Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: Time to roll-back Ordinals?
by
OgNasty
on 11/11/2023, 11:21:12 UTC
Please let's all agree that it's time to end ordinals.
Edit: PLEASE READ I need to clarify this. By roll-back ordinals I didn't mean to actually roll back the bitcoin blockchain. Just to prevent the ability for them to be created from now on.

Nah. That's how bitcoin works. Is ordinals a bunch of worthless spam transactions that are bloating the mempool? Yes, of course but that is a VERY important part of scaling bitcoin. When on-chain fees bloat, that provides the much needed incentive to invest and build alternative scaling infrastructure. High on-chain fees drives more development to other scaling methods like lightning. That's just how the game theory of on-chain payments works.

For example: When fees pump high like this, platforms now have a much greater incentive to integrate lightning or batch transactions or invest in new scaling tech that is not yet fully developed. I believe that Binance integrated lightning last time on-chain fees bloated like this.

Ordinals doesn't need to be stopped. We just need to wait for fees to clear and use alternative payment methods (primarily lightning) until things cool down. Another important thing to understand is that the game theory of the lightning network works differently than on chain. To send a payment on chain, we all have to bid against other senders to be included in a block but on lightning, the routing nodes have to compete against each other with connectivity and lower fees than other routing nodes. Lightning nodes literally compete to offer lower fees than other routing nodes so fees trend toward zero while on-chain fees trend upward as demand increases. You can learn more about the game theory of the on-chain fees vs. lightning fees here: https://www.whatisbitcoin.com/lightning-network/game-theory-lightning-network

Bitcoin is working exactly as it's supposed to. It's an open network that is being attacked by ordinals spammers but since bitcoin is anti-fragile, it just keeps on working and bitcoin miners are making a lot of money right now while the network is being attacked. Just because using the blockchain is expensive right now, doesn't mean that it needs to be "fixed".

I disagree that lightning is the answer, but your take that Bitcoin is working the way it should is absolutely correct. Paying for block space is not an issue. The fact that so many people are bidding for block space that it is causing a clog shows that people see value in it. This is a good thing. I would be more worried if blocks started getting mined empty.