Why are BRC-20 and Ordinals causing controversy in the urgent discussion to exclude transactions in Bitcoin Core?

Bitcoin core developers have long been dissatisfied with the introduction of the Bitcoin NFT protocol "Ordinals," believing that putting these meaningless junk data on the chain is undoubtedly a waste of block space. Now, the homogenized token protocol BRC-20 has even sparked a meme coin craze on Bitcoin, leading to another major congestion since 2017. This has prompted developers to discuss further resistance actions, is a code war about to break out?

BRC-20 Controversy: What Do Bitcoin Core Developers Care About?

The so-called Bitcoin maximalists may argue that Bitcoin, as the most orthodox peer-to-peer electronic cash system, should only handle data related to value transfers and economic transactions.

Previously, when Ordinals emerged, some in the community pointed out that Ordinals were merely wasting precious block space, leading to discussions about forking; Adam Back even publicly expressed support for miners scrutinizing related transactions.

However, Adam Back later deleted the tweet and softened his stance, stating that perhaps it could be more effective to encourage and educate developers of Bitcoin-related applications using Ordinals to save block space.

In short, core developers believe that writing unrelated data into Bitcoin blocks is akin to spam in the Web2 world and should not be tolerated.

On May 7th, Bitcoin Core developers initiated a series of discussions regarding BRC-20, presenting various perspectives as outlined below.

Bitcoin Core Developers - Radical Faction: BRC-20 Should Have Been Banned Earlier

Ali Sherief: Enforce Exclusion of BRC-20 Transactions at Node Level

Ali Sherief emphasizes that the volume of BRC-20 transactions has led to significant network congestion on the Bitcoin network since December 2017, which threatens Bitcoin's normal operation with what he calls worthless BRC20 tokens. Actions should be taken:

1. Remove Taproot verification rule vulnerabilities through Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs) or core code.

2. Enforce transaction scrutiny at the node level, removing all non-standard Taproot transactions.

Luke Dashjr: Should Have Been Banned Months Ago

Luke Dashjr believes action should have been taken months ago, as excluding junk data has always been a principle of Bitcoin Core code.

Bitcoin Core Developers - Neutral Faction: Should Transactions Be Scrutinized?

Erik Aronesty: Uncertain about Removing BRC-20, Ordinals Transactions

1. Refusing transactions with fees higher than the output value may be easier to execute.

2. Uncertain about the feasibility of removing BRC-20, Ordinals transactions.

Michael Folkson: Market Should Not Be Interfered With

1. Exclude BRC-20 transactions through a soft fork to change the consensus mechanism.

2. Market should operate freely, and enforcing "whack-a-mole" through consensus rules is usually ineffective.

Melvin Carvalho: Increase Block Size

• Increasing block size, but sacrificing decentralization.

Jaroslaw: Focus on High Transaction Fees, Junk Data is Not the Priority

Jaroslaw emphasizes that the common goal of discussions is to address the long-standing issue of excessively high transaction fees.

Tom Harding: Increase Off-Chain Costs

He believes it is reasonable for users to pay fees to miners off-chain, aligning with the concept of Bitcoin focusing solely on on-chain economic transactions and appropriately penalizing users conducting non-chain economic transactions.

Melvin Carvalho also referenced Gavin Andresen, an early Bitcoin chief developer who had close contact with Satoshi Nakamoto, discussing coin issuance on Bitcoin in 2010 on Bitcointalk, with Gavin Andresen finding the idea intriguing.

BRC-20, Ordinals Did Not Cause a Spike in Bitcoin Transaction Fees

Overall, Bitcoin Core seems determined to exclude BRC-20, Ordinals transactions, but the BRC-20 hype appears to be tapering off as of today, with daily on-chain transaction fees showing a decline.

Some media may use headlines like "Bitcoin Miners Rake in Profits" or "Bitcoin Transaction Fees Reach Record High," but this actually refers to "BRC-20 transaction fees hitting a record high." In reality, miners' revenue and on-chain transaction fees are lower than in 2021 and 2017. However, if the coin issuance craze continues, there is no guarantee that Bitcoin Core developers will not resort to scrutiny measures, potentially leading to another fork in Bitcoin.