BitcoinCore website hosts letter from one side of OP_RETURN debate
The post BitcoinCore website hosts letter from one side of OP_RETURN debate appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
In a rare and controversial move, 31 senior developers published an opinionated letter to BitcoinCore.org, the primary website hosting Bitcoin full node software. By far the dominant reference client to broadcast and validate bitcoin (BTC) transactions, tens of thousands of node operators have software from BitcoinCore.org connected to the internet at any given time. Prior to the letter, many people thought the website was open source, community-governed, independent, or a neutral reference tool. On June 6, however, a number of developers signed a lengthy op-ed supporting Antoine Poinsot’s progressive side of the OP_RETURN war. Brazenly, this op-ed isn’t simply hosted on the domain but, as of publication time, is the top item on the homepage itself. Bitcoin Core devs have been changing the network gradually to enable spam and now seem focused on also removing barriers for spammers. It’s disingenuous to just say “it is what it is now, too bad.” This statement itself is also inappropriate. Feels like an NYA from Core devs. https://t.co/ACIqyvK12f — Samson Mow (@Excellion) June 7, 2025 Bitcoin’s current OP_RETURN war is about storing non-financial data on Bitcoin’s blockchain. The progressive side, led by Peter Todd and Antoine Poinsot, thinks that full nodes should relay transactions with large amounts of data using OP_RETURN up to 4MB. The conservative side, led by Luke Dashjr and BitcoinMechanic, favors a restrictive limit below 83 bytes. Conservatives protesting the easement of data storage have been rising as a percentage of the Bitcoin node network. On June 7, over 11% of internet-connected nodes were running Luke Dashjr’s Knots software. Their central disagreement is whether Bitcoin node operators should accommodate data storage unrelated to the on-chain movement of BTC. By and large, that data has corporate interests behind it. Progressives note that giant pool operators like MARA already mine large transactions…
Filed under: News - @ June 9, 2025 11:28 am