“Bitcoin is not under attack:” BTC maxis allays fears of a DoS offensive

by · May 7, 2023

A sudden increase in Bitcoin (BTC) transaction fees and unverified transactions sparked concerns on Crypto Twitter over the weekend about a potential Denial of Service (DoS) “attack” on the network.

Some Bitcoin analysts and commentators have been quick to allay these fears of their respective followers.

Average transaction fees for Bitcoin are currently $19.20, or 0.00068 BTC, according to BitInfoCharts. Meanwhile, according to Mempool Space, the backlog of transactions at the time of writing was 459,341.

The increased demand on the network has even led to total fees per block temporarily exceeding the block support reward of 6.25 BTC on May 7th.

The process-of-work mining process has a fixed block grant of 6.25 BTC, which is halved every four years. However, in the rare cases of blocking space demand, this number can be exceeded, causing higher transaction fees.

Industry analysts reported that it is the first time this has happened since 2017. Fees of 6.76 BTC were recorded for a block and block 788695 generated fees of 6.7 BTC.

Mempool Space Explorer shows that activity has since cooled down a bit and fees have fallen back below the block reward again. The next block is expected to be processed and generate 4.51 BTC in fees.

Block fees for the next block. Source: Mempool Space

The increase in activity and demand for block space has been attributed to the increase in Ordinals inscriptions. According to analytics provider Glassnode, a total of 75% of Bitcoin on-chain transactions used Taproot on May 7, resulting in a record high.

BTC Taproot Adoption. Source: Glassnode

Someone on Crypto Twitter, however, speculated that the recent congestion is the result of a DoS (denial of service) attack on the Bitcoin network.

Related: Binance shuts down BTC withdrawals due to Bitcoin network congestion

Bitcoin analysts were quick to point out that it was due to demand rather than a premeditated attack. “0xfoobar” told his 130,000 followers:

“Bitcoin mempool is finally getting some use and the maxis are framing it as a DoS attack on the network. They really haven’t considered even the most basic scenarios, like “Bitcoin becomes popular and people are willing to pay to use it”

On May 8, the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, suspended Bitcoin transactions again, citing “the large volume of pending transactions.” It is the second time Binance has suspended BTC transactions in the last 12 hours.

Magazine: Asia Express: Justin Sun’s SUI Farming Sins, PEPE’s Wild Race, 3AC’s Oyster Philosophy