Is Ordinals ‘spam’ for the Bitcoin network? This core dev thinks so…

Bitcoin [BTC] Ordinals has been a breather to the main blockchain network, spurring transactions and extra fees.

Interestingly, the cumulative fees spent on Ordinals have surged exponentially post-U.S. spot BTC ETFs (Exchange-traded Funds) amidst the bull run. 

However, some key players in the core network have contrarian opinions about Ordinals and their impact.

According to Luke Dash Jr, Bitcoin network core developer, CTO, and Chairman of Ocean Mining, Ordinals are detrimental to the network. 

In a recent interview, Dash Jr stated that;

“Everybody who’s adopted Bitcoin has agreed to its monetary use case and financial transactions.”

He cautiously added that;

“Everybody has not agreed to storing other data, processing altcoin stuff. That’s not even part of Bitcoin, like the Ordinals and Inscriptions. So the fact that there’s no unanimous support for these things means that they are spam.”

Keeping Bitcoin Ordinals off the main network

He went ahead and stated a possible solution to enable these features without directly spamming the core network.

“It’s possible to put these things on a new blockchain that is even tied to Bitcoin, and people can opt into that.”

However, Dash noted that forcing Ordinals and Inscriptions on other people directly attacks the Bitcoin network.

“But the only reason to be putting it into Bitcoin’s main blockchain is if the intention is to attack Bitcoin and force this on some people who do not consent.”

Despite the criticism, the space has heated up. At the time of writing, BTC NFTs crossed $2B in market capitalization, according to Coingecko data.

Some trending projects were Runestones and Bitcoin Puppets.