“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.“

Anyone that has spent enough time in Bitcoin knows about this now famous headline. Most know it’s part of the genesis block, the very first block in the Bitcoin blockchain.

But how do you find it? And once you’ve done that, how do you decode it?

Here’s how in 30 seconds:

The key here is coinbase transactions are used by miners to claim the block reward. Since the coins aren’t being unlocked from anywhere, miners can choose whatever they want to put in the scriptsig.

The genesis block is part of Bitcoin Core to ensure that every node starts with the correct block. Here’s where the message is in the code.

Want extra credit? Now that you know what to look for, try retrieving the genesis block from your own node. To protect your privacy, decode it locally on the command line instead of with a website.