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A comment on Hidden surprises in the Bitcoin blockchain and how they are stored.

Re:Hidden surprises in the Bitcoin blockchain and how they a... by SippinLean on Saturday August 23, 2014 @07:28PM (#8217170)
>It is well known that the Genesis block...contains the message: 'The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks'. Presumably this is a political commentary

Actually, it was the way Satoshi showed that he hadn't pre-mined any bitcoins, by using the title of a headline on the same day that he started mining (as there was no way to fake that).

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Re:Hidden surprises in the Bitcoin blockchain and how they a... by mikeash on Saturday August 23, 2014 @09:29PM (#8217375)
Surely it's both? Embedding a headline is a great way to prove it wasn't generated in advance, but there are thousands of headlines he could have used, and he picked that particular one.
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Re:Hidden surprises in the Bitcoin blockchain and how they a... by wyager on Saturday August 23, 2014 @09:35PM (#8217385)
>Actually, it was the way Satoshi showed that he hadn't pre-mined any bitcoins,

I doubt it. He could have picked any news article, or the winning lottery numbers, or anything of that sort.

It's extremely unlikely that a headline about bank/government collusion, stuffed into the genesis block, was chosen "just because".

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