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Change spelling

I think it is better to say 'a RETURN output' than 'an RETURN output' because RETURN is a word, not an acronym, and begins with a consonant sound.

If it was an acronym then then it would make sense to say 'an R.E.T.U.R.N. output' because it would start with a vowel sound. If it was OP_RETURN then it would also make sense to say 'an OP_RETURN output' because it would start with a vowel sound.
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dimitris-t 2017-01-10 15:47:52 +02:00 committed by GitHub
parent f5aa5d4b21
commit 6777e998ac

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@ -208,7 +208,7 @@ RETURN <data>
The data portion is limited to 80 bytes and most often represents a hash, such as the output from the SHA256 algorithm (32 bytes). Many applications put a prefix in front of the data to help identify the application. For example, the http://proofofexistence.com[Proof of Existence] digital notarization service uses the 8-byte prefix +DOCPROOF+, which is ASCII encoded as +44 4f 43 50 52 4f 4f 46+ in hexadecimal.
Keep in mind that there is no "unlocking script" that corresponds to +RETURN+ that could possibly be used to "spend" an +RETURN+ output. The whole point of +RETURN+ is that you can't spend the money locked in that output, and therefore it does not need to be held in the UTXO set as potentially spendable—+RETURN+ is _provably un-spendable_. +RETURN+ is usually an output with a zero bitcoin amount, because any bitcoin assigned to such an output is effectively lost forever. If an +RETURN+ is referenced as an input in a transaction, the script validation engine will halt the execution of the validation script and marking the transaction as invalid. The execution of +RETURN+, essentially causes the script to "RETURN" with a FALSE and halt. Thus, if you accidentally reference an +RETURN+ output as an input in a transaction, that transaction is invalid.
Keep in mind that there is no "unlocking script" that corresponds to +RETURN+ that could possibly be used to "spend" a +RETURN+ output. The whole point of +RETURN+ is that you can't spend the money locked in that output, and therefore it does not need to be held in the UTXO set as potentially spendable—+RETURN+ is _provably un-spendable_. +RETURN+ is usually an output with a zero bitcoin amount, because any bitcoin assigned to such an output is effectively lost forever. If a +RETURN+ is referenced as an input in a transaction, the script validation engine will halt the execution of the validation script and marking the transaction as invalid. The execution of +RETURN+, essentially causes the script to "RETURN" with a FALSE and halt. Thus, if you accidentally reference a +RETURN+ output as an input in a transaction, that transaction is invalid.
A standard transaction (one that conforms to the +isStandard()+ checks) can have only one +RETURN+ output. However, a single +RETURN+ output can be combined in a transaction with outputs of any other type.