Unusual Bitcoin messages identified

Thirteen words in English about quartz clocks and stacked blocks are engraved identically in 26 Bitcoin transactions since October 12. Researchers who identified the series are considering the possibility of an AI agent. A message published on X by the Galaxy Research team from the crypto asset manager Galaxy Digital this weekend asked, "26 identical copies so far. What is this?"

Poem's meaning and origin

The poem consists of three verses, "Thoughtless quartz clocks drift / blocks stack each a strict proof / timechain keeps score," which cryptocurrency specialists colleagues Cryptoast translate as "Quartz clocks drift without thinking / blocks stack, each providing a strict proof / the timechain keeps score." The last word, timechain, is the term used by Satoshi Nakamoto at the beginning of Bitcoin to refer to his block chain.

Technical details of the messages

With two copies of a second poem, signed with identical cryptographic keys, the unknown person published 28 messages in twelve days. He moves his money with the regularity of a machine, for almost no cost. Less than ten dollars in mining fees for 28 messages. The sender inserts his text into the blockchain through OP_RETURN.

Blockchain capacity and controversy

With this instruction in the Bitcoin scripting language, anyone can record arbitrary data in a transaction. Each of his copies occupies 103 bytes, while network nodes refused by default until autumn 2025 to relay outputs of more than 83 bytes. Developers of Bitcoin Core raised this limit to 100,000 bytes with version 30 of their software, published in October 2025. For part of the community, Bitcoin should be used for payments and not for storing texts or images, and developer Luke Dashjr has advised against installing this update.

Low-cost transaction method

The author of the poem spends very little, because he constantly recycles a single amount. He sends about 0.327 bitcoin, or around 26,000 dollars, to three addresses of a custody service, retrieves the amount a few hours later, then sends it back with a new copy of the text. Galaxy Research counted 28 deposits and 14 round trips, for only 8,015 satoshis in mining fees in total, or about 6 dollars at the current rate.

Unusual transaction pattern

The service added a single withdrawal of 100,000 satoshis. Each cycle lasts between 13 and 18 hours, and nine cycles have been chained without interruption starting October 19. In the eyes of the researchers, a classic money laundering is therefore unlikely, since the sender only circulates his funds between his wallet and this service.

Hypotheses about the sender

An AI agent equipped with a Bitcoin wallet, one of the hypotheses of Galaxy Research. Without evidence, Galaxy Research makes hypotheses. A platform could artificially inflate the number of deposits it displays, with almost free round trips. The researchers also consider an automated test left running by a developer, whose script would write on the real Bitcoin network instead of a test network.

AI's potential role in Bitcoin

Their last hypothesis is the most strange. Someone would have entrusted a Bitcoin wallet to an autonomous AI agent, with the instruction to make transactions. AI agents capable of moving money do indeed exist. At the end of May, Coinbase launched its Agentic Wallet, with which an AI agent can transfer funds or pay from the owner's account, on a simple written instruction. Asked by Paperjam about liability in case of an agent's error, a spokesperson for the platform warned that its customers were "responsible for what they ask their agents to do."

Testing for automation

The researchers have proposed a simple way to verify automation. According to their calculations, the 27th copy of the poem should appear about 14 hours after the 26th, with 222 satoshis less in fees, if the sender did not change his pace. With a publication at the expected time, the thesis of a program would be strengthened, without the researchers being able to say whether it is a simple script or an AI.

Poem's permanence on the blockchain

The poem is nevertheless accessible to all, for example in block 971,914, and none of its copies can be deleted from the blockchain.