Erich Erstu on how CryptoGraffiti data mines the blockchain

A big step towards Bitcoin becoming the data carrier of the future will be applications that treat it as such. One company that was jumped into that kind of development early was CryptoGraffiti. Erich Erstu, the developer behind the site, joined CoinGeek’s Becky Liggero during the recent CoinGeek London conference to talk about his site, and why he got into Bitcoin in the first place.

Liggero first asked Erstu what his site is, and what sets it apart from other Bitcoin applications. “I think it is the first very useable service that allows you to save files on the blockchain which includes your personal images, text, whatever,” he explained. “People can do it, and they can read or look at what others have done.”

Visiting the site, it provides a very easy to use, scrollable interface to browse anything going on with the Bitcoin SV (BSV) blockchain in real time. As long as CryptoGraffiti can decipher a transaction in a visible or readable way, it shows up. It also makes writing to the blockchain, for that content that you want to make sure gets saved forever, simple and convenient.

Erstu has had a long time to think about and work with the blockchain. “The backstory dates back to my university years, in the University of Tartu, when I was doing my Masters’ program in software engineering,” he explained. “I had a course in data mining, and one day they handed out the homework for everyone to data mine something, whatever. I was already a big Bitcoin fan, and I immediately saw that Bitcoin’s blockchain was a huge source of data, and we can do all sorts of analyzing there.”

After quickly seeing the potential in Bitcoin, Erstu had the nugget of an idea that would eventually become Cryptograffiti. “I was personally curious to find out secret messages, if anyone has saved them on the blockchain,” he told Liggero.

As they were taking in the conference, Liggero asked what he thought of the gathering. “I have never, in my life, seen so many smart people in one place,” he proclaimed.

If you want to see a lot of smart people too, and join them to talk about BSV, join the CoinGeek Toronto conference, happening between May 29-30. The top minds of Bitcoin will be there, so simply register to join them. You can save money on your entry by using Bitcoin SV via Coingate.