The Debate Raging Over Bitcoin’s Future

Bitcoin is heading for a pivotal month as the Core V30 update is ready to roll out in October, but its arrival has resumed a long-term debate over how the network will work and respond to new pressures.

The Core V30 is scheduled for October 2025 release Bitcoin Core, a network reference software client. A highly contested change will be introduced. Increase the OP_Return limit, a transaction can carry far more non-payment data, such as messages, proofs, files, etc. that the node relays and accepts.

Op_return is a feature that enables you to attach additional data to transactions without affecting the available coins.

Supporters of the Op_return extension claim to provide individuals with a cleaner and safer way of attaching additional data to Bitcoin without cluttering the system.

Critics argue that it opens the door to abuse, from spam to illegal content, and risks driving Bitcoin away from its core purpose as a medium of exchange to a common data storage network.

According to discussions on the Bitcointalk Forum, the discussion has been around since at least 2010 Documentation By Bitmex Research.

Some people, like Luke Dashjr, advocate for stricter relay rules. phone Push to non-financial data “spam” and “filters” to minimize what you see as a misuse of block space. DashJR is a lead maintainer of Bitcoin Knot and a fork of Bitcoin Core, offering alternative implementations of the same rules with additional features and stricter policy defaults.

Others including Blockstream CEO Adam Back; caveat Introducing moderation or selective filtering sets a dangerous precedent, claiming that Bitcoin can become vulnerable to censorship and threaten its survival.

In May, the increase in OP_Return limits claimed in at least one leaked email pointing to Jameson Lopp, chief security officer for Bitcoin custody company CASA, was motivated by certain projects that would benefit from the change. LOPP It was rejected The same month’s complaint. Decryption I’m approaching LOPP for comments.

Something old, something new

“There are few moral or other new questions here, as ‘bad deals’ and ‘bad arbitrary data’ have been hosted by Bitcoin for over a decade,” said Andrew M. Bailey, professor of philosophy at the National University of Singapore and a senior fellow at the Institute of Bitcoin Policy. Decryption.

Still, the most interesting legal issue that the debate has generated is “undecided by existing cases or statutory law,” Bailey said. Section 230 Shield the node operator from responsibility for hosting harmful data.

The changes to future updates for Bitcoin Core also raised questions about whether there is a difference in liability for data stored in signatures or other witness items, addresses, multiple OP_Return outputs, or single OP_RETURN outputs.

Asked about the immediate impact of the Core V30, Bailey stated that the relay policies implemented by performance node runners “have no next impact on which transactions are contained in the block or which arbitrary data is smuggled.”

Pseudonym developer Leonidas, Creator Bitcoin Native Memes Coindog Dog Decryption The Bitcoin Knot community wants “censorship ordinances and rune transactions from the Bitcoin network.”

He denounced Dashjr of “restructuring the recent conversation” about child sex abuse material on the Bitcoin blockchain in order to “produce moral panic and paint over those who are in his way.”

Decryption I’m approaching DashJR for comments.

“The reality is that this data cannot be removed from Bitcoin no matter what the Anti-Core Group says,” said Erin Redwing, CEO of the Ordinals-based events company, which is engraved on Atlantis. Decryption.

There is no way to “filter data that already exists on the Bitcoin blockchain,” Redwing said. “Mineers can choose which transactions to include in the new blocks they mine, but they cannot delete data that already exists in Bitcoin.”

Still, at the technical level, “the efforts to maintain and maintain the unchanging nature of Bitcoin are completely reasonable,” said Lorenzo, a central contributor to the fractal and founder of UNISAT Wallet. Decryption.

“We see it as a trustworthy career of trust built on cryptographic algorithms,” he said, adding that “it is precisely this trust in mathematics that enabled such a system to develop long-term value.”