So mempool.space recently added features to recognize Runes and Ordinals transactions, and Bitcoin monetary maximalists have completely lost it. As a Bitcoiner and observer of Bitcoin culture, this whole drama felt completely normal and predictable.
Over time, an ideological divide has emerged between Bitcoin’s monetary maximalists “who see Bitcoin only as money and nothing else” and those who are open to building things on Bitcoin, whether innovative or crypto-esq is, like Ordinals, Runes and Tokens.
Now that this split mentality had become entrenched, the reaction to mempool.space was inevitable.
To clarify some FUD:
The Mempool Open Source Project does not support “ord” daemon integration – https://t.co/VXxVsvUuQN only shows data from Bitcoin’s mempool and blockchain and from the Lightning network.
This means that when you look up a transaction…
— mempool (@mempool) October 12, 2024
From a purist point of view, anything outside the Bitcoin protocol is heresy.
So even the neutral action of mempool.space displaying Runes and Ordinals data for their users to see is provoked outrage. It doesn’t matter if it made one of the best open-source Bitcoin explorers more useful and data-rich – it touched on the ‘forbidden’ topic and all rationality went out the window.
This response followed the script perfectly. The monetary maximalists reacted angrily to perceived defections, as they always do to X.
These clowns have managed to bribe one of the longest-standing and high-quality open source projects in the space to tag transactions that "contain ordinal numbers, inscriptions and runes" as such. It’s a shame to say the least.
None of these scams are #Bitcoin. They all… https://t.co/ietxCH3T1f
— Knut Svanholm ₿ = ∞/21M = 1/🤡🌍 (@knutsvanholm) October 14, 2024
However, the season 2 audience put their money in and donated to the helpful platform, a doubling of the number from individual sponsors and approximately tripling the project’s annual revenue from individual contributors. They financially supported an instrument they found useful, rather than just complaining. Actions over words.
Bitcoin purists should also put their money where their mouth is and support the Bitcoin explorers who don’t notice Runes and Ordinals transactions. I have yet to see them do this instead of just yelling at X, which says a lot about them.
Both parties acted true to form.
This kind of drama is inevitable when you have two factions with fundamentally different perspectives. While certain views may go too far ethically, this is ultimately human nature. We will continue to see this purist versus pragmatic conflict as Bitcoin evolves and divides into divergent philosophies.
Rationality makes way for faith and identity. But understanding these dynamics helps contextualize the mempool response.
This article is a To take. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.