What are ordinals and inscriptions?

Ordinals, launched in early 2023, is a way to number individual sats and attach data like images or text to them, a bit like NFTs on Bitcoin. Bitcoiners are split on whether that's a good thing.

Inscriptions store data in the part of a transaction that SegWit and Taproot made cheaper. Critics call it spam that bloats the blockchain and raises fees for regular payments. Supporters say anyone who pays the fee can use block space. The debate continues, including over how much non-payment data nodes like Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots should relay.