According to Dune, the total fees collected for inscriptions minted using the Bitcoin non-fungible tokens (NFTs) Ordinals protocol have now exceeded 6,000 BTC, equating to more than $257 million based on the current rate.
Bitcoin’s ordinal system allows for the unique identification and ordering of each Satoshi, or 0.00000001 BTC, facilitating the development of NFTs within the Bitcoin network.
Despite the growing popularity of Ordinals, there are skeptics of the technology. In December 2023, the U.S. National Vulnerability Database (NVD) flagged “inscriptions” created in the Ordinals protocol as a cybersecurity threat to the Bitcoin network.
According to the warning, certain versions of Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots may be susceptible to BRC-20 tokens, which can bypass transaction data restrictions by masquerading as code.
Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr also voiced criticism of BRC-20 tokens, which exploit vulnerabilities in the code to congest the Bitcoin network.
Dashjr highlighted that such tokens hinder the functionality of Bitcoin’s blockchain. As a response, the network is planning a series of updates aimed at eliminating BRC-20 and Bitcoin-based NFTs.