Most religious people consider the number 666 as the “number of the beast.” The double number 666,666 Bitcoin block mined was just accompanied by a Bible verse in the message.
As last night was coming to a close, in UTC, the BTC block 666,666 was mined. It came with an inscribed message by the sender, saying: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” This Bible verse was quoted from the book of Romans 12:21.
The message accompanying the block had specific code, known as the OP_RETURN script, which uses up to 80 bytes of data for a message. The message has to be part of the block along with the timestamp; this process is known as “timestamping of write information.”
Deep pockets
According to commenters, the person sending was charged heftily (about 50 USD) to assure that the message came along with this particular block.
The crypto-verse has seen various types of messages sent alongside crypto blocks over the years. One of the most noticeable messages highlighted by the commenters includes one written: “the Garden of Eden3D is Alive. Eden3D.io.”
Down memory lane
As production of crypto blocks commenced, as recorded in Coinbase trading (the initial trade that happens in every block), there is a message encrypted, “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on the brink of second bailout for banks.” This the most widely known message in the crypto world as it was encoded by the founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.
In March of 2020, someone left a message using 145 addresses. This was aimed at a debated Aussie computer expert, Craig Wright, who argued were his in the Tulip trust. The message accused Wright of being “a liar and a fraud” because he didn’t possess the keys used in encrypting the file. The statement concluded with a sign-off, “We are all Satoshi.”
Among others, towards the end of 2020, in block 659,678, a crypto mining pool left a message. Slush Pool comprised the Reuters headline, which read, “Dollar plummets on U.S. stimulus hopes; bitcoin hits an all-time peak.”
As of 19th Jan, 9:35 UTC, BTC had risen by 2.4% in a day and 3.5% in a week, trading at $37,245.
