Quote from: helloworld on August 30, 2011, 11:14:41 AM

Quote from: EricJ2190 on August 29, 2011, 05:03:43 PM

Quote from: helloworld on August 29, 2011, 02:16:13 PM

Why does the blockchain format accommodate arbitrary text anyway? Who's idea was that? Mr Nakamoto.

If there's currently space for random text, couldn't the blockchain just be smaller instead?

It would be very difficult to prevent arbitrary text since it needs to store arbitrary data. A standard address is just a sequence of 20 bytes. What is stopping anyone from making those bytes an ASCII string?

Sorry, can you help me learn why "it needs to store arbitrary data"?

Why was the space made available when the format was created?

Was it to store 20-byte addresses?

Are they 'to' or 'from' addresses, or something else?

Where exactly can I read the technical details of why things were designed this way?

Thanks!

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Protocol_specification

see the transaction structures.
and also the scripting.