhance security measures. This was accomplished by embedding a scriptural message "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good - Romans 12:21" and "Garden of Eden is Alive". Here the <txindex> are 1 and 2, let's verify that:

bitcoin-cli getblock 0000000000000000000b7b8574bc6fd285825ec2dbcbeca149121fc05b0c828c 2 | jq '.tx[1].hex' | xxd -r -p | hexdump -C && bitcoin-cli getblock 0000000000000000000b7b8574bc6fd285825ec2dbcbeca149121fc05b0c828c 2 | jq '.tx[2].hex' | xxd -r -p | hexdump -C

With this, you can observe that anyone has the capability to possess an authentic copy of the complete blockchain at home. This allows me to genuinely verify all the transactions occurring within the blockchain and ensures that I'm contributing my modest part to the network. So, feel at liberty to give it a try yourself – set up a node and carry out your own verification.

Warning: Exercise caution when conducting searches within the blockchain. While there are certain iconic messages present, individuals include a wide array of content, ranging from humorous and nonsensical to, unfortunately, outright illegal. It's crucial not to open any onion links that might be embedded in certain blocks, as they tend to lead to highly unlawful content.