Quote from: jimbursch on July 24, 2013, 05:08:28 PM

I may need to put this in another topic, but I'm not clear on what a "signed message" is.

My understanding is that a message can be included in a transaction, which goes into the block chain. Is this what you are referring to as a "signed message"?

No that is a transaction and you can't (without some really bad hacks) include a message in a transaction at least not in any standardized easy to decode method.

Transactions are not messages. Messages are not transactions.

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Is there such a thing as a signed message that is not part of a transaction in the block chain?

Signed messages are never part of a transaction and never added to the blockchain.

The client has the ability to sign any arbitrary text. Once again this has absolutely nothing to do with transactions.