We analyse the usage of OP_RETURN throughout the Bitcoin blockchain, collecting a total of 1,566,192 OP_RETURN transactions. Specifically, we gather all the OP RETURN transactions from the origin block up to the block number 438,000 (added on 2016/11/09).
We investigate to which protocols OP_RETURN transactions belong, identifying 23 distinct protocols (associated to 55% of these transactions). We find that 19% of this total are empty transactions, that use the OP RETURN instruction with no data attached. Finally, the unknown category contains 26% of the OP_RETURN transactions.
This repository contains the experimental data analysed as MySQL dumps.
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The explorer_block.sql dump collects all blocks that contains at least one OP_RETURN transaction. For each block we save:
- hash;
- timestamp.
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The explorer_emptytransactions.sql contains all empty transactions.
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The explorer_unknowntransactions.sql contains all unknown transactions.
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Each remaining dump is dedicated to the transactions of one of the 23 protocols found. For each transaction we save:
- hash of the transaction;
- metadata appended after the OP_RETURN instruction;
- hash of the block containing the transaction.