In a recent development that has stirred the Bitcoin community, developer Luke Dashjr’s proposal to address the congestion caused by Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens on the Bitcoin network has been met with support and strong opposition.

Dashjr failed to rally enough support for a proposed “bug fix” to the Bitcoin code that would essentially put an end to Ordinals and Inscriptions on the blockchain. Bitcoin developers are split on the matter and without majority consensus, the decentralized nature of the blockchain will not allow any changes to the code.

Core developer Ava Chow eventually ended the meeting, remarking that the PR was “controversial” and the debate had reached a “stalemate.”

She said:

“In its current state, [the PR] has no hope of reaching a conclusion that is acceptable to everyone.”

The “bug fix”

Dashjr, a prominent figure in Bitcoin development, had proposed a solution to “spam filtration” in part of the Taproot transactions, aiming to block Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens, which he described as exploiting a vulnerability in Bitcoin Core.

Dashjr’s stance, while rooted in concerns over network integrity, has sparked debate over the decentralized nature of Bitcoin’s governance. His proposal to implement the fix in Bitcoin Knots v25.1, a derivative of Bitcoin Core that he maintains, has not seen adoption in the upcoming v26 release of Bitcoin Core, with hopes for its inclusion in v27 next year.

Dashjr’s bold claim that “Ordinals never existed to begin with. It’s all fraud” has further fueled the controversy.

The debate

Debate continues to rage among the Bitcoin community on whether Ordinals are a positive or negative force for the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Proponents — including Michael Saylor — argue that Inscriptions and Ordinals are an innovation that has renewed interest in Bitcoin. Supporters claim that the market wants Ordinals and Inscriptions since the rising fees show a clear demand for them.

Proponents argue that Ordinals are the perfect way to beta-test the Bitcoin blockchain for mass adoption. They also highlight that these tokens have created a new revenue stream for miners that will continue to be lucrative long after the last Bitcoin is mined.

Meanwhile, detractors believe that Ordinals are an attack on Bitcoin and could dilute its credibility as “digital gold.” They believe these tokens have caused unnecessary spam and congestion on the blockchain and should not be associated with Bitcoin.

Developer Jimmy Song recently called Ordinals the new altcoin pump and dump scam. He said investors have wisened up to the difference between Bitcoin and all other cryptocurrencies, making it harder for scammers to create honey pots on other chains. Song claimed that scammers now use Bitcoin’s reputation and image to lure investors into new scam coins like Ordinals.

A bug fix on the Bitcoin network could put a stop to new Bitcoin Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens as they’re causing network congestion by “exploiting a vulnerability,” claims a Bitcoin Core developer.

In a Dec. 6 X (Twitter) post, developer Luke Dashjr said inscriptions — used by Ordinals and BRC-20 creators to embed data on satoshi’s — exploit a Bitcoin Core vulnerability to “spam the blockchain.”

He explained the Bitcoin Core code has allowed users to set limits on the size of extra data in transactions since 2013, but “by obfuscating their data as program code, inscriptions bypass this limit.”

PSA: “Inscriptions” are exploiting a vulnerability in #Bitcoin Core to spam the blockchain. Bitcoin Core has, since 2013, allowed users to set a limit on the size of extra data in transactions they relay or mine (`-datacarriersize`). By obfuscating their data as program code,…

— Luke Dashjr (@LukeDashjr) December 6, 2023

The bug allowing inscriptions to bypass this limit was recently fixed in the latest update to Bitcoin Knots, a Bitcoin Core derivative with less tested or untested features backported from and sometimes maintained outside of the core code.

Another X user asked if Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens “would stop being a thing” if the vulnerability was fixed to which Dashjr replied, “Correct.” Existing inscriptions would still remain,

“Bitcoin Core is still vulnerable in the upcoming  v26 release,” he said. “I can only hope it will finally get fixed before v27 next year.”

On Dec. 6, the decentralized mining protocol Ocean — where Dashjr is chief technology officer — said on X that the Bitcoin Knots upgrade “fixes this long-standing vulnerability exploited by modern spammers.”

We are happy to announce testing of Bitcoin Knots v25.1 has completed successfully, and is now deployed to production. Among other improvements, this upgrade fixes this long-standing vulnerability exploited by modern spammers. As a result, our blocks will now include many more… https://t.co/II3y0B6Pu4

— OCEAN (@ocean_mining) December 6, 2023

As a result of the update, Ocean said its blocks will now include “more real transactions” and implied Ordinals inscriptions are a denial-of-service attack  on the Bitcoin network,” it said

Related: Bitcoin Ordinals see resurgence from Binance listing

Dashjr is vehemently opposed to Ordinal inscriptions and claimed the “damage it’s doing to Bitcoin and Bitcoin users (including future users) […] is huge and irreversible.”

“Nobody ever allowed ordinals. It’s been an attack on Bitcoin from the start,” he claimed in another post.

The Ordinals protocol was launched in January 2023 by Casey Rodarmor, enabling users to “inscribe” data and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) onto satoshis — the smallest unit denomination of Bitcoin (BTC).

The Bitcoin network has seen heightened congestion over the past few days due to inscriptions and BRC-20 token minting.

According to mempool.space, there are more than 275,000 unconfirmed transactions and average medium-priority transaction costs have increased to around $14 from roughly $1.50.

Magazine: Ordinals turned Bitcoin into a worse version of Ethereum: Can we fix it?