OP_Return has never been the main way to embed data into Bitcoin. Actual data embedding at scale has always used other techniques. For example:
https://github.com/petertodd/python-bitcoinlib/blob/master/examples/publish-text.py
Peter Todd
npub1ej…3ndrm
2023-12-10 20:45:34
in reply to naddr1qq…zn0j
Author Public Key
npub1ej493cmun8y9h3082spg5uvt63jgtewneve526g7e2urca2afrxqm3ndrmPublished at
2023-12-10 20:45:34Event JSON
{
"id": "5645910a2b67b10e2a2dd5eaa4b8a880d472c921bd9a884220f4d32c2fe5ca17",
"pubkey": "ccaa58e37c99c85bc5e754028a718bd46485e5d3cb3345691ecab83c755d48cc",
"created_at": 1702241134,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"p",
"e1ff3bfdd4e40315959b08b4fcc8245eaa514637e1d4ec2ae166b743341be1af"
],
[
"a",
"30023:e1ff3bfdd4e40315959b08b4fcc8245eaa514637e1d4ec2ae166b743341be1af:1702234493232",
"",
"root"
],
[
"r",
"https://github.com/petertodd/python-bitcoinlib/blob/master/examples/publish-text.py"
]
],
"content": "OP_Return has never been the main way to embed data into Bitcoin. Actual data embedding at scale has always used other techniques. For example:\n\nhttps://github.com/petertodd/python-bitcoinlib/blob/master/examples/publish-text.py",
"sig": "a89f57dbdeea6328ba38ad78ae35a8f071ae028525317ea6a2f4eeae20a1099271ee8b4e314ff6b34fbff3c4564d2ac0e5a3fbaa61e8c0220c1d5d4756252307"
}