In brief
- A recently mined Bitcoin block contained a biblical message.
- It joined other historically significant messages imprinted on Bitcoin, such as Satoshi Nakamoto's messages on the genesis block.
- Such messages are immutable and remain on the blockchain forever.
The Bible is not something you’d instantly associate Bitcoin with. But yesterday, someone left a biblical message on its blockchain: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
This message was embedded in the 666,666th block of #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/HpnPWrCjyW
— Documenting Bitcoin 📄 (@DocumentBitcoin) January 19, 2021
Bitcoin (and other blockchains) allow users to include any message with their transactions. These are immutable and private, like the transactions themselves, and cannot be censored in any manner due to the design of blockchains.
The quote is now a part of Bitcoin forever. As per biblical meaning guide Bibref, it has been interpreted by religious scholars to mean living for the good of others, being honest to oneself, and to overcome evil with good. It serves as a nod to Bitcoin’s core ethos—that of providing a fair, inclusive monetary system for all.
The uplifting message was, ironically, imprinted exactly at block height 666,666, the so-called “Mark of the Beast” in the holy book and a number associated with the devil or the antichrist.
But the religious touches didn’t end there. As the below image shows, the alphanumeric addresses that received the contained the words “GoD” and “BibLE,” suggesting that whoever sent the transaction planned the entire thing out carefully, instead of it being a coincidence.
The transaction was one of the 2,728 transactions included in block height 666,666 block, which overall netted 0.5 BTC ($18,500) in fees for miners.
The biblical message joined the cohort of other historic and memorable messages included in other Bitcoin transactions. The most well-known one, so far, was written by none other than the asset’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, himself.
It was included right in Bitcoin’s first-ever transaction (or the “genesis” block), a headline from an English newspaper that described the financial crisis of that time, “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for bank.”
Meanwhile, it is not only historic comments that make it to Bitcoin. Last year, a European man logged the birth of his child on Bitcoin, while back in 2014, the first-ever wedding was recorded on the blockchain. Whatever else will be next?