Developers working on the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol have released a new update that aims to solve the issue of over 71,000 invalid or “cursed” inscriptions, making them tradable once again. “Cursed inscriptions” refers to inscriptions that were incorrectly or intentionally created using opcodes, resulting in them becoming unrecognized and invalid. On June 4, developers, including Twitter user Raphjaph, announced that the Ordinals protocol had been upgraded to version 0.6.0, which would be the first step in indexing the previously unrecognized inscriptions.
Just released a new version of ord (0.6.0), which implements the first steps in recognizing more types of inscriptions (cursed inscriptions). Additionally you can now pass in RPC credentials through command-line flags, environmental vars or a config file.https://t.co/Xi6C92cC6z
— raph (@raphjaph) June 4, 2023
The proposal to fix the issue was first made in late April by Ordinals creator Casey Rodarmor to recognize and convert these cursed inscriptions into “blessed” ones. The upgrade introduces support for a subset of the different types of cursed inscriptions by setting a block activation height for specific types of previously invalid inscriptions to begin being indexed as positive inscriptions. According to Ordinals influencer LeonidasNFT, this is important because over 70,000 existing but invalid inscriptions can now be traded, and everyone holding cursed inscriptions should expect the negative inscription numbers to be shifted.
Version 0.6.0 of the Ordinals Protocol just went live!
Here is 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 70k existing but… pic.twitter.com/Mh1pArg2p9
— Leonidas.og (@LeonidasNFT) June 4, 2023
Bitcoin Ordinals are non-fungible asset artifacts used to inscribe data onto the smallest division of Bitcoin – a satoshi. Launched in January by Casey Rodarmor, the Ordinals protocol led to a craze of inscriptions being imprinted on the Bitcoin blockchain the following month, causing congestion and spikes in transaction fees. Ordinals inscriptions have become collectors’ items like NFTs due to their rarity and collectability. The early or converted inscriptions on satoshis could become valuable at a later period.
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 was stepping down, passing the reins to Raphjaph.
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