There’s fresh controversy brewing in the Bitcoin Ordinals community after a developer under the moniker “Supertestnet” initiated a transaction that had no input or output, but is nevertheless seen as valid.

This resulted in the Ordinals’s inscription numbering system crashing, sparking concerns that the whole protocol may now be broken.

Ordinal inscriptions, also known as "proof of ownership" inscriptions, are essentially a way of attaching metadata to a specific Bitcoin transaction.

This metadata can include information about the digital asset being transferred, such as its title, description, and ownership details. So far, it's also been used for a wide array of on-chain media inscriptions including artwork, profile pictures, playable games, and video-based web apps.

Unlike Ethereum-based NFTs, which require the use of a separate token and smart contract to record ownership and transfer of digital assets, Ordinal inscriptions are recorded directly on the Bitcoin blockchain without the need for a sidechain or separate token.

(By Andrew Asmakov)