Developers behind the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol have announced a new upgrade aimed at fixing over 71,000 invalid or “cursed” inscriptions, allowing them to be traded. These cursed inscriptions were created by incorrect use or intentional misuse of opcodes to create inscriptions, which led to them becoming invalid and unrecognized. The upgrade, version 0.6.0, was released on June 4 and is the first step in indexing the previously unrecognized inscriptions. This means that over 70k existing but invalid inscriptions are now supported, which means that once marketplaces upgrade to v0.6.0, they will be able to start trading them.
The proposal to fix the issue was first made in late April by Ordinals creator Casey Rodarmor to recognize these cursed inscriptions and convert them to “blessed” ones. The upgrade introduced support for a subset of the different types of cursed inscriptions. It does this by setting a block activation height where specific types of previously invalid inscriptions would start being indexed as normal positive inscriptions. Ordinals influencer @LeonidasNFT explained that these would be added to the list of tradable indexed Ordinals. Everyone holding cursed inscriptions should expect the negative inscription numbers to be shifted.
Bitcoin Ordinals are nonfungible asset artifacts that enable inscribing data onto the smallest division of a Bitcoin, a satoshi. The protocol was launched in January 2023 by Casey Rodarmor and the following month saw the inscription hype take off as thousands of them were imprinted on the Bitcoin blockchain causing congestion and spikes in transaction fees. Ordinals inscriptions have been considered similar to NFTs regarding rarity and collectability. Users are after a unique slice of data permanently etched onto the Bitcoin blockchain so these 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, protocol founder Casey Rodarmor announced he was stepping down and passing the reins to @raphjaph who announced the protocol upgrade. The upgrade introduced support for a subset of the different types of cursed inscriptions. It does this by setting a block activation height where specific types of previously invalid inscriptions would start being 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 70k existing but invalid inscriptions are now supported which means that once marketplaces upgrade to v0.6.0 you will be able to start trading them.”
The upgrade is a positive development for the Ordinals protocol, as it addresses a major issue that has been affecting traders and collectors. The protocol has been compared to NFTs in terms of rarity and collectability, and the new upgrade is expected to increase the value of existing inscriptions. The Bitcoin Ordinals protocol has been a major success since its launch earlier this year, generating millions of dollars in transaction fees. With the new upgrade, the protocol is expected to continue to grow and attract more users.
