Bitcoin’s Random-Letter Inscriptions Point to Automated Mainnet Testing

About 40 random-letter inscriptions have appeared on Bitcoin (BTC) each day for three weeks, a pattern consistent with testing a data-publishing tool on the mainnet.

The sample contained 562 strings. Each of the 26 English letters represented between 3.6% and 4.2% of the characters, a pattern that differs from ordinary English text.

Transactions in the activity typically use a single input, generate a fresh change address and include an OP_RETURN data output. Later transactions often spend the previous transaction’s change, creating chains of as many as 86 transactions.

The records range from trial passages and scattered words in several languages to binary data. A later inscription reproduced the U.S. Declaration of Independence. The operator is known as “Babel Scribe.”

The project has moved about 3.33 million satoshis. An estimated 24% went to miner fees, while the remaining funds are still in addresses linked to the activity.