The Ordinals website, a recent addition to the Bitcoin ecosystem, suffered a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, leading to its temporary shutdown. This event marks the first such attack since the website’s launch in January, as claimed by Ordinals’ creator Casey Rodarmor. The DDoS attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt normal server or network operations by overwhelming the target with internet traffic.
Critics have found irony in the situation, given that some believe the Ordinals Inscriptions themselves create a similar strain on the Bitcoin network. Among the critics is Luke Dashjr, founder of Bitcoin mining company OCEAN, who highlighted the hypocrisy of calling it a DDoS attack when everyone involved is paying for their internet usage.
The latest DDoS incident follows a controversial move by Taproot Wizards’ CTO Rijndael, who released a script on December 26 that allegedly allows data operators who despise Ordinals to censor Ordinals blocks within the Bitcoin ecosystem. This has been perceived as a strong message to critics, essentially telling them to accept it or be quiet.
In the face of these events, Andrew Poelstra, Research Director at Bitcoin infrastructure firm Blockstream, defends Ordinals, arguing that they do not harm the Bitcoin network, whether considered spam or not. He emphasizes that Ordinals, despite potentially affecting the fee market, do not pose a significant threat to Bitcoin’s stability within its own network.
Poelstra acknowledges that there is no technical way to remove Ordinals from the Bitcoin ecosystem but suggests that the current hype around Inscriptions and associated NFT collections may be a passing trend. The debate continues as the Bitcoin community grapples with the implications of Ordinals and their impact on the network’s operations and culture.