Bitcoin Community Debates Funding to Combat Spam Inscriptions

Economist and author of "The Bitcoin Standard," Saifedean Ammous, has expressed his support for funding a full-time developer to combat spam inscriptions on the Bitcoin network. Ammous, in response to a discussion initiated by the pseudonymous developer GrassFedBitcoin, suggested that he would contribute a few satoshis to support a developer focused on making Bitcoin spamming more difficult and expensive.

GrassFedBitcoin had called for the Bitcoin Core to merge pull request #28408, which would enable node operators to filter inscriptions more easily. According to GrassFedBitcoin, the lack of inscription filtering tools contributes to unnecessary blockchain bloat and undermines Bitcoin's role as a monetary protocol. He argued that the OP_RETURN limit increases were justified in the past under false assumptions and pushed for a configurable, default policy discouraging the use of Bitcoin for storing JPEGs rather than monetary data.

Blockstream CEO Adam Back challenged the proposal, describing inscription filtering as an "arms race." He noted that spam data embedded in Bitcoin transactions can be endlessly modified using code structures, requiring constant updates to filtering tools. Ammous compared the Bitcoin spam issue to email spam, another arms race society continues to fight without abandoning the system. He argued that fighting spam is not censorship, noting that node operators already reject invalid transactions.

“So a node runner looking to remove retards' spam is no less valid than retards' spam,” he added. The debate drew commentary from other users, with one participant suggesting that Core developers treat spam-coding employees at certain startups as "unwilling QA engineers" and simply unstandardize every trick they deploy. Ammous took it further, proposing to "deprecate" the work of developers building spam tools and even hiring outside coders to overwhelm their systems.

The conversation reflects ongoing tensions in the Bitcoin community over the network’s intended use. With inscriptions continuing to congest the network, calls for technical countermeasures — and pointed critiques of those defending spam — are growing louder. Ammous' proposal to fund a developer to address Bitcoin spam underscores the growing concern within the community about the potential for spam to undermine the network's functionality and reliability. By making spamming more costly, the initiative aims to enhance the security and efficiency of the Bitcoin network, ensuring it remains a robust and secure platform for transactions and value transfer.