Bitcoin Core Developer: Runes “Exploited a Design Flaw”

Author: Oluwapelumi Adejumo, CryptoSlate; Translator: Deng Tong, Golden Finance

Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr has criticized the Runes protocol, arguing that it exploits a fundamental design flaw in the blockchain network.

In an April 26 post on X (formerly Twitter), Dashjr described the differences between Ordinal Inscriptions and the Runes protocol in how they interact with the network. He clarified that while Ordinals exploited a vulnerability within the blockchain, the Runes protocol operates within the framework of a network design flaw.

He further explained:

“Ordinals are a 9-vector attack that exploits a vulnerability in Bitcoin Core, and Runes are ‘just’ a 5-vector attack that actually technically follows the ‘rules’.”

Ordinals are a novel form of digital asset, similar to NFTs, etched on Satoshis (the smallest unit of Bitcoin). Their emergence last year marked Bitcoin’s foray into the NFT space, sparking notable interest from the crypto community.

Runes, on the other hand, are fungible tokens that were launched on the day Bitcoin completed its fourth halving. Upon launch, these tokens severely clogged the network, causing transaction fees to surge.

Notably,Dashjr has long been critical of both asset types, claiming that they deviate from BTC’s core principles and facilitate blockchain spam. Last year, he flagged Ordinals as bugs and has taken the lead in taking steps to address them with bug fixes.

Filtering Rune Transactions

Given his objections, Dashjr proposed a way to filter rune transactions.

He said:

"To filter rune spam using Bitcoin Knots or Bitcoin Core, the only way currently is to set datacarriersize=0 in your bitcoin.conf file (or just the equivalent GUI option in Knots). ”

However, early signs suggest miners are not heeding his advice. Ocean Mining, a decentralized mining pool where Dashjr serves as CTO, recently mined its first post-halving block, with more than 75% of transactions coming from the Runes protocol.

In their defense, some miners are willing to process Runes transactions because of the lucrative income they bring.