Bitcoin Core Developer Alleges Runes Protocol Exploits Flaw in Bitcoin Blockchain Design
Renowned Bitcoin core developer, Luke Dashjr, has raised concerns about the Runes protocol, claiming that it takes advantage of a fundamental flaw in the design of the Bitcoin blockchain network. In a recent post on X, Dashjr pointed out the contrasting characteristics of Ordinal Inscriptions and the Runes protocol in their interactions with the network.
Dashjr explained that while Ordinals exploit vulnerabilities within Bitcoin Core, the Runes protocol operates within the existing framework of the network’s design flaws. This has drawn criticism, as the introduction of Runes has caused significant congestion on the Bitcoin network, resulting in a surge in transaction fees.
Ordinals, introduced last year, enable the inscription of data onto satoshis, the smallest units of Bitcoin, creating a concept similar to non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This marked Bitcoin’s foray into the NFT space and garnered considerable interest within the crypto community.
However, Dashjr has been vocal in his criticism of both Ordinals and Runes, arguing that they deviate from Bitcoin’s core principles and contribute to blockchain spam. He has previously referred to Ordinals as a bug and has spearheaded initiatives to address them through bug fixes.
In response to his opposition to Runes, Dashjr has suggested methods for filtering out transactions related to the protocol. He recommends adjusting the “datacarriersize” setting in the bitcoin.conf file to zero, effectively blocking Runes’ spam. However, it seems that miners are not following this advice, as 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.
Despite this, Dashjr acknowledges that the Runes protocol technically follows the “rules,” even though it is a 5-vector attack, compared to Ordinals’ 9-vector attack that exploits vulnerabilities in Bitcoin Core.
In other news, Bitcoin transaction fees have experienced a significant drop just one day after reaching an all-time high average of $128 on April 20, coinciding with the fourth Bitcoin halving. As of April 21, the average fees for medium-priority transactions on the Bitcoin network ranged from $8 to $10.
The surge in fees on April 20 saw Bitcoin record $78.3 million in fees, surpassing Ethereum by over 24 times. Notably, the Bitcoin halving block at block height 840,000 included a record-breaking 37.7 bitcoins (equivalent to $2.4 million) in transaction fees paid to Bitcoin miner ViaBTC. This block consisted of 3,050 transactions, resulting in an average fee of nearly $800 per user.
The demand for block 840,000 was largely driven by enthusiasts of meme coins and NFTs competing to inscribe and etch rare satoshis using the Runes protocol.