Questions tagged [op-return]

An opcode that allows you to create an unspendable transaction output that stores up to 80 bytes of data.

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3 answers
66 views

Can someone break down what is returned by pybtc?

I am feeding network data to pybtc.Transactions. What I do is I take tx messages (which I understand to only contain a single transaction) and I feed them into pybtc.Transaction but only after ...
1 vote
2 answers
60 views

What are the mean, median, range, limits and trends in the size of coinbase transactions?

I'm attempting to estimate how much "spare capacity" there is for merged mining protocols. As I understand it the scriptSig in the coinbase transaction must be less than 100B. However, the ...
2 votes
1 answer
123 views

Why weren’t Inscriptions possible before taproot by just using OP_RETURN to store the data?

With the recent rise of Inscriptions using the script in the taproot input, why wasn't this possible previously just using OP_RETURN? What is special about the taproot upgrade that made this feasible ...
8 votes
2 answers
685 views

Was the lifting of the Taproot transaction size limit "accidental"? Why would ordinals want to fill a block with OP_RETURNs?

I was reading this Twitter thread from pourteaux. I'm pretty sure there are some inaccuracies in it but I have a couple of questions. He states: Taproot accidentally blew up the old transaction size ...
1 vote
1 answer
72 views

Can any Script opcode be used in the witness program, or only specific ones?

I was wondering, can one use an OP_RETURN in the witness script? If not, why not? Also, how could I figure this out from reading Bitcoin Core source? I looked at this file, and it wasn't quite clear ...
3 votes
2 answers
927 views

Understanding how ordinals work with the Bitcoin blockchain. What is exactly stored on the blockchain?

Supposedly someone uploaded a Doom clone to the bitcoin blockchain: https://ordinals.com/content/521f8eccffa4c41a3a7728dd012ea5a4a02feed81f41159231251ecf1e5c79dai0 But I'm a bit confused on exactly ...
2 votes
1 answer
149 views

Raw data vs information encoded in OP_RETURNs

Imagine I want to fill the 80 bytes of OP_RETURN data with zeroes, so that the resulting data is 640 bits set to 0, or 160 hex digits set to 0. The data is 640 bits but the information encoded is much ...
3 votes
1 answer
125 views

How can I recognize an OP_RETURN transaction looking only at the hex?

Looking at these two transactions for example: tx1 and tx2. tx1 is an OP_RETURN trasaction, tx2 is a normal transaction. raw hex from tx1 (OP_RETURN): ...
1 vote
1 answer
28 views

Can BIP351 notification transactions be discovered via compact client-side block filters?

I have been reading a bit about BIP351 Private Payments. BIP351 uses nulldata outputs (OP_RETURN) to create shared secrets on the blockchain. Could these notification outputs be monitored client-side ...
0 votes
1 answer
41 views

How can I prevent a transaction from being spent

For an academic article I want to know if I can prevent a transaction from being spent at all? I tried to send a transaction with only one output that contains only data (no output address provided) ...
0 votes
2 answers
116 views

How can I query for all OP_RETURN data starting at a specific block height (or hash)

I'm working on a "light client" for ION (Identity Overlay Network), and I'd like to see if there is a better method to grab the OP_RETURN data that it needs in order to build state. ...
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

OP_RETURN in a coinbase transaction?

Hey looking at this transaction I'm confused why there are two outputs and why one of them is labelled with OP_RETURN
8 votes
1 answer
2k views

How does OP_RETURN burn coins?

What exactly causes the output containing OP_RETURN to be unspendable? And why do I have to use the byes after OP_RETURN for keeping data in the blockchain and I can't use bytes before OP_RETURN?
3 votes
1 answer
185 views

Tx with OP_RETURN with 77 bytes of data refused by node

A transaction with a 77 bytes OP_RETURN is refused, but with shorter data (e.g. 74 bytes) is accepted, although up to 80 bytes should work. What is the safe limit to be used? Per these references the ...
2 votes
1 answer
502 views

Segwit: Arbitrary data storage in witness?

Let's say I want to encode the text of the King James version of the Bible into the block chain, one piece at a time (replace this with any zany idea to consume copious quantities of block space). ...
2 votes
1 answer
255 views

What has OP_RETURN been used for over Bitcoin's history?

