The much-anticipated bitcoin halving occurred Tuesday morning with a little twist – It arrived with a secret message.
The secret message was included in the last block before the halving, by F2Pool, a major mining pool that specializes in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. F2Pool mined block 629999 on May 11 at exactly 19:23. It was the last block to carry a 12.5 BTC reward.
Block 629999 was the last block with a 12.5 BTC reward. The message “NYTimes 09/Apr/2020 With $2.3T Injection, Fed’s Plan Far Exceeds 2008 Rescue” was embedded in the block data.
The message is a reference to an article posted by the New York Times on April 9. According to the article, the Federal Reserve pumped up to $2.3 trillion into the economy in response to the Covid-19 crisis.
In 2008, financial deregulation triggered a global financial crisis that crippled the world economy, causing the Federal Reserve to have a similar reaction. Analysts see this message as a warning of an approaching financial crisis.
The halving happens once in four years, and sees Bitcoin’s block rewards cut by 50%. The event is bitcoin’s unique way of controlling inflation. Although this is bitcoin’s third halving, it is the first time a secret message was embedded at a halving.
Image Credits: Pixabay
