The full text of the United States Constitution was permanently recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain late Thursday night. The transaction, sent at 8:25 p.m. UTC on May 28, 2026, embedded the entire document inside a single 44.4-kilobyte OP_RETURN output — far larger than anything previously possible on the network. The sender paid 113,454 satoshis (roughly $83.41) in fees and left no name or explanation. Mining pool SpiderPool confirmed the block 14 minutes later.
How the inscription worked
Bitcoin Core v30, released in mid-2025, removed the old 80-byte limit on OP_RETURN data and scrapped the one-OP_RETURN-per-transaction rule. That change — combined with SegWit and Taproot — let this single transaction store the Constitution's roughly 4,500 words directly on-chain. Without v30, the same data would have required dozens of transactions or a different protocol entirely.
Who sent it — and why
The sender remains unknown. No identity, no statement, no manifesto attached to the transaction. That silence is itself notable. Inscriptions of political or historical documents have happened before on other blockchains, but a U.S. Constitution upload to Bitcoin is a first. The choice of a Wednesday evening, with no accompanying message, suggests either a deliberate symbolic gesture or a technical test. Either way, the document will sit on the ledger permanently.
A pending proposal that could prevent a repeat
Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 444, still pending, would roll back the expanded OP_RETURN capacity to its old 83-byte ceiling. If BIP-444 is adopted, transactions like this one — storing entire texts — would become impossible. The proposal has reignited a long-running debate: is Bitcoin a pure monetary network, or can it accommodate non-financial data? Thursday's inscription gives both sides fresh ammunition. The next Bitcoin Core release, expected later this year, may settle the question — at least until the next round of protocol upgrades.
