The halving is Bitcoin's closest thing to a public holiday: a scheduled, unmissable event that happens roughly every four years when the reward paid to miners is cut in half. The blocks immediately around it are prime real estate, and people pay to get a message in.

What they write is not, on the whole, about monetary policy. It is birthday wishes, marriage promises, in-jokes, and greetings to whoever might be reading in the future. The 2020 halving arrived during the first months of the pandemic, and the messages show it — several are simply asking for the virus to go away.