Developer Says Ordinals Are Exploiting a “Vulnerability” to Spam Bitcoin Network, Proposes Bug Fix

cryptonews.com:

Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr has proposed a bug fix to potentially alleviate the network congestion caused by new Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens. 

In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), Dashjr claimed that these tokens are taking advantage of a vulnerability within the Bitcoin Core code, resulting in an influx of transactions that “spam the blockchain.”

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

Dashjr explained that the Bitcoin Core code has featured the ability for users to set limits on the size of additional data in transactions since 2013. 

However, by disguising their data as program code, inscriptions used by Ordinals and BRC-20 creators can bypass this limit. 

The bug allowing inscriptions to surpass the data size limit has recently been addressed in the latest update to Bitcoin Knots, a Bitcoin Core derivative that incorporates features backported from the core code.

Responding to a question on social media regarding the future of Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens once the vulnerability is fixed, Dashjr confirmed that these tokens would no longer be viable. 

However, existing inscriptions would remain intact. 

He expressed concern that the vulnerability persists in the upcoming v26 release of Bitcoin Core, hoping that it would be resolved before the v27 release next year.

Ocean, a decentralized mining protocol where Dashjr serves as the chief technology officer, also acknowledged the significance of the Bitcoin Knots upgrade. 

In a