U.Today - A recent announcement from a developer has shattered the Bitcoin community, signaling the start of what could become an intense internal conflict. The statement revealed a vulnerability in Bitcoin Core that has been exploited by "Inscriptions" since 2013. These inscriptions are essentially metadata added onto Bitcoin satoshis, turning them into a form of digital artifacts or NFT-like entities on the . This revelation has led to a push to restrict such practices, sparking debate and division among stakeholders.
Inscriptions have utilized block space to attach additional data to transactions, potentially bypassing set limits by disguising the data as program code. Bitcoin Knots v25.1 has patched this issue, yet Bitcoin Core remains exposed, with hopes of a fix in the v27 release next year. This delay in resolution has ignited a war within the Bitcoin community, as developers and users take sides on the value and appropriateness of inscriptions on the blockchain.
On the technical front, , which are a byproduct of these inscriptions, have been scrutinized for their use of block space. Each satoshi can carry an inscription up to approximately four MB in size. Although satoshis do not inherently come with inscriptions, this additional data can include anything from transaction comments to attached files, enhancing Bitcoin's functionality.
The controversy lies in the use of block space for purposes other than financial transactions, which many purists argue detracts from Bitcoin's primary objective as a currency and a store of value. The introduction of Ordinals and the capacity to attach NFT-like data to satoshis have opened up new use cases for Bitcoin, simultaneously sparking concerns over network efficiency, block space scarcity and the true purpose of the blockchain.
As for Bitcoin's most recent price performance, the chart shows a robust bullish trend, with the recent candlesticks indicating sustained upward momentum. The price is trading comfortably above both the 50-day and 200-day moving averages, suggesting strong bullish sentiment on the market and a slight overbought state.