The Rise of Ordinals Sparks Conflict in the Bitcoin Community
The increasing popularity of Ordinals in 2023 has caused tension among Bitcoin maximalists, particularly due to the rise in transaction fees. However, a contributor to Taproot Wizards claims to have created a script that allows Bitcoin enthusiasts to reject blocks containing Ordinal inscriptions.
Script to Reject Ordinals on Bitcoin
Rijndael, the creator of the script, designed it to encourage nodes to reject blocks with Ordinal inscriptions. If the majority of nodes adopt this stance, miners may choose to build on a chain without inscriptions or sell within a smaller market.
Rijndael openly ridiculed critics of Ordinals on GitHub, stating that “disgusting shitcoiners” were exploiting a bug in Bitcoin. However, he acknowledged that the script could be bypassed by altering an Ordinal fingerprint.
Ordinals Accused of Spam and Scam
While Ordinals have brought new use cases to Bitcoin, they have also caused increased costs and delays for transactions. Transaction fees have surged over 25 times in the past year, leading some Bitcoin maximalists to denounce Ordinal inscriptions as spam, an attack, and a scam.
Bitcoin advocate Adam Simecka even predicted that this trend would result in a hard fork of Bitcoin that would ultimately fail. Prominent figures like Adam Back and Luke Dashjr have voiced their disapproval of Ordinals due to their lack of space efficiency and potential to spam the blockchain.
Dashjr has taken steps to filter out Ordinal transactions from his personal Bitcoin node and mining pool’s node, sparking controversy and accusations of censorship.
Hot Take: The Divide Over Ordinals Intensifies
The emergence of Ordinals in the Bitcoin community has caused a significant divide. While some see them as innovative and valuable, others view them as spam and a misuse of resources. The development of a script to reject Ordinals further fuels the conflict between Bitcoin maximalists and Ordinal enthusiasts.