Bitcoin developer Casey Rodarmor opposes censoring blockchain transactions enabled by his bitcoin ordinals project, sparking community debate. Image by Fareed Mindalano, DALL-E 3.

Bitcoin protocol developer Casey Rodarmor has strongly reiterated his opposition to censoring transactions on the blockchain, including controversial media inscriptions enabled by his own Ordinals project.

In a biting new blog post, Rodarmor excoriated ideological maximalists within the Bitcoin community as hypocrites for supporting censorship while simultaneously professing Bitcoin as “unstoppable” money immune from meddling.

Dear ideological Bitcoin maxis,

I wrote a blog post on how to suck less.

Love,
Caseyhttps://t.co/JhLz54qu0J

— Casey (@rodarmor) December 30, 2023

Rodarmor Defends Bitcoin Ordinals Against Censorship Calls

Rodarmor argued that attempts to censor Bitcoin ordinals could open the door to broader censorship efforts, contending nothing can feasibly stop people from leveraging Bitcoin’s transparency.

He believes maximalists uncomfortably reject reality when attacking functionality beyond payments.

Rodarmor contends the reality is that nothing can feasibly stop people from leveraging the blockchain’s transparency for purposes maximalists deem frivolous or illegitimate, like inscribing arbitrary images and messages.

He believes the maximalist desire to restrict Bitcoin’s use stems from an “uncomfortable contact with a reality” that fails to match their ideological vision. This causes them to reactively attack anything that expands functionality beyond payments.

While indifferent about defending inscriptions themselves, Rodarmor categorically rejects technocratic tinkering to block any valid transactions, no matter how objectionable. For him, maintaining “uncensorable” as a core attribute of Bitcoin overrides other considerations.

Embracing Bitcoin Ordinals’ Market Potential

Instead, Rodarmor proposes allowing free market dynamics to naturally determine the value of inscriptions and other applications competing for limited block space.

He claims the inevitable solution is high on-chain fees pricing out lower-value uses like trivial media.”Bitcoin’s destiny is high fees. Embrace it,” Rodarmor wrote.

He advised maximalists to “stop being losers” by redirecting efforts toward expanding Bitcoin’s reach and real-world usage rather than hampering new functionalities.

Ultimately, Rodarmor believes the path to cryptocurrency’s mass acceptance requires embracing outside-the-box enhancements on top of Bitcoin and letting its full, dynamic potential unfold. Restricting possibilities risks turning an open platform into a narrow orthodoxy.

At its core, Rodarmor makes a compelling case for letting the free market run its course. If Bitcoin is to fulfill its destiny as an open, decentralized ledger, the community must resist the urge to over-engineer every perceived problem.

With a spirit of openness and a balance of pragmatism, Bitcoin can move beyond a radical idea into a global force for economic freedom.