A new internet trend is on the rise: hiding money inside emojis. Sounds incredible? That’s exactly what magic internet money is all about, isn’t it?
“#ecash in emojis? What dimension is this? Finally, the nerds inherit the earth” writes Desert Dave on Nostr. “Can you guys please stop putting ecash into emojis” jokes calle.
magic internet money pic.twitter.com/jAixWQ074W
— calle (@callebtc) March 5, 2025
“There‘s 1,000 sats in this emoji, come find me where the Internet doesn‘t suck” writes L0la.
What are these people doing, how does it work and is it real? Let’s take a look under the hood of this new tech phenomenon.
How To Encode Cashu Tokens Into Memes And Emojis
How does it work? To hide sats (satoshis) inside memes, platforms like MemeAmigo.lol provide tools that combine cryptocurrency and steganography. Here’s how you can achieve this:
- Encoding Cashu Tokens in Memes:
- Use MemeAmigo to encode Cashu tokens (a form of Bitcoin-based token) into memes. This allows you to embed sats directly into an image without altering its visual appearance.
- Adding Secret Messages:
- You can also hide secret messages within memes using tools like @stegosaurus, which specializes in steganography. These messages can only be revealed with the appropriate decryption tool.
- Customizing Memes:
- Upload your own images or choose from collections to create personalized memes.
- Use features like resizing, text highlights, and box deletion for better customization.
- Sharing and Retrieving Hidden Content:
- Once a meme is created with hidden sats or messages, it can be shared like any other image.
- To retrieve the embedded content, the recipient needs the appropriate decoding tool (e.g., @stegosaurus) or https://memeamigo.lol/decode
This process merges humor and financial utility, offering a novel way to store or transfer value discreetly. Using ecash, users are getting creative in sending value over the internet on the form of memes and emoji art.
The Medium Is The Message – Implications of Money Inside Emojis
Hiding money inside memes and emojis sounds like all fun and games. But what are the real world implications? Will this be the final death sentence to central banks, banking cartels and the PayPal mafia?
A small group of early adopters is currently exploring this new internet trend but the real-world effects could be more profound than you’d think.
“RIP to the guys at Chainalysis that now have to scan every single emoji on the planet for a potential bitcoin transaction”, writes user L0la.
Sending money hidden inside emojis and memes does indeed open new possibilities to protect financial privacy and resist corporate surveillance.
X user @CoinsureNZ points out: “Only took 11 years for someone to actually do it” and links to a decade old speech by Andreas Antonopoulos.
In his speech Andreas connects the dots theoretically, years before they could connect in reality. A portion of the transcript is printed below:
“Someone asked me, “Can’t tyrannical governments block or ban the transmission of transactions?” The answer is ‘no,’ but I don’t think people quite understand why the answer is ‘no.’
I will give you a couple of theoretical examples to show what I mean. My first ridiculous example is the encoding of bitcoin transactions as emoticons or emojis.
Skype has a 128-character emoji alphabet allowing you to send various types of facial and hand expressions.
Sunny days, beating hearts, birthday cakes, all of those kinds of things.
Let’s look at that from an information content perspective. Emojis are a character set, right?
As a computer scientist, I look at that and think, ‘I have base128 encoding. ‘With 128 characters, that is base128 encoding.
That is a really efficient encoding scheme. Bitcoin addresses are base58. You can fit 256 bits in just 33 characters.
With base128 encoding, I could send a 250 byte transaction in just over 15 characters. A bitcoin transaction could be fifteen emojis.
I could write a little script. It is probably two lines of Python [code]; if you are really efficient, one line. No libraries needed. I could convert the hexadecimal representation of a 250-byte bitcoin transaction…into 15 of the 128 possible emoticons.
Then I could type that into a Skype window [and send it to anyone, anywhere in the world]. As long as the recipient of that string of 15 [emoticons] types it into a decoder script, and then [broadcasts] it to the Bitcoin network, that transaction will go through [and be confirmed].
The recipient could be a robot at an automated listening station,designed to [decode] 15-character [strings] on Skype, and [broadcast] them to the Bitcoin network. Explain to me how anyone can stop that, other than by shutting down or blocking Skype nationally.
If they shut down Skype, I will use Facebook. If they shut down Facebook, I will use Craigslist. If they shut down Craigslist, I will put my [emoticon string] in a Trip Advisor review. If they shut down Trip Advisor, I will post it as a comment in a [‘Discussion’ page] on Wikipedia. If they shut that down, I will post it in the background of a JPEG image in my holiday snapshots.
Money is now disconnected information content. There is nothing you can do to stop information from travelling to anywhere in the world when you have…an abundance of fully interconnected multi-media communication mechanisms, as we do today.”
“The first checks written out were used by royalty to fund great ventures, like the East India Company, to open the spice roads and trade routes. In those days, only the royals had checkbooks.
Today, if you go into a supermarket, you may see a grandmother (bless her heart) at the front of the line… open up her purse and pull out a checkbook. [Everyone else] in line will groan audibly, as they realize [how long it will take] to write out that transaction.
There is no grandiosity left in a funding [method for] the East India Company when buying beans and toast. It is in the final stage. The only people watching Fox News now are grandparents. [The rest of us] get our news on the internet.
What was once trivial is now our source for authoritative news and information. You can’t explain that to the old guard. We read our books electronically. Some people say, “There is something about the feel of paper.” Yes, but they are too heavy to carry in your bag.
I read about twenty books in four or five weeks, so I need to be able to carry that many. There is nothing about the feel of paper. You are just clinging to the past.
As we move into this world where money is a content type, the gatekeepers of the old payment systems… will cling to the illusion that traditional banking is quality, that quality is inherent in the gatekeeping, the control, the censorship, the limitations. But that is not where the quality is.
We will move on and open up the range of expression that is possible with money… to unimaginable levels which have never happened before.
They will still cling to their ideas of grandiosity, the great old banks with the vaulted ceilings, and the chromed vaults.. [even when] they are empty, but you can go on guided tours on Sunday… to see what banks [once were].
You will go to cities around the world where the great vaults of the old banks are now bars… where you can have a cocktail mixed. Banks can’t even afford to have those buildings anymore, serving no purpose other than grandiosity.
They will still try to persuade you that, through their control, they protect you from evil, from terrorists, from money launderers. But all they are doing is [trying] to protect their incumbency from competition.
We have now separated the message from the medium. Money is now a content type. We will never go back.”