What has OP_RETURN been used for over Bitcoin's history? How were these use cases enabled?
3 votes
2 answers
241 views

Why isn't it possible to add an OP_RETURN (or some arbitrary script) inside a taproot script path with a descriptor?

I'm reading the Bitcoin Core's descriptor documentation and I noticed that the raw() SCRIPT expression can only be used at descriptor top-level. Indeed when called with this descriptor ...
14 votes
3 answers
7k views

What is a step by step way to insert data in OP_RETURN?

I was following https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=453086.0 for creating a message in OP_RETURN. I am able to decode my raw transaction, but on signrawtransaction it gives error: {"code":-22,"...
64 votes
4 answers
40k views

Explanation of what an OP_RETURN transaction looks like

How is OP_RETURN used and why was it introduced in the first place?
2 votes
1 answer
281 views

What is OP_RETURN b9e11b6d?

While investigating some Bitcoin coinbase transactions, I notice that a lot of them have an output of the form OP_RETURN OP_PUSHBYTES_36 b9e11b6d… where ‘…’ is 32 bytes, probably a hash of something. ...
2 votes
3 answers
5k views

How can I search for OP_RETURN data?

Is there any way to check for this data in blockchain? I want to search this value: 554e6963444320 and want to return this transaction https://blockchain.info/tx/...
0 votes
3 answers
108 views

Different ways in which bitcoin can be burnt

I'm interested in the different ways in which bitcoin can be burnt. I can see three ways: Send coins to a 'made-up' address. There's no way to distinguish it from a real address (so the transaction ...
1 vote
1 answer
158 views

Are OP_RETURN transactions not stored in chainstate database?

I'm running a bitcoin node on regtest. I'm writing scripts to interact with the chain-state database. For my purpose, I'm creating, signing and sending a transaction to my node (pretty much following ...
5 votes
2 answers
453 views

Was Bitcoin 0.3.7 actually hard-forking?

Reading through the wiki (bitcoin.it consensus versions) I noticed that release 0.3.7 ("scriptSig + scriptPubKey evaluations separated") is listed as a hard-forking change. In BitMEX's ...
2 votes
1 answer
119 views

"At first, anyone could spend anyone's coins"?

I've been watching this Bitcoin video: https://youtu.be/ZIugzFygviw?t=294 At the linked-to timestamp, he claims that: Due to bugs, at first, anyone could spend anyone's coins! I'm not saying that I ...
2 votes
1 answer
118 views

What is encoded in the first taproot enabled block?

There are a bunch of encoded messages in the first taproot enabled block in op_return outputs. What is encoded there?
0 votes
0 answers
87 views

Creating an OP_Return TX with Python bitcoinlib

How can I create an op_return TX with python bitcoinlib? The transaction should include the OP_RETURN HEX-Data and an address where I send my change money
4 votes
1 answer
1k views

Bitcoin Protocol OP_RETURN + Omni USDT Tether + CoPay Multisig Help

I have been asked to recover some tether that have been sent to the wrong address... Sitting on the blockchain in a multisig copay account. I have written small php command line tools to reproduce ...
0 votes
2 answers
107 views

How much information can a single taproot output hold?

Does taproot make OP_RETURN obsolete? How much information can I stuff into an output? A tapscript leaf? Is there a max depth to the tapscript tree?
2 votes
3 answers
4k views

Create OP_RETURN tx with Bitcoinjs-lib

I know how to create a basic TX: var bitcoin = require('bitcoinjs-lib') var tx = new bitcoin.Transaction() // Add the input (who is paying) of the form [previous transaction hash, index of the ...
0 votes
2 answers
469 views

Why are OP_RETURN transactions discouraged? Does using version or locktime make any difference?

Why are OP_RETURN transactions discouraged? Are they paying less fees compared to other transactions? Will it make any difference if same thing is done using version or locktime when data is either 1 ...
0 votes
1 answer
74 views

Retrieve number of OP-RETURN transaction

Is there a possible way to extract the bitcoin transaction protocoll with Python and extract specifically OP RETURN transaction? I want to plot the number of those over the course of time to derive ...
0 votes
1 answer
146 views

Accessing bitcoind from python module hits error

I am experimenting with the blockchain a bit, specifically trying to use the python-OP_RETURN module to put a few bytes into the blockchain op_return field. To use this module I blv I need a running ...
12 votes
2 answers
3k views

Is there a maximum size of a scriptSig/scriptPubKey?

