MicroStrategy decentralized identity solution leveraging Ordinals attracts criticism from core Bitcoin proponents

MicroStrategy’s chairman, Michael Saylor, revealed the firm’s ambitious plan to introduce a decentralized identity solution called MicroStrategy Orange on the Bitcoin network during his Bitcoin For Corporations talk on May 1.

Saylor underlined the potential of establishing a universal standard with the distinctive orange checkmark, envisioning it as a global alternative to the commonly recognized blue or green checks. He stated:

“Wouldn’t it be great if instead of a blue check, green check, etc., there was an orange check that was a global standard? With MicroStrategy, maybe we could approach this idea of decentralized identity, with Bitcoin.”

This initiative aligns with MicroStrategy’s transformation into a Bitcoin-focused development company. The Virginia-based company holds 214,400 Bitcoin, valued at around $12.4 billion, making it the largest public holder of the flagship digital asset.

MicroStrategy Orange

An unofficial draft on MicroStartegy’s GitHub revealed that the solution leverages Ordinal-based inscriptions for data storage and retrieval.

Additionally, it is being designed to be open-source and capable of handling up to 10,000 decentralized identifiers per Bitcoin transaction.

According to the document:

“The Bitcoin Inscription DID method (did:btc) uses the bitcoin blockchain exclusively to store and retrieve DID information. UTXOs on chain are used to control DIDs. Inscribing data in the witness of transactions allows for greater extensibility and verbosity when creating DID documents, while reducing fees and block space consumed.”

The draft furthered that MicroStrategy Orange will “deliver trustless, tamper-proof, and long-lived decentralized identities using only the public Bitcoin blockchain as a data source.”

Bitcoin proponents critique the move

However, MicroStrategy’s choice of Ordinal-based inscriptions has drawn criticism from core Bitcoin proponents like developer Luke Dashjr, who views them as potentially detrimental to the BTC network. Calling them “an attack” on Bitcoin, he said:

“Somehow Saylor thinks it makes sense to buy lots of Bitcoin and then destroy the Bitcoin network.”

Dashjr is a long-term critic of Ordinals, asserting that they deviate from BTC’s core principles and contribute to blockchain spam.

Similarly, Bob Burnett, the CEO of Barefoot Mining, a Bitcoin mining firm, added:

“I have to read the whole thing but this doesn’t look good. Saylor, jumping on the inscription path is not a good one. I hope you’ll relook at this before implementing.”

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