Storing large data in blockchain

[amaclin]

Just wondering who is creating these transactions:

https://blockchain.info/tx/db195e4bfcfb3cc6d47f8d6231cb59e543c31e01d196d557457bca0fa5c1aba0  ... 20402 bytes
https://blockchain.info/tx/24560b7fbd172ff0e95dc8cc0af88a332e3be016a7f2aa35e432fd8beac3ed46  ... 63433 bytes
https://blockchain.info/tx/ce8c8d8154546bdbe28ff10dc4044a63cf11758839362c94dc6b9a99d55af3e5 ... 56905 bytes
and so on.

These transactions store some text data in blockchain with P2SH technique.
It is not too difficult to create a tool to get data as a plain text from these transactions (but I do not have interest to do it)
You can download them as binary and view in hex editor. You will see something like:

Code:

0000000140: 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 │ 00 49 00 59 6F 75 6E 67           I Young
0000000150: 20 41 6D 65 72 69 63 61 │ 6E 73 20 77 68 6F 20 6C   Americans who l
0000000160: 65 61 76 65 20 74 68 65 │ 69 72 20 67 72 65 61 74  eave their great
0000000170: 20 62 69 67 20 68 6F 6D │ 6F 67 65 6E 65 6F 75 73   big homogeneous
0000000180: 20 63 6F 75 6E 74 72 79 │ 20 61 6E 64 20 76 69 73   country and vis
0000000190: 69 74 00 45 00 73 6F 6D │ 65 20 6F 74 68 65 72 20  it E some other
00000001A0: 70 61 72 74 20 6F 66 20 │ 74 68 65 20 77 6F 72 6C  part of the worl
00000001B0: 64 20 74 79 70 69 63 61 │ 6C 6C 79 20 67 6F 20 74  d typically go t
00000001C0: 68 72 6F 75 67 68 20 73 │ 65 76 65 72 61 6C 20 73  hrough several s
00000001D0: 74 61 67 65 73 20 6F 66 │ 00 45 00 63 75 6C 74 75  tages of E cultu
00000001E0: 72 65 20 73 68 6F 63 6B │ 3A 20 66 69 72 73 74 2C  re shock: first,
00000001F0: 20 64 75 6D 62 20 77 69 │ 64 65 2D 65 79 65 64 20   dumb wide-eyed
0000000200: 61 73 74 6F 6E 69 73 68 │ 6D 65 6E 74 2E 20 54 68  astonishment. Th
0000000210: 65 6E 20 61 20 74 65 6E │ 74 61 74 69 76 65 00 44  en a tentative D
0000000220: 00 65 6E 67 61 67 65 6D │ 65 6E 74 20 77 69 74 68   engagement with
0000000230: 20 74 68 65 20 6E 65 77 │ 20 63 6F 75 6E 74 72 79   the new country
0000000240: 27 73 20 6D 61 6E 6E 65 │ 72 73 2C 20 63 75 69 73  's manners, cuis
0000000250: 69 6E 65 2C 20 70 75 62 │ 6C 69 63 20 74 72 61 6E  ine, public tran
0000000260: 73 69 74 00 46 00 73 79 │ 73 74 65 6D 73 20 61 6E  sit F systems an
0000000270: 64 20 74 6F 69 6C 65 74 │ 73 2C 20 6C 65 61 64 69  d toilets, leadi
0000000280: 6E 67 20 74 6F 20 61 20 │ 62 72 69 65 66 20 70 65  ng to a brief pe
0000000290: 72 69 6F 64 20 6F 66 20 │ 66 61 74 75 6F 75 73 20  riod of fatuous
00000002A0: 63 6F 6E 66 69 64 65 6E │ 63 65 00 4A 00 74 68 61  confidence J tha
00000002B0: 74 20 74 68 65 79 20 61 │ 72 65 20 69 6E 73 74 61  t they are insta
00000002C0: 6E 74 20 65 78 70 65 72 │ 74 73 20 6F 6E 20 74 68  nt experts on th
00000002D0: 65 20 6E 65 77 20 63 6F │ 75 6E 74 72 79 2E 20 41  e new country. A
00000002E0: 73 20 74 68 65 20 76 69 │ 73 69 74 20 77 65 61 72  s the visit wear
00000002F0: 73 20 6F 6E 2C 00 47 00 │ 68 6F 6D 65 73 69 63 6B  s on, G homesick
0000000300: 6E 65 73 73 20 62 65 67 │ 69 6E 73 20 74 6F 20 73  ness begins to s
0000000310: 65 74 20 69 6E 2C 20 61 │ 6E 64 20 74 68 65 20 74  et in, and the t
0000000320: 72 61 76 65 6C 65 72 20 │ 62 65 67 69 6E 73 20 74  raveler begins t
0000000330: 6F 20 61 70 70 72 65 63 │ 69 61 74 65 2C 00 49 00  o appreciate, I

I am just wondering - what a nice blockchain flooding for very small cost

[1714775167]

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[trout]

link to the P2SH techinque?
the data is basically in plain text?

