Summary
- A Bitcoin user, who remains anonymous, has recorded the complete text of the U.S. Constitution onto the Bitcoin blockchain.
- This was made possible due to the OP_RETURN output field and the removal of a byte limit last year.
- The user incurred a transaction fee of approximately $83 for this inscription, but their identity is still unknown.
Members of the cryptocurrency community can now read the entire U.S. Constitution directly from the Bitcoin blockchain.
This accomplishment was achieved late Thursday when an unidentified user inscribed the text of the document onto the immutable blockchain, ensuring its availability as long as the network operates.
The transaction, which measured 44.4 kilobytes—a considerable size for Bitcoin—cost the user around $83.41 in fees, as reported by a blockchain explorer.
In contrast, simpler Bitcoin transactions around the same time, such as a transfer of approximately 0.01 BTC, were only 227 bytes in size, roughly 0.5% of the inscription’s size. Even with more than a 105-fold overpayment, that transaction cost just $17, which is about 20% of the cost of the Constitution’s inscription.
Nothing says freedom like paying 83 bucks to etch the constitution into a blockchain forever
— Macro Bombastic (@MacroBombastic) May 29, 2026
This inscription utilized Bitcoin’s “OP_RETURN” output field, enabling users to append data to transactions. Last year’s change that lifted the byte limit allowed for this large inscription.
The change sparked significant debate among Bitcoin developers, with proponents viewing it as a way to enhance the network by accommodating more use cases, while critics argued it shifted the network's original focus from financial transactions to data storage.
Following the removal of the byte limit, a proposal has been suggested to address arbitrary data usage.
Inscriptions on Bitcoin are not a new phenomenon, having gained major traction in 2023, which led to the mempool reaching unprecedented levels since data tracking began.
Before this surge, there was considerable interest in Bitcoin Ordinals, akin to NFTs on Bitcoin, which sparked extensive discussions about blockspace as transaction fees surged and congestion
Similar to the Constitution inscription, Bitcoin’s Ordinals standard has facilitated the addition of images, text, games, and audio to the Bitcoin blockchain. For instance, a social media post from a compromised account of former SEC Commissioner Gary Gensler supporting Bitcoin ETFs in 2024 has been permanently inscribed on the network.
The motivation behind spending $83 to inscribe the U.S. Constitution remains unclear, as no individual has come forward to take credit for the action.
The U.S. Constitution, one of the nation's most significant documents, has historical ties to the cryptocurrency world, having been signed shortly after America declared independence in 1776.
In 2021, ConstitutionDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) formed by a group with a common objective, raised over $45 million in an attempt to purchase a rare copy of the Constitution at auction. Ultimately, the now-defunct organization lost to billionaire Ken Griffin.