Bitcoin ordinals are here and apparently to stay. But not everyone is happy with his presence. Because ordinals increase traffic on the blockchain, experienced HODLers and those accustomed to using Bitcoin solely for its primary purpose (transactions) have raised concerns about the congestion these digital artifacts could be causing.
With this in mind, it is not surprising that when independent developer and founder of Taproot Wizards, Udi Wertheimer orchestrated on purpose the largest block and largest transaction in Bitcoin history, the keepers of lore were not thrilled. But for industry disruptors like him, maximizing the block size of BTC and its corresponding effects is not a cause for controversy but rather a cause for celebration.
Because? Because it means that innovation is still possible on the world’s first blockchain.
Blockchain congestion: a good problem to have?
Network congestion is almost universally understood to be a problem. Congestion leads to slower transaction speeds, higher power demands, higher fees, and ultimately a decrease in usability. However, without a problem, there can be no solution. Recently, the crypto industry witnessed Ethereum’s power consumption drop to almost 99.99 percent thanks to the long-awaited merger. But before the change, congestion needed to be addressed in other ways.
Ethereum survived for years before merging from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake with the help of layer-two solutions like the Polygon blockchain that helped process transactions outside the main network. While Bitcoin surely doesn’t need the same level of salvation that a merger or other hotfix could provide, with congestion increasing, layer two may act as a saving grace once again.
Currently, the blockchains adjacent to BTC, such as the internet computer (PIC), batteries, and others, have the potential to alleviate the problems plaguing Bitcoin as a result of Ordinals. By withdrawing transactions from the main Bitcoin network, which can just complete seven transactions per second, unlike ICP, which can run 11,500 — these blockchains help to loosen the grip that Ordinals is gaining. But while this act, at first glance, could be read as a huge win for BTC, these two tiers will also benefit as a result.
While congestion can inhibit Bitcoin, it brings opportunities for developers, especially those working with layer two, in the form of users and liquidity. Batteries alone have already seen a significant increase in the price of its native token, STX, as a direct result of Ordinals’ handling of traffic. And who is to say that more profit cannot be made from the current difficulties being felt in Bitcoin? This is precisely the thinking of those like Wertheimer, who feel it pays to push the boundaries.
Congestion as a catalyst for change
Wertheimer believes that rules must be broken and the status quo challenged to spark renewed interest in innovation on the Bitcoin blockchain. While he believes the Bitcoin community once agreed with this statement, he feels it has lost momentum, with the unique, creative and humorous culture once established by early crypto adopters now transferred to the NFT space.
“I feel like the Bitcoin community, in the last two or three years, has been very dismissive of everything that has been going on in cryptocurrency. I think that’s wrong. I think it’s very different from what the Bitcoin culture used to be,” Wertheimer said in an interview with nft now. “Bitcoin culture used to be very open, very experimental. People were interested in trying things that had never been tried before, even if they didn’t know if it would work.”
Through Taproots Wizards, which Wertheimer launched via the aforementioned larger-than-life 4MB Bitcoin block, Wertheimer hopes to reignite that flame of innovation.
While Wertheimer is undoubtedly moving to bring the excitement back to Bitcoin, as illustrated by Taproots Wizard’s “Make Bitcoin Magical Again” tagline, he says his secondary goal is to remind developers that failure is a necessary part of growth. . Now seen as something of an outlier to the traditional Bitcoin community thanks to the hand he played in network congestion, and that exists between NFT and BTC, he hopes to communicate a simple idea: if anything is possible on the blockchain. , why not give it a try?
“The statement we’re trying to make is: whatever the Bitcoin protocol allows us to do, we’ll do it. Even if something is potentially harmful, by doing it, we’ll learn what the issues are and then, if necessary, we’ll fix them,” Wertheimer said. “It is not possible to have software that is completely perfect. I think a much better approach to life, and Bitcoin as well, is that failures and mistakes are going to happen, but they have to be accepted because that’s how you correct your path. This is how progress is made in all fields”.
Although ordinals are far from being accepted by the larger Bitcoin community, thanks to Wertheimer’s actions, new conversations are happening on the most secure blockchain in the world. While some might argue against fixing something that isn’t broken, as Web3 demonstrated, stagnation is becoming less and less tenable. To make the proverbial metaverse omelette, eggs must be cracked, and beyond NFTs, according to Wertheimer, it all starts with Bitcoin.
