A distinctive bot designed to disrupt the creation of new BRC-20 tokens, known as Sophon, has reappeared on the Bitcoin blockchain. Originally created by the pseudonymous @rot13maxi, the bot effectively “snipes” incoming Bitcoin transactions related to Ordinals, causing a drop of 72% in text-based inscriptions associated with BRC-20s when it was initially deployed. While @rot13maxi disavows any recent involvement, he acknowledges sharing the code with someone else.
Sophon operates by outbidding transactions in Bitcoin’s mempool, where higher fees incentivize miners to prioritize them. By front-running the ticker names of newly created BRC-20s, the bot disrupts their deployment, showcasing a design flaw in the Ordinals protocol. The creator suggests that a copy of Sophon is currently active.
Originally launched as a proof of concept to highlight vulnerabilities in global namespace management, Sophon derailed approximately 275 BRC-20 deployments with a 75% success rate during its previous activation. The bot’s reappearance has sparked interest, particularly from @raphjaph, the pseudonymous lead maintainer of Ordinals. While the numbers involved may seem small, a single BRC-20 deployment often triggers a cascade of transactions as speculators rush to acquire the newly created tokens.
