Jimmy Music, a long-time Bitcoin developer and advocate, has strongly criticized the upcoming Bitcoin Core 30 improve for eradicating the OP_Return restrict, which at the moment restricts non-monetary knowledge embedded in Bitcoin transactions to 80 bytes.
Music accused the Core growth staff of ignoring widespread neighborhood pushback and failing to handle considerations from node operators and customers concerning the change.
He argued that claims concerning the problem of defining ‘spam’ on the community are a distraction from the actual concern. Music said:
“The concept that spam is tough to outline, and due to this ambiguity, we shouldn’t be making any distinctions in any respect within the software program, is a time-wasting argument from fiat politics the place you faux to not know the plain, so the precise debate can by no means get off the bottom — the non-monetary makes use of of Bitcoin are spam. You may argue whether or not that’s one thing fascinating or not, however saying you may’t outline it’s a stalling tactic meant to keep away from the actual argument about precise influence — notably, the long-term influence of this variation.”
OP_Return debate and echoes of previous splits
The talk over OP_Return has been ongoing for almost six months and has drawn comparisons to the earlier Bitcoin block dimension wars, which finally resulted within the creation of Bitcoin Money.
Some in the neighborhood have speculated whether or not the OP_Return controversy might additionally result in a community break up.
Exodus to various node software program
Following the choice, there was a notable migration of node operators to Bitcoin Knots, an alternate shopper that enforces strict knowledge limits.
The share of Bitcoin Knots nodes has jumped from roughly 1% in early 2024 to about 20% of the community.
This shift highlights considerations over decentralization and knowledge bloat, as Bitcoin’s comparatively small blockchain dimension permits anybody to run a node on modest {hardware}, not like different blockchains that require costly, specialised gear.
Centralization considerations
Proponents of strict knowledge limits argue that low {hardware} necessities are important for community decentralization.
Extra demanding necessities danger centralizing node operation and undermining Bitcoin’s core ideas.