Amid the controversy surrounding the Ordinals project and the debate over what types of data should be stored on the Bitcoin blockchain, the network mined its largest block, at nearly 4MB, containing only 63 transactions. One of the transactions was a 3.94MB ordinal inscription with the image of a magician, and the non-fungible token (NFT) issued by Bitcoin has generated significant debate.
Small Block Advocates Speak Out Against 4MB Bitcoin Block With NFT Inscription
On February 1, 2023, the Luxor mining pool mined the largest block (#774,628) ever registered on the Bitcoin network, approximately 3.96 MB. The block’s coinbase parameter contains a message indicating its discovery by Luxor. The mining pool also took to Twitter to inform the community about the discovery and the reason for the large block size.
“Last night, Luxor harnessed its magical energy and freed an ancient wizard from his cosmic cage where he had been trapped for many ages,” the mining pool tweeted. “Enthusiastic observers of the time chain may have noticed a 4MB anomaly, unlike anything seen before. Will there be others? The tweet also included an image of the “Taproot Wizard”, a ordinal inscription #652, attached to the block. Taproot, a feature applied to the Bitcoin network on November 12, 2021, was activated at block height 709 632 and brought several new benefits to BTC users
A 3.96 MB block #774628 has just been added to Bitcoin by @LuxorTechTeam exploiting taproot with bugs! The previous record was only 2.77 MB. Here is the list of the largest blocks: https://t.co/LsavqjLFEq
This will trigger many! Are we on the verge of a new block war? 🤓
— Nikita Zhavoronkov (@nikzh) February 2, 2023
Basically, Taproot allows multiple participants in a transaction to create a single combined digital signature, making transactions more efficient and private. Since the creation of Ordinals, it has been discovered that the use of a segregated token “discount” (Segwit) in combination with Taproot allows an entire block to be 4MB in size, bypassing the 1MB limit hardcoded into the Bitcoin blockchain. It was previously known that Segwit increased block sizes slightly, with the largest block before Luxor’s 3.96 MB being 2.765 MB (#748,918) retrieved on August 11, 2022.
Concerns raised over immutable nature of Bitcoin and so-called ‘dangerous’ content
Ordinals, meanwhile, were already controversial among some bitcoin maximalists, and the 4MB block mined with just 63 transactions and a Wizard JPEG caused more upset. For example, bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr, who called Ordinals a “stroke”, quickly created a node patch to filter or censor Ordinal “spam”. “NOT a protocol change nor a soft fork/fork, just a harmless spam filter (if it works well)”, Dashjr wrote. “It’s also a quick hack and NOT suitable for opening a PR to Core – write a proper solution for that.”
Many bitcoin advocates were dissatisfied with the record block size, and the issue was discussed on the Reddit r/bitcoin forum. the most voted comment in the thread he said: “I would rather see a block like this filled with real money transactions from thousands of people, instead of this idiocy.”
Another individual agreed with this opinion and argument that the Taproot scheme that produced a 4MB block was dangerous. “Yes… This is quite dangerous. We are one bad actor or one automated miner away from cementing vile and disgusting things into a permanent, globally distributed, unobjectionable database. It will be interesting to see if there is a free market solution to this.”
Someone just uploaded DOOM to the BTC block chain.
Go here to try it:https://t.co/DLuBYj06CS
—Hector Lopez (@hlopez_) February 2, 2023
In addition to the uproar caused by the Wizard-block Ordinal, an unpleasant image was inscribed on inscription #668. Although the image has been removed from the Ordinals website, it remains unchanged and cannot be removed from the Bitcoin blockchain. Also, a game, “DOOM”, was uploaded to the blockchain and can be found at entry #466.
Some bitcoin advocates have expressed dissatisfaction with the Luxor mining pool, which mined the 4MB block. One person responded to Luxor’s tweet, saying, “There is nothing revolutionary in what you did. You put a nasty JPEG with zero artistic value on the blockchain. Okay… you could have made the same stupid image 10,000 times smaller. Why did you make it 4MB? Because it’s a prank; you are trolls
What is your opinion on the 4 MB block controversy on the Bitcoin network? Do you think it is a potential threat or a harmless addition to the blockchain? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Editorial Photo Credit: Ordinal Inscription No. 652
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