Adam Back calls for new Bitcoin rules to curb spam and inscriptions

Bitcoin’s network carries unnecessary spam that shifts economic incentives, commented Blockstream’s founder Adam Back on X. He called for new protocol rules to control the inscription industry, moving Bitcoin to its central purpose. 

Adam Back, the founder of Blockstream, spoke out against using the Bitcoin network to carry content. He called out against the “JPEG industry”, which produces fees for miners, but causes higher fee periods. 

Back spoke out after another social media war on the correct use of BTC. He also mentioned previous community wars on BTC block size, which led to multiple hard forks. This time, Back took the side that spam has no place on the chain. 

Bitcoin is owned by humanity, the protocol developers are stewards, and need consensus from users to change it materially. bitcoin is about money, spam has no place in the timechain. what defaults the bitcoin core project puts in the reference client matter in this.

— Adam Back (@adam3us) September 5, 2025

Previously, the creation of NFTs and other inscriptions was seen as a solution to miner incentives, as network fees and block rewards fell. Currently, not all blocks see problems with JPEG spam, but Back pointed out the creation of images could weigh on the network during busy days, depriving regular senders from their transaction access. 

Adam Back noted Ordinals kept expanding in the past months

Back pointed out the BTC network carried over 88M image inscriptions in May, rising to over 100M in August, with up to 7,000 BTC in monthly fees or roughly $250M per year. The inflows are a small part of miner revenues, but the days of peak traffic push miners to invest even more in equipment, raising the costs for all participants. 

Bitcoin mining is already highly competitive, with the added effect of JPEG projects. While the NFT market is down from its peak, Bitcoin inscriptions seem to be thriving, having an expansion wave. For Back, this is an emergency, which may call for a change of rules, creating decentralized tools to filter out spam content. 

Currently, miners still have an incentive to mine the most profitable blocks. Most of the JPEG spam is in the form of Ordinals, which started to take off in 2023. Currently, Bitcoin developers are researching ways to keep block propagation efficient, while some miners are exploring ways to offer specialized block building for propagating JPEG and other content on-chain. There is still no consensus on the ideal usage of BTC, but BitMex research pointed at potential problems with block propagation when discouraging additional content. 

Who controls Bitcoin: users or core developers? 

The issue of so-called spam has been raised multiple times in the past. One of the issues is whether core developers can be held responsible for the end user and JPEG projects, including the economic incentives of VC-backed projects. 

If developers and node operators are involved, then there are concerns law enforcement may hold them accountable for the contents of the network. According to core developer Luke Dashjr, users still determine what the network will carry. 

Bitcoin doesn’t have some centralised entity protecting it. It relies on users. If users let themselves be coopted into a botnet attacking it, of course it will die.

— Luke Dashjr (@LukeDashjr) September 5, 2025

To date, the network has accrued over 97M inscriptions of various types, requiring a total of over $795M in fees over the years. Following a slow period during the 2023-2024 bull market, Ordinals have returned and even accelerated new inscriptions in the past months, as shown by Dune data.

In the past, Dasjr has spoken for the removal of ordinals. Paradoxically, the recent discussion is only raising the mindshare of ordinals, making them more appealing for projects that go against the convictions of BTC maximalists. Ordinals were seen as a fad, coinciding with the NFTs boom, but their presence has shown to be a lasting issue for BTC network security, block propagation, and concerns about content.

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