Bitcoin Ordinals rolls out upgrade to fix ‘Cursed Inscriptions’ issue

Developers behind the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol have rolled out a new upgrade that aims to cure more than 71,000 invalid or “cursed” inscriptions, allowing them to be traded.

“Cursed Inscriptions” was the name given to inscriptions created through misuse or deliberate misuse of opcodes to create inscriptions, rendering them invalid and unrecognized.

On June 4, developers including Twitter user Raphjaph revealed that the Ordinals protocol had been upgraded to version 0.6.0, which would be the first step in indexing the previously unrecognized inscriptions.

A new version of ord (0.6.0) has just been released, which implements the first steps in recognizing more types of inscriptions (Cursed Inscriptions). In addition, you can now pass RPC credentials through command line flags, environment variables, or a configuration file.

— raph (@raphjaph) June 4, 2023

The proposal to solve the problem was first made in late April by Ordinals creator Casey Rodarmor to recognize these cursed inscriptions and convert them to “blessed”.

The upgrade introduced support for a subset of the various cursed inscription types. It does this by setting a block activation height where specific types of previously invalid inscriptions would be indexed as normal positive inscriptions.

Ordinals influencer LeonidasNFT explained that these would be added to the list of tradable indexed Ordinals, stating:

“This is important because over 70,000 existing but invalid inscriptions are now supported, meaning once marketplaces upgrade to v0.6.0, you can start trading them.”

He added that anyone with cursed inscriptions “should expect the negative inscription numbers to be shifted.”

Version 0.6.0 of the Ordinals Protocol has just gone live!

Here’s everything you need to know about this major update:

Many previously unrecognized inscriptions are now indexed by the Ordinals Protocol as “Cursed Inscriptions”. This is important because over 70,000 exist, but… pic.twitter.com/Mh1pArg2p9

— Leonidas.og (@LeonidasNFT) June 4, 2023

Bitcoin Ordinals are non-fungible asset artifacts that allow data to be inscribed on the smallest division of a Bitcoin, a satoshi.

The protocol was launched in January by Casey Rodarmor, and the following month saw signup hype take off as thousands of them were pushed onto the Bitcoin blockchain, causing congestion and spikes in transaction fees.

Ordinals inscriptions are considered to be similar to NFTs in terms of rarity and collectability. Users are looking for a unique piece of data permanently etched into the Bitcoin blockchain so that these early or converted inscriptions on satoshis can become valuable in a later period.

Related: Ordinals good or bad for Bitcoin? Proponents and opponents make their voices heard

According to Dune Analytics, 10.8 million ordinal inscriptions have generated $45.5 million in transaction fees since the craze began earlier this year.

On May 28, Rodarmor announced that he would step down and pass the reins to Raphjaph.

Magazine: Ordinals turned Bitcoin into a worse version of Ethereum: Can we fix it?