TD Ameritrade has planted an ASCII flag – that is, an advertisement – earlier on this bitcoin's blockade.

The online broker has announced that he has sent 68 bitcoin transactions to create a digital flag with his logo on the bitcoin Blockchain, published in the last weekend.

The company uses the OP_Return feature in the bitcoin's protocol to insert the characters, causing 68 invalid transactions. Due to the nature of the blockchain, this flag is now preserved forever on the cryptocurrency ledger.

"We love finding new ways to use emerging technologies, so we decided to have a little fun and plant our flag. Okay, technically, we embedded it," he said. the broker said and added:

"With a portion of the block name called OP_Return, which functions as a checkbox on a check, simple messages and characters can be placed in transactions on the blockade. By 68 individual transactions to connect with 80 characters per transaction, we could create the bigger picture. "

No bitcoins were actually transferred by these transactions, according to data from Blockchain.info.

OP_Return was introduced for the first time in 2013 as a way users can include certain messages in the blockchain. However, the Bitcoin Core 0.9 release said, in particular, that developers do not endorse the data storage in the blockchain, saying that "the storage of random data in the blockchain is still a bad idea. It's less expensive and a lot more efficient to disrupt non-currency data elsewhere. "

The official bitcoin wiki page indicates that OP_Return can be used to transfer information.

"We are proud to be part of it. Forever," the broker wrote.

TD Ameritrade image via Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock

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