The Bitcoin Ordinals website has been experiencing a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, leading to ongoing accessibility issues. This attack, noted by Ordinals creator Casey Rodarmor on December 27, marks the first such incident since the website's launch in January. Rodarmor highlighted the event in a post on X (formerly Twitter), where a DDoS attack typically involves overwhelming a server or network with excessive internet traffic to disrupt normal operations.
Throughout the day, the Ordinals website has faced instability and is currently down, as of this report. This situation has drawn attention, particularly from critics who accuse Ordinals of overloading the Bitcoin network with its inscriptions, likening this incident to a form of poetic justice. Prominent among these critics is Luke Dashjr, founder of Bitcoin mining company OCEAN, who labeled the characterization of this event as a DDoS attack as disingenuous.
Other critics of Ordinals have joined the conversation, with some advising Rodarmor against labeling potential attackers as spammers. This perspective was echoed by Bitcoin enthusiast "Hand of the South," who challenged the notion of censoring valid TCP/IP packets. In an intense comparison, Dashjr equated the effect of Ordinals on the Bitcoin network to "rape" in a now-deleted post on X.
The controversy extends beyond just the DDoS attack. Prior to this incident, "Rijndael," CTO of Taproot Wizards, reportedly released a script that could enable node operators to block Ordinals, a move seen as challenging Ordinals' detractors to take action. This development has sparked further debate on the impact of Ordinals on the Bitcoin network.
Addressing the broader implications, Andrew Poelstra, director of research at Blockstream, has commented that while Ordinals may have a significant effect on Bitcoin's fee market, they represent a minor part of the overall Bitcoin economy and are unlikely to displace Bitcoin on its network. Poelstra acknowledges that there's no technical solution to remove Ordinals from Bitcoin, suggesting that the trend of non-fungible token-like inscriptions might be a passing phase. His advice is to simply wait it out, indicating a belief that the issue will resolve itself over time.
