In a unique twist within the Bitcoin community, a contributor to Taproot Wizards, an art collection using Bitcoin Ordinals, has proposed a method for Bitcoin users to block Ordinals inscriptions. This contributor, known as Rijndael, the pseudonymous chief technology officer of the firm, announced this development in a post on December 26.
Rijndael’s script is designed to make nodes reject any blocks containing Ordinals inscriptions. He explained that if a significant number of nodes adopt this script, miners would be incentivized to work on a blockchain version without these inscriptions, or they would face a smaller market for their mined blocks. Rijndael challenged critics of Ordinals, particularly addressing a user named “GhostOfPashka,” to either use the script or stop their vocal opposition on platforms like Twitter.
Despite this, Glassnode’s lead analyst James Check, known as “Checkmate” online, expressed skepticism about the script’s potential popularity. He suggested that the script is more of a demonstration that those opposing Ordinals are likely in the minority. Using the script would essentially render a node ineffective, as it would block valid transactions. Check described this situation as a “Mexican standoff,” highlighting the complex nature of Bitcoin governance.
Rijndael admitted that the script was simple to create, taking about 15 minutes, and acknowledged that it could be easily bypassed by altering an Ordinal’s fingerprint.
The debate over Ordinals censorship reignited recently when Bitcoin mining firm OCEAN, led by Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr, started rejecting Ordinals transactions. They cited concerns about potential denial-of-service attacks and increased mempool congestion.
The impact of Ordinals on the Bitcoin network is a subject of ongoing debate. One unnamed Bitcoin Core developer suggested to Cointelegraph that predictable mempool congestion caused by Ordinals could actually benefit Lightning Network transactions and users, as it allows for better liquidity allocation off-chain. However, if Ordinals transactions are unpredictable, they could negatively affect the Lightning Network user experience by causing erratic mempool congestion.
With the upcoming 27th version update of Bitcoin Core in 2024, there might be changes to address the Ordinals issue. The developer hinted that a possible solution could involve Ordinals users paying a higher base minimum relay fee, balancing the resource consumption for full-node operators.
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