CoinSpark

CoinSpark

A coloured-output asset protocol whose default route moves units with no CoinSpark bytes at all: the most extreme free-ride measurement recorded.

CoinSpark 0.00 % of the chain's bytes in Book A, as of block 972,299, 2026-10-20 09:30:48 UTC

CoinSpark is a ledger-protocol family in BTI's token table. Its tokens are CoinSpark assets, each identified by an asset ref; in case 19 of the BTI case studies, the ref is the genesis txid. BTI is its indexer: it is a native protocol, read by BTI's own coinspark decoder.

How CoinSpark writes to Bitcoin #

CoinSpark messages ride OP_RETURN outputs. A genesis message carries the marker 53504b67, "SPKg". In case 19, the retry genesis's OP_RETURN output is 51 bytes: 11 bytes of framing and a 40-byte payload.

Besides its own genesis and transfer operations, units can move by the default route, which, in the roster's words, "moves units in txs with no CoinSpark bytes".

How BTI attributes its bytes #

The decoder runs in replay mode, as a coloured-OUTPUT walk. Ruling U4 names CoinSpark's per-claimant sub-spans as a deliberate finer decomposition of a shared carrier (B30(2)/B23), and CoinSpark is one of the protocols converged onto BTI's single Book B convention (B38).

A unit moved by the default route wrote no CoinSpark byte, so its claim declares only the carrying structure, with dedication None. Such a claim is judged carriage: measured in full, zero in every book in the default mode. Case 18 shows it on a 423-byte transaction: an Open Assets issuance with CoinSpark units drifting through. The CoinSpark claim's 170 declared bytes go to carriage, and Open Assets keeps 253.

The token table says CoinSpark "conserves, custody drifts", and that its validation asterisk is a bound on supply (B8). Supply deltas gate on recorded validity, while claims gate on the claim gate alone (B4a).

The failed genesis #

Case 19 is CoinSpark's first on-chain bytes, at block 308,878. The genesis underpaid the protocol's minimum fee, so CoinSpark's own rules voided it and no asset ever existed. With no token there is no claim, and CoinSpark is not on the allowlist for attempted claims, so its 888 bytes are residue: measured demand, claimed by nobody. The retry in the next block worked. Its claim is riding, because one output was a leg no protocol rule required; it keeps 514 bytes in Books A and B, and the unnamed 34-byte output stays unattributed.

The free-ride index: three regimes #

The July 2026 measurement run recorded "a three-regime collapse: 1.00 → 0.91 → 0.09" in CoinSpark's free-ride index (Book B ÷ Book A). Measured separately, its regimes read: genesis 0.913, dedicated transfer 0.963, protocol-unaware carriage 0.405, with a per-claim floor of 0.026. In its late regime CoinSpark moved token state by the default route, with no carrier bytes at all, "so almost everything it claims under the inclusive book is somebody else's payment". The measurements document calls it "the most extreme free-ride measurement recorded". See carriage and the free-ride index.

Findings of the August review #

The BTI protocol review of 2026-08-29 found that 99.58 % of CoinSpark's claims were default-route drift declared None, which is why its operation count is so large beside its bytes. It also found that 29.3 % of the bytes inside CoinSpark's own carrier transactions reached no book: carriage co-claimants enter the divisor and are then zeroed, so the dedicated claimant keeps only its share. And the decoder's own log printed footprint and undivided union under the headings "Book A" and "Book B": 980,710,160 bytes, against 1,999,031 bytes in the books.

Live figures #

CoinSpark holds 1,999,031 bytes in Book A, and 0 in Book C. The books count 1,649 assets across 2,785,647 operations, from block 308879 to 972263 (as of block 972,299, 2026-10-20 09:30:48 UTC).

Sources #

Live figures: protocols as of block 972,299, 2026-10-20 09:30:48 UTC. Refreshed hourly.