Bitcoin developer deems in_ion a technical exploit

In a Dec. 6 article, William Casarin, founder of Nostr Damus and a Bitcoin Core and Lightning Network developer, asserts that inscribing data as Bitcoin script program data is a technical exploit, emphasizing that Bitcoin is not designed for data storage.

Showing solidarity with Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr‘s perspective of inscriptions being a bug, Casarin underscores the broader implications of this issue, tying it to the overall health and decentralization of the Bitcoin network.

Data and preferential treatment

As part of the release titled “Why Inscriptions are an exploit,” Casarin calls out that the intriguing aspect lies in individuals assigning value to images on the Bitcoin blockchain, with non-ideological miners and those indifferent to Bitcoin’s health and decentralization readily paying fees for inclusion

Through his analysis, he concludes that data shouldn’t receive preferential treatment; users must pay the total price, utilizing protocols like op_return and hashes for legitimate data storage in Bitcoin. Casarin also states that his stance is that the current scenario represents a significant data spam exploit, necessitating proactive solutions from Bitcoin developers. He commends ideological developers like Dashjr for prioritizing the network’s health and decentralization, in his statements calling inscriptions a bug that makes it possible for users to spam the blockchain.

His response garnered feedback from the community, with one user stating, “The write transaction is the right to free speech, who are you to classify something as spam or useless information?” and another user sharing, “I think you should probably start preparing to get over it.”

An earlier spike in inscriptions

Bitcoin inscriptions have made headlines throughout 2023, with rising interest in Ordinals

Data from Dune blockchain on July 8 stated that crypto enthusiasts minted a record-breaking 350,000 Bitcoin Ordinals Inscriptions, marking the highest daily count since May 14, in what the Ethereum co-founder called out as the reason behind “renewed builder culture.”