Key Takeaways
- Saifedean Ammous supports funding a dev to fight Bitcoin spam.
- Proposal #28408 would let nodes filter inscription data more easily.
- Mempool Research warns block sizes could reach 4MB due to spam.
Economist and The Bitcoin Standard author Saifedean Ammous has expressed support for funding a full-time developer to make spamming the Bitcoin network more difficult and costly.
His comments came in response to a proposal by pseudonymous developer GrassFedBitcoin, who called for Bitcoin Core to merge pull request #28408.
Proposal to filter inscription data
The pull request would let node operators more easily filter inscription data — a type of transaction that embeds non-monetary content like images into Bitcoin blocks.
GrassFedBitcoin argued these inscriptions contribute to unnecessary blockchain bloat and are misaligned with Bitcoin’s purpose as a monetary protocol.
He called for a default policy discouraging their use, saying:
No one running a node wants to relay inscriptions.
The ongoing debate reflects mounting frustration over increased congestion caused by these types of transactions.
Industry reactions
Blockstream CEO Adam Back responded by calling inscription filtering an “arms race,” warning that spammers will continually adapt to bypass restrictions.
Ammous, however, compared Bitcoin spam to email spam — something society has had to manage without abandoning the medium.
Ammous said:
It’s not easy, but it’s worth trying to help bankrupt the spammers faster.
He dismissed claims of censorship, asserting that node operators are already selective in what they relay.
Potential impact on block sizes
Mempool Research previously reported that widespread adoption of inscriptions could push average block sizes up to 4MB, far above the current 1.5MB average.
