I wouldn't say it's an exploit, looks to me that ordinals are more akin to spam.
I am really torn on the subject, I think they go against the mission of the Bitcoin network which is to allow the separation of money and state.
We all use, knowingly or not, anti-spam software to filter our incoming flow of emails, is it censorship?
The fact that transaction cost money is a defense mechanism in itself. If you spam-attack Bitcoin, you just funnel money to miners, make mining more profitable, enticing more hashrate, strengthening the network.
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I know you are right. It's just a pain for users in the short term, and frustrating when you see things clogging the transfer of real value.
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So you agree it can be an attack, an attack that makes Bitcoin unusable for the small user for as long as these guys can sustain the spam. This hurts Bitcoin's adoption as money.
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