[amaclin]

link to the P2SH techinque?

BIP-16

the data is basically in plain text?

I see someone storing plain texts.
Of course it is possible to store any content.

[Mikestang]

I wish this stuff didn't happen in the blockchain, the thing is bloated enough.

[amaclin]

I wish this stuff didn't happen in the blockchain, the thing is bloated enough.

You may wish anything. But this is consensus code for accepting such things 

[dexX7]

It is not too difficult to create a tool to get data as a plain text from these transactions (but I do not have interest to do it)

Speaking of tools ... http://bitcoinstrings.com/blk00251.txt

[Peter Todd]

It is not too difficult to create a tool to get data as a plain text from these transactions (but I do not have interest to do it)

Speaking of tools ... http://bitcoinstrings.com/blk00251.txt

Also here: https://github.com/petertodd/python-bitcoinlib/blob/master/examples/publish-text.py

[amaclin]

Also here: https://github.com/petertodd/python-bitcoinlib/blob/master/examples/publish-text.py

Pushing texts to blockchain is some kind of vandalism imho

[trout]

this is ugly.
I mean, obviously there will always be ways to embed data into the blockchain;
but if one has to split them between a long chain of transcations, and also encode them somehow inside,
 then the information (and effort)  needed to extract the data is non-neglible, so one can ignore it.

But the possibility of  pushing large chuncks of plain text in a single transaction
looks like a bug to me.

Is it possible to make this kind of things non-standard, without compromising the
expressive power of the script? Like, the way those SASSAMA/ Bernanke ASCII pictures
were put was somehow "outlawed" later on.

[amaclin]

But the possibility of  pushing large chuncks of plain text in a single transaction
looks like a bug to me.

It is a feature, not a bug
If we disallow this feature (we can not, but hypothetically), somebody would create a tool which posts large data chunks as several small (chained or parallel) transactions.

[trout]

But the possibility of  pushing large chuncks of plain text in a single transaction
looks like a bug to me.

It is a feature, not a bug
If we disallow this feature (we can not, but hypothetically), somebody would create a tool which posts large data chunks as several small (chained or parallel) transactions.

Like I said, if it requires a specialized tool to get it out, then it can be ignored.

I mean, the blockchain probably contains your username already: there's an A at some place, M at some other, etc.
I can publish a tool that finds  it in the blockchain, but the tool would be longer than the piece of data in question (your username).


large chunks of plaintext, on the other hand, is a different matter.

why are you saying it cannot be disallowed?

[amaclin]

why are you saying it cannot be disallowed?

Because this is consensus code. It is too hard to change it, isn't it?

[trout]

why are you saying it cannot be disallowed?

Because this is consensus code. It is too hard to change it, isn't it?

I suppose it depends on how significant  the change. is Whether any
used or potentially useful cases are affected.

If the change is mostly techincal then nobody will care.
Look at BIP 66 voting that is going on now.  Nobody seems to care very much.

[amaclin]

Look at BIP 66 voting that is going on now.  Nobody seems to care very much.

There is only one thing everyone cares. Profit of investments calculated in fiat currency.
So, you are right: nobody cares of the size of blockchain and the number of utxo and malleability and so on while bitcoin gains profits.

[hhanh00]

* The guy who sent the transaction paid the fees for it. Actually, well above the minimum fee required.
* Why should his data be rejected and not color coins, stealth addresses, or any other non bitcoin data? Do we start judging what should be and shouldn't be allowed?
* The data can be pruned since it's part of the sigscript.

[amaclin]

* The guy who sent the transaction paid the fees for it. Actually, well above the minimum fee required.

He paid for it only to a miner who find block.
I am not sure that keeping ( 100 kilobyte ) x ( several thousands fullnodes ) x ( unknown time ) costs less than a couple of dollars.

* Why should his data be rejected and not color coins, stealth addresses, or any other non bitcoin data?

Because the majority can do anything.

Do we start judging what should be and shouldn't be allowed?

Have we stopped doing it?

* The data can be pruned since it's part of the sigscript.

[hhanh00]

* Why should his data be rejected and not color coins, stealth addresses, or any other non bitcoin data?

Because the majority can do anything.

Do we start judging what should be and shouldn't be allowed?

Have we stopped doing it?

I'm glad the majority does not agree with you.

[amaclin]

I'm glad the majority does not agree with you.

Majority of whom does not agree with which proposal?
I am just asking questions and reading opinions.

[tyz]

Does this mean that Bitcoin is pretty vulnerable against vandalism? What happens if someone is pushing giga bytes of text into the blockchain? Does text pushing to the blockchain cost more than a normal transaction?

Also here: https://github.com/petertodd/python-bitcoinlib/blob/master/examples/publish-text.py

Pushing texts to blockchain is some kind of vandalism imho

[samson]

* The guy who sent the transaction paid the fees for it. Actually, well above the minimum fee required.

He paid for it only to a miner who find block.
I am not sure that keeping ( 100 kilobyte ) x ( several thousands fullnodes ) x ( unknown time ) costs less than a couple of dollars.

I can assure you that it does