Previous research: Transaction's maximum size What is the maximum size of a transaction? The maximum size of a standard transaction is 100k bytes. Are there any consensus rules that prohibit ...
2 votes
1 answer
265 views

Can Taproot be used to commit arbitrary data to chain without any additional footprint?

A common way of committing some data to the chain is through an OP_RETURN with some hash. Doing this marks an output unspendable, but the output still requires some footprint (and cost) on the chain ...
3 votes
2 answers
4k views

What's with this address 1111111111111111111114oLvT2?

It was the burn address with the most BTC received in 2017 according to http://bitcoinwhoswho.com/blog/2017/12/30/8-97-bitcoins-burned-in-2017/. It's Hash160 is ...
0 votes
2 answers
62 views

How is "additional information" stored in the ledger and which blockchain projects don't allow it?

So there have been these rumours going around about child abuse information being stored in the bitcoin ledger, that might make bitcoin illegal to possess. How is this infirmation stored and are ...
1 vote
1 answer
152 views

Why is the source code fee calculated higher than the current bitcoin fee amount?

In python bit (https://github.com/ofek/bit/), when sending a message, it is properly 80 bytes or less (https://developer.bitcoin.org/devguide/transactions.html) fee is If it is a 4-byte character ...
4 votes
4 answers
769 views

What is the currently most efficient and reliable method to store the Bitcoin blockchain in a local database?

I have seen several posts on this before, and have tried all the suggested solutions, but I can't get any of them to work. I am interested in analysing transactions with the OP_RETURN opcode for a ...
4 votes
1 answer
899 views

Do OP_RETURN messages persist on the blockchain?

I've been doing a lot of reading on OP_RETURN, and I want to understand something that still seems unclear. When we create a transaction with OP_RETURN (which I understand will not eternally pollute ...
0 votes
1 answer
226 views

How to send a 100KB OP_RETURN? [closed]

I'm trying to send an OP_RETURN transaction, and the program says that I can't do it because it is over 80 bytes. I would like to send a transaction using OP_RETURN that stores data. There is a site ...
3 votes
4 answers
926 views

Wallets that support 40 byte message attachment via OP_RETURN? Desktop / Mobile?

I see that many new Bitcoin 2.0 apps are making use of the additional OP_RETURN parameter for attaching data. I see that max limit is 40 bytes or roughly 40 characters? My question now regarding ...
1 vote
0 answers
407 views

How to add money to my Bitcoin Wallet and send my first Raw Transaction with OP_RETURN using bitcoin-cli

Background So after reading these two articles (Learning Bitcoin from the Command Line and Mastering Bitcoin), I am trying to piece together how I can get my first transaction with OP_RETURN data ...
1 vote
1 answer
76 views

Send payment and message at the same time

I am using NBitcoin to write some code. I want to send some bitcoin to an address AND include a message with it. The message could say who the payment came from or why it was sent. According to the ...
0 votes
1 answer
179 views

Is OP_RETURN dangerous for Bitcoin?

Please explain something about OP_RETURN to me? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1166928.0 I saw a discussion that the contents of OP_RETURN can open the value of access to the private key. I ...
5 votes
1 answer
746 views

Why does this coinbase transaction have two op_return outputs?

I've been looking at coinbase transactions for fun and I came across one with two op_return outputs.. Does anyone know what the second one is? Also, I understand the first op_return is used to ...
1 vote
1 answer
83 views

What is service or entity broadcasts transactions with OP_RETURN data starting with "LP..."?

There have been quite a few OP_RETURN transactions recently where OP_RETURN data in the scriptPubKey starts with 4c 50 which is LP as ASCII. For example these transactions: - ...
0 votes
1 answer
741 views

How do I broadcast an OP_RETURN transaction using bitcoin cli

I am using Bitcoin Testnet's command line (and GUI). I am curious how, using my own computer and equipment (I already used a faucet) I could send a transaction easily. I tried https://github.com/...
1 vote
1 answer
123 views

In the bitcoin scripting language, how can I access other outputs of the transaction? Or how else can I limit how the coins may be spent?

Is there any way to add an opcode to a UTXO that prevents how the coins are spent? For example, in order to to spend the output, a person must send X number of bitcoin to Y address within the ...
15 votes
1 answer
13k views

How to add additional information to transaction?

I want to add some additional information to my specific transaction, so that I can send the additional information to blockchain.