Bitcoin Ordinals could be stopped if blockchain bug is patched, claims dev - Enancial

A Bitcoin Core developer claimed Bitcoin Ordinals exploit a vulnerability allowing inscribers to bypass data size limits, which could soon be fixed.

A bug fix on the Bitcoin network could put a stop to new Bitcoin Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens causing network congestion by “exploiting a vulnerability,” claims a Bitcoin Core developer.

In a Dec. 6 X (formerly Twitter) post, developer Luke Dashjr said inscriptions — used by Ordinals and BRC-20 creators to embed data on satoshi’s — exploit a Bitcoin Core vulnerability to “spam the blockchain.”

He explained the Bitcoin Core code has allowed users to set limits on the size of extra data in transactions since 2013, but “by obfuscating their data as program code, inscriptions bypass this limit.”

PSA: “Inscriptions” are exploiting a vulnerability in #Bitcoin Core to spam the blockchain.

— Luke Dashjr (@LukeDashjr) December 6, 2023

The bug allowing inscriptions to bypass this limit was recently fixed in the latest update to Bitcoin Knots, which is a Bitcoin Core derivative with less tested or untested features backported from and sometimes maintained outside of the core code.

Another X user asked if Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens “would stop being a thing” if the vulnerability was fixed, to which Dashjr replied, “Correct.” Existing inscriptions would still remain.

“Bitcoin Core is still vulnerable in the upcoming v26 release,” he said.

On Dec.