First Messaging Contract - Frontier Era Bytecode Verification

Bytecode verification of 0x3a2c6e618b72f2047f5be10570582d41840b8e78, the first known decentralized messaging contract on Ethereum mainnet.

Deployed at block 54,969 on August 8, 2015 - Frontier Day 1. Its only two transactions are the deployment and a single sendMessage("hello2!") call to the deployer's own address.

Contract Details

Field	Value
Address	0x3a2c6e618b72f2047f5be10570582d41840b8e78
Block	54,969
Date	August 8, 2015
Deployer	0x8674c218F0351a62C3BA78C34FD2182A93Da94E2

Verification

Creation bytecode input = 19-byte deployment stub + 1,574-byte runtime.

The runtime extracted from the creation transaction matches the on-chain deployed code byte-for-byte.

Method: Deployment transaction bytecode analysis (creation tx runtime == on-chain code)

Transaction History

Only 2 transactions ever:

1. Block 54,969 - Deployment
2. Block 54,971 - sendMessage("hello2!") from deployer to themselves

Source Code

Best reconstruction. The original Solidity source was not recovered - 3 of 8 function selectors remain unidentified after exhaustive brute-force search.

// Reconstruction - 3 of 8 function selectors remain unidentified
// Verified via deployment transaction (creation tx runtime == on-chain code)
contract MessageStore {
    struct Message {
        uint64 timestamp;
        string content;
    }

    uint nonce;
    mapping(address => mapping(bytes32 => Message)) messages;
    mapping(address => bytes32[]) inbox;

    function sendMessage(address recipient, string message) {
        nonce++;
        bytes32 key = bytes32(block.timestamp);
        messages[recipient][key].timestamp = uint64(block.timestamp);
        messages[recipient][key].content = message;
        inbox[recipient].push(key);
    }

    function getMessageContents(bytes32 key) constant returns (string) {
        return messages[msg.sender][key].content;
    }

    // selector 0xfe1e3eca
    function deleteMessage(bytes32 key) {
        messages[msg.sender][key].timestamp = 0;
        delete messages[msg.sender][key].content;
        for (uint i = 0; i < inbox[msg.sender].length; i++) {
            if (inbox[msg.sender][i] == key) {
                delete inbox[msg.sender][i];
            }
        }
    }
}

Functions (8 total)

Selector	Name	Status
(known)	sendMessage(address,string)	Identified
(known)	getMessageContents(bytes32)	Identified
(known)	nonce()	Identified
(known)	messages(address,bytes32)	Identified
0xfe1e3eca	deleteMessage(bytes32)	Identified
0x0a936fe5	unknown	Unidentified
0x15853113	unknown	Unidentified
0x39bfc4a1	unknown	Unidentified

Compiler

• Version: solc v0.1.1 (inferred from bytecode patterns)
• Commit: v0.1.1+commit.6ff4cd6a
• Repo: https://github.com/ethereum/webthree-umbrella

Historical Context

This is the earliest known decentralized messaging contract on Ethereum mainnet. Deployed on Frontier Day 1, it demonstrates that developers were building communication infrastructure on the very first day of the network.

The deployer (0x8674c218F0) was funded by genesis holder 0x32be343b, who funded multiple serious developers on Frontier Day 1. The deployer tested the contract immediately by sending "hello2!" to themselves, then never used it again.

Part of Ethereum History - Proofs.

License

CC0 1.0 - Public domain.