Amid the controversy surrounding the Ordinals project and the debate over what type of data should be stored in the bitcoin blockchain, the network mined its largest block, which was just 63 transactions and mined the largest block, nearly 4MB in size, containing One of the transactions was a 3.94 MB Ordinal nameplate featuring an image of a wizard, a non-fusible token (NFT) issued by Bitcoin that sparked much debate.
Small block advocates speak out
against the 4 MB bitcoin block with the NFT inscription.
On February 1, 2023, the Luxor mining pool mined the largest block ever recorded on the bitcoin network (#774,628), approximately 3.96 MB. The coinbase parameter for this block contains a message indicating that it was discovered by Luxor. The mining pool also took to Twitter to inform the community about the discovery and the reason for the block’s large size.
“Last night, Luxor harnessed magical energy and freed an ancient wizard from the cosmic cage he had been trapped in for many epochs.” Mining Pooltweeted“Astute observers of the time chain may have noticed a previously unseen 4MB anomaly. I wonder if there are others.” The tweet also included an image of a “taproot wizard,”Ordinal Inscription #652attached to the block. taproot, a feature applied to the Bitcoin network on November 12, 2021, was enabled at block height 709,632, bringing several new benefits toBTC users. A 3.96MB block #774628 has just been added to Bitcoin by
31}; LuxorTechTeamis exploiting the buggy Taproot. The previous record was only 2.77MB. Here is a list of the largest blocks. https://t.co/LsavqjLFEq
This has led to many of us being on the verge of a new block size war? 🤓
– Nikita Zavolonkov (@nikzh) February 2, 2023
Basically, Taproot allows multiple participants in a transaction to create one combined digital signature, making transactions more efficient and private.Since the creation of Ordinals, Segregated Witness (Segwit) “discounts” Taproot has been foundto bypass the 1 MB limit encoded in the Bitcoin blockchain, resulting in a full block size of 4 MBIt has long been known that Segwit slightly increases block size, with Luxor’s largest block before 3.96 MB was 2.765 MB (#748,918mined on August 11, 2022.
Concerns were raised about the immutable nature of bitcoin and its so-called “dangerous” content
Meanwhile, the audinal was already controversial among some Bitcoin maximizers, and the 4MB block mined in just 63 transactions and wizard JPEGs caused further upset. For example, Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr called Ordinals a “52} attack” and quickly created a node patch to filter or censor Ordinals “spam.” Dashjr wrote, “It’s not a protocol change or soft/hard fork, but a harmless (if it works correctly) spam filter.” “It is also a quick hack and not suitable for opening PRs to Core.” “Please write an appropriate fix for that.”
Many bitcoin supporters complained about the record block size, and the topic was discussedon the Reddit forum r/bitcoin. The mostupvote commentin the thread stated.” I’d rather see a block like this filled with real money transactions from thousands of people than this nonsense.”
Another individual agreed with this opinion and argued that the Taproot scheme that generates4MB blocks is dangerous.” Oh, …… This is rather dangerous. We are about to have one bad guy or one auto-miner cement the vile and disgusting into a permanent, globally dispersed, indelible database. It will be interesting to see if there is a free market solution to this.”
Go here to try it out. https://t.co/DLuBYj06CS
– Hector Lopez (@hlopez_) on February 2, 2023
In addition to the uproar caused by the Wizard Block Ordinal, an objectionable image was inscribed oninscription number 668. This image has been removed from the Ordinal website, but it cannot be removed from the Bitcoin blockchain and remains unchanged. Additionally, the game “DOOM” wasuploaded to the blockchainand can be seen in inscription #466.
Some Bitcoin supporters expressed frustration with mining pool Luxor, which mined a 4 MB block. One responded to Luxor’s tweet, sayingThere is nothing revolutionary about what you have done. You stuffed JPEGs with no artistic value into the blockchain. Now… You could have made the same stupid image 10,000 times smaller. Why did you make it 4MB? Because it’s a prank.” You people are trolls.
What do you think about the 4MB block controversy on the Bitcoin network? Do you believe it is a potential threat or a harmless addition to the blockchain? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Image credit: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Editorial photo credit: Ordinal inscription #652
108}