Bitcoin core dev criticizes Runes, claims the protocol exploits Bitcoin's design flaws

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Luke Dashjr, a prominent Bitcoin core developer, has recently expressed his concerns about the Runes protocol, arguing that it exploits a fundamental design flaw within the Bitcoin blockchain network. In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on April 26, Dashjr drew a distinction between Ordinal Inscriptions and the Runes protocol, highlighting their different approaches to interacting with the network.

Dashjr explained that while Ordinals exploit vulnerabilities in Bitcoin Core, Runes technically follow the “rules” but still constitute a 5-vector attack on the network. He stated:

“Ordinals are a 9-vector attack that exploit vulnerabilities in Bitcoin Core, Runes are ‘only’ a 5-vector attack that actually technically follow the ‘rules’.”

Ordinals, a novel form of digital assets similar to NFTs, are inscribed onto satoshis, the smallest units of Bitcoin. Their introduction last year marked Bitcoin’s entry into the world of NFTs, generating significant interest within the crypto community. Runes, on the other hand, are fungible tokens that were launched on the day Bitcoin completed its fourth halving. Following their launch, Runes caused significant network congestion, leading to a spike in transaction fees.

Dashjr has been a vocal critic of both Ordinals and Runes, arguing that they stray from the core principles of BTC and contribute to blockchain spam. In the past, he has referred to Ordinals as a bug and actively worked on initiatives to address them through bug fixes.

In an effort to combat what he perceives as the negative impact of Runes, Dashjr proposed methods for filtering Runes transactions. He suggested:

“To filter Runes spam using either Bitcoin Knots or Bitcoin Core, the only approach right now is to set datacarriersize=0 in your bitcoin.conf file (or the equivalent GUI option in Knots only).”

However, early indications suggest that miners are not adhering to Dashjr’s advice. Ocean Mining, a decentralized mining pool where Dashjr serves as the CTO, recently mined its first post-halving block, with over 75% of its transactions originating from the Runes protocol.

Several miners have defended their decision to process Runes transactions, citing the lucrative revenue stream they provide as their primary motivation.

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