Interesting Transactions from F2Pool

I noticed recently that every block mined by F2Pool has this weird transaction. The input is from an address 1JRhv7zRN9xCyTntYT5nuupg7JMsE7YocL. The output includes an OP_RETURN which seems to have no real purpose, plus some tiny dust outputs to random addresses or maybe a black hole. And what’s wild is that the fee is zero. Anyone know what this is about?

Actually, those fees aren’t zero. They're just super low from what I see on block explorers. The OP_RETURN part makes those transactions unspendable, and it was introduced to help keep the size of transactions down by limiting messages being added. Pretty clever if you ask me.

Yeah, I heard they’re also doing some work with the Stacks Blockchain while they mine Bitcoin. For example, that zero-fee transaction links back to an Anchor transaction ID for a Stacks block. It’s all connected somehow. Check out this link to see what I mean.

Oh wow, I get it now! That makes sense with how they’re using these transactions. Thanks for breaking it down!