Orange Surf, in charge of research and strategy at Mempool Research, has determined that over half of all bitcoin transactions made during the last 12 months included some data-related component. 51% of all the transactions involved Runes and BRC20 tokens, which are considered “spam” by some.
Spam-Filled Bitcoin: Over Half of All Transactions Included Runes or Inscriptions
The recent OP_RETURN drama surrounding a possible upgrade of Bitcoin Core lifting the guardrails designed to stop using Bitcoin with a data storage use case, considered spam by some, is again in the spotlight.
A new report issued by Mempool Research has shed more light on the current utilization of this kind of transaction compared to regular “financial” transactions on top of the Bitcoin blockchain.
Titled “UTXO Set Report,” it examined the whole blockchain to determine which kind of transactions were prevalent and the level of penetration that these non-financial transactions had reached.
Orange Surf, part of the Mempool Research team, revealed that during the last 12 months before May, most transactions included non-financial elements. On social media, he stated:
Over the past year bitcoin there have been more data storage transactions (OP_RETURN & Inscription) than other transactions.
He detailed that Runes, a protocol designed to put non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on bitcoin, and BRC20, a protocol to build fungible tokens, reached 51% of transactions over the past 12 months. Nonetheless, this number can be even higher as transactions consolidating these protocols and transfers of these assets were not counted.
The findings raised alarms in the bitcoin community, which has been debating the true purpose of the bitcoin network, weighing on the money vs. storage use cases and the relevance of filters to maintain bitcoin “spam-free”. While some users claim this makes Bitcoin the “world’s most censorship-resistant archive,” others stress that this kind of usage distracts from its sound money real purpose.
Orange Surf predicts a possible scenario that will take the bitcoin blockchain to reach a size of 1 TB by September 2026, supported by a “widespread and persistent adoption of inscriptions.”
Read more: Decoding OP_RETURN in Bitcoin and What’s the Big Deal?
