An unidentified Bitcoin (BTC) user has made a remarkable investment of approximately $64,000 in fees to inscribe nearly 9 megabytes of raw binary data on the Bitcoin blockchain. The inscriptions, consisting of 332 unique entries, were created using more than 1 Bitcoin at around 11:20 am UTC on January 6, as reported by X (formerly Twitter) post from the Ordinals explorer Ord.io on January 7. The content and purpose of the data remain a mystery, as attempts to decode it using OpenAI’s ChatGPT have yielded no definitive answers.
The Enigmatic Data and Its Speculations
Leonidas, the host of The Ordinal Show, commented on the situation, suggesting that the data could potentially be encrypted, making decryption exceedingly difficult or even impossible. The enigmatic nature of the data is further amplified by the anonymous identity of the individual behind the inscription. The Bitcoin address associated with these mysterious inscriptions, “bc1pnp…zwd0th,” has simply been labeled as “Unnamed” on Ord.io.
The encrypted data comprises various symbols from different languages, including English, Greek, and mathematical symbols. As a peculiar addition, two of the 332 inscriptions feature a digital image of a pepperoni pizza. Ord.io explained that this symbolizes the inclusion of “sats” from the 10,000 BTC used to buy two Papa John’s pepperoni pizzas from Early Bitcoin contributor Laszlo Hanyecz on May 22, 2010.
The Genesis Wallet Transaction and Its Intriguing Theories
This recent inscription mystery follows closely on the heels of another fascinating Bitcoin transaction. On January 5, a staggering 26.9 BTC, valued at $1.17 million, was sent to Bitcoin’s Genesis wallet—the very first Bitcoin wallet ever created. This event has sparked various theories among industry experts. Notably, the transaction fee attached to it was $100, significantly higher than the average transaction fee.
Conor Grogan, a director at Coinbase, conjectured whether this transaction signified the reappearance of Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, or if it was simply a case of someone burning a substantial amount of money. Pro-XRP lawyer Jeremy Hogan raised an intriguing possibility that this transaction might have been an attempt to flush out Nakamoto, potentially forcing them to report the funds to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service or face legal consequences. However, it should be acknowledged that this theory would only hold if Nakamoto were subject to U.S. tax laws.
The Rise of Bitcoin NFTs and Their Milestone Sales
In other news, sales of NFTs on the Bitcoin network achieved a significant milestone in December 2023, surpassing $881 million for the first time ever. According to data provided by CryptoSlam, NFT sales on the Bitcoin chain reached a staggering $881,223,753.92 last month, setting a new record for single-month sales. The statistics also revealed that there were 111,713 buyer addresses and 98,744 seller addresses, both of which set new records for the highest single-month activity. Bitcoin NFTs, also known as Ordinals, are a unique type of NFT that exists exclusively on the Bitcoin blockchain. Unlike traditional NFTs, which are primarily associated with the Ethereum blockchain, Bitcoin NFTs are directly inscribed onto individual satoshis, the smallest unit of a bitcoin.
