Bitcoin Ordinals creator looks for fix after first occurrence of shock porn

Just days after the launch of the Bitcoin (BTC)-based Ordinals protocol, its creator had to deal with their first shocking pornographic image, which has been written into the blockchain.

On February 2nd around 12:15 UTC, an unsavory image known as “goat” was written onto the Bitcoin blockchain via the Ordinals protocol.

It was on inscription 668 and was live on Ordinals’ front page for about half an hour before the image was removed. It still exists on the blockchain, but cannot be viewed using the Ordinals website.

Ordinals creator Casey Rodarmor told Cointelegraph that he acted quickly to remove the image from the Ordinals website, but admitted that there is not much that can be done to stop future instances given the nature of the protocol.

At least he is working on a solution to stop the images appearing on the Ordinals website.

The image, known as “goat”, shows a man manipulating the anus. Due to its shock value, it is often used to trick internet users.

Rodamor said at the moment there was no way to hide certain inscriptions on the Ordinals’ website without manual input.

“Explorer has a configuration file that can be used to hide certain inscriptions, so we decided it wasn’t very nice to look at,” he said. “We added it to that configuration file and now the server doesn’t return that inscription and won’t return that content.”

Ordinals have a simplified website with each new inscription appearing on the home page.

While Rodarmor plans to have a “very liberal content policy” where people will “certainly” be able to enter pornographic images, he would like to censor them until he finds a way to automatically keep them off the front page, such as creating a separate space for them on the website.

Critics of blockchain technology have concerns that its immutable nature could be used to host illegal or grotesque media forever, while others argue that its censorship resistance should be seen as a key feature.

When asked if he was concerned about the criticism Ordinals might receive for censoring certain images, Rodarmor replied:

“The inscription is still on the chain, and if you run your own copy of Ordinal—which anyone is free to do—it won’t have that configuration file, and you’ll see the gaping backhole if that’s what you want.”

He added that his site is just one instance of the block explorer and hopes others create more where they can “implement their own moderation policies according to their tastes.”

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Rodarmor said it is only the second time he has censored a pornographic image. He believes the technical difficulty and cost of uploading an image to the BTC network has reduced the incidence of such trolling attempts.

Launched on January 21, Ordinals immediately divided the crypto community with arguments over whether it was good for the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The protocol works by inscribing satoshis – the original currency of the Bitcoin network – with content such as images to create NFT-like structures that can be transferred.

The cost of entering a satoshi can cost tens of dollars compared to a regular network transaction that ranges from a few cents to a few dollars.