In a twist worthy of a dark comedy, Blockstream’s CEO, Adam Back, has sounded the alarm on an unlikely villain threatening Bitcoin‘s noble mission: JPEGs. Yes, those harmless little image files are now storming the blockchain like uninvited guests at a party, bringing chaos and $700 million worth of transaction fees with them. Ah, capitalism-always finding creative ways to monetize memes.
In a recent X post (because where else would you announce digital doom?), Back revealed that between May and September 2025, inscribed JPEGs grew by 20%, reaching a staggering 105 million. That’s 7,000 BTC spent just to immortalize cat pictures and pixelated art on the blockchain. At $8 per JPEG, humanity is truly living its best life-or worst, depending on how you look at it.
“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.”
– Adam Back (@adam3us) September 5, 2025
For those unfamiliar with this new form of digital graffiti, “JPEG inscriptions” involve embedding images directly into Bitcoin transactions, ensuring they live forever on the immutable ledger. While poetic in theory, this practice is less “timeless masterpiece” and more “digital landfill,” clogging up space and driving up costs for everyone else.
The Great Spam Debate
Back reminds us that miners, bless their hearts, aren’t the puppet masters here-they merely provide computing power. Real power lies with the “economic nodes,” operated by users who dictate the rules through market forces. Remember the block-size wars? Yeah, miners don’t decide squat when the people say otherwise.
So who’s behind this JPEG gold rush? Apparently, image sellers, buyers, and venture capitalists eager to fund such frivolous ventures. Miners rake in around $250 million annually from these fees, which sounds impressive until you realize it only accounts for 1.5% of the total fee market. And while spam slightly raises block costs, it barely impacts miners’ profits-just 0.1%. No wonder they’re not rushing to stop the madness.
Fighting the Good Fight Against Spam
Back proposes solutions that wouldn’t shame a Bond villain: tweaking economics to make spam unprofitable. For instance, miners could join pools that refuse to process JPEG-heavy blocks. Or perhaps adjust transaction fees so high that even the most dedicated meme enthusiast thinks twice before uploading another NFT of a cartoon ape. 🐒💼
Education might also play a role-because nothing says progress like convincing miners that enabling spam is bad PR. But beware: some anti-spam measures risk centralizing control over Bitcoin, which defeats the whole point of decentralization. So tread lightly, dear revolutionaries.
save Bitcoin from itself or let the JPEG apocalypse run wild. Either way, one thing’s certain-this story will make for a hilarious footnote in future history books. 📜😂
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2025-09-05 14:47