On February 1, 2023, the Bitcoin network recorded its largest block ever mined. Block #774628, discovered by the mining pool Luxor, reached a size of approximately 3.96 MB with only 63 transactions. Among them was a single Ordinals inscription (#652) of a wizard image, the so-called 'Taproot Wizard', which consumed 3.94 MB of block space. The event immediately stirred controversy within the Bitcoin community.
Luxor announced the achievement on Twitter, framing it as a magical feat. The block exploited the combination of Taproot (activated in November 2021) and the Segregated Witness (Segwit) discount to bypass the traditional 1MB block size limit, effectively allowing blocks up to 4MB. The previous record was 2.765MB, set in August 2022.
Backlash from Small-Block Supporters
Ordinals, which enable NFT-like inscriptions on Bitcoin, have been contentious from the start. The 4MB block, filled mostly with a single JPEG, provoked strong reactions from Bitcoin maximalists and small-block advocates. Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr, who previously called Ordinals an 'attack,' quickly released a node patch to filter out what he considers spam. He emphasized that the patch is not a protocol change or fork, but a 'harmless spam filter,' and asked the community to develop a proper fix for Bitcoin Core.
On the r/bitcoin subreddit, the top comment read: 'I would much rather see such a block full of real monetary transactions from thousands of people, instead of this idiocy.' Another user warned that the Taproot scheme enabling a 4MB block is dangerous: 'We’re one bad actor or one automated miner away from cementing vile and disgusting things to a permanent, globally distributed, uncensorable database. It will be interesting to see if there is a free market solution to this.'
Immutability Concerns and Unwanted Content
Beyond the Wizard JPEG, other inscriptions have caused alarm. Inscription #668 contained an unsavory image that was removed from the Ordinals website but remains immutable on the blockchain. Additionally, the classic video game DOOM was uploaded as inscription #466. These episodes highlight the tension between Bitcoin's censorship resistance and the potential for abuse.
Some community members directed their anger at Luxor. One Twitter user responded: 'There’s nothing revolutionary in what you did. You stuffed a nasty JPEG with zero artistic value into the blockchain... Why did you make it 4 MB? Because it’s mischief; you are trolls.'
The debate revives the historical Blocksize War and raises fundamental questions about Bitcoin’s purpose: should it remain strictly a peer-to-peer electronic cash system, or can it accommodate additional use cases like NFTs? As miners continue to inscribe data, the network may face increased strain, and the community remains divided over the path forward.