First page of the U.S. Constitution, used for a Bitcoin OP_RETURN inscription story.

Someone Just Etched the Entire U.S. Constitution Into Bitcoin

By Isaac • May 29, 2026 8:53 pm • Comments

An anonymous Bitcoin user inscribed the full text of the U.S. Constitution directly into the blockchain. The transaction confirmed on May 28 at 8:25 p.m. UTC in block 951,492.

The cost was 113,454 sats, roughly $83.41. The transaction came in at 44.4 kilobytes, far heavier than a routine transfer.

Nobody has claimed responsibility. The document now sits in Bitcoin’s permanent record, readable by anyone who pulls up the transaction.

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The first OP_RETURN output begins with the hex for “THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION.” From there the full text follows, etched into a ledger that no one can quietly edit or delete.

The text copied into Bitcoin begins with the same opening preserved by the National Archives:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

Bitcoin Magazine first reported the inscription in a post that carried the story’s key fact:

Bitcoin Magazine described the transaction as 44.4 kilobytes, far larger than a standard Bitcoin transfer.

Decrypt also traced the inscription to an anonymous Bitcoin user and linked the confirmed transaction record.

That permanence is the whole point. The founding document of the republic now lives on the hardest, most censorship-resistant ledger ever built, and no government or company can take it down.

There is something fitting about it. A charter written to limit power, parked on a network designed to resist control.

The reaction online caught the irony and the charm of the moment:

One thing to keep straight: this is an OP_RETURN inscription, not a legal or official act. The Constitution’s authority does not change because someone copied its text into a transaction.

What made the stunt possible is the bigger story. Bitcoin Core’s version 30 release loosened the limits on how much arbitrary data a transaction can carry.

The Bitcoin Core 30.0 release notes say -datacarriersize increased to 100,000 by default.

Before v30, a stunt like this would have run into much tighter relay rules. After v30, a 44.4 KB inscription sails through and confirms.

That shift has split the community. Some see Bitcoin as money first and want the base layer kept lean. Others say a fee market is a fee market, and if you pay, your data confirms.

The pushback has a name. A draft called BIP-444, the “Reduced Data Temporary Softfork,” would rein the limits back in.

The BIP-444 draft would temporarily limit data fields at the consensus level.

BIP-444 would restore an 83-byte OP_RETURN cap and curb large arbitrary data on the chain. The Constitution inscription is exactly the kind of transaction it aims to stop.

So this is two stories at once. A patriotic novelty that put the founding charter on the world’s most durable ledger, and a working example of the data-storage fight now playing out across Bitcoin.

For $83, an anonymous user made both arguments at the same time.

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