Published on: 2013-09-14T01:10:08+00:00
In September 2013, a proposal was put forward on the Bitcoin-development mailing list to introduce a new payment type called "embed_hash." The purpose of this proposal was to enable the embedding of data in the blockchain as a hash, separate from normal Bitcoin addresses. The idea behind this separation was to enhance the core Bitcoin payments system.The proposal suggested creating a script with a single 20 byte push data, offering optimization opportunities and avoiding the need for indexing Bitcoin addresses that are currently used for data indexing. Jeff Garzik, a Senior Software Engineer at BitPay, provided context for the proposal and shared links to sources supporting the concept of embedding data in the blockchain as a hash.The email thread discussed existing services like Proof of Existence and sx-embed-addr, which enable the embedding of data in the blockchain as a hash. To support this feature, the author proposed the creation of the "embed_hash" payment type, which would be unspendable. By separating this type of Bitcoin usage from the core payment system, improvements could be made.To illustrate the concept further, the author mentioned websites such as www.proofofexistence.com and code repositories like https://github.com/spesmilo/sx/blob/master/src/sx-embed-addr, which facilitate the embedding of data in the blockchain as a hash. The proposed "embed_hash" payment type would utilize a script with a single 20 byte push data, providing optimization options and eliminating the need to index Bitcoin addresses used for data indexing.By implementing the "embed_hash" payment type and separating it from regular Bitcoin addresses, the proposal aimed to improve the overall functionality and efficiency of the core Bitcoin payments system. However, it is worth noting that the email thread ended with an unrelated advertisement for ServiceNow's IT transformation services.
Updated on: 2023-08-01T05:55:20.746009+00:00