BitcoinCore website hosts letter from one side of OP_RETURN debate
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’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.
Facilitating data unrelated to on-chain BTC
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 and accept OP_RETURN outputs exceeding 83 bytes via mempools like Slipstream.
According to this side of the debate, Bitcoin Core’s default mempool should standardize the treatment of pending transactions that technically attain consensus elsewhere.
Conservatives would rather discourage the use of Bitcoin’s valuable blockspace for data storage that’s unrelated to BTC movements. In their view, Bitcoin’s dominant mempool should preserve the ledger for financial uses, not cloud storage or roll-ups.
Read more: Bitcoin nodes protesting OP_RETURN change hit all-time high
Although exceedingly rare, Friday’s op-ed isn’t actually the first time developers have used BitcoinCore.org to publish personal opinions. Historian BitMEX Research noted a 2015 letter signed by 56 developers hosted at BitcoinCore.org.
It’s notable that BitcoinCore.org doesn’t currently host an op-ed from the conservative party in the OP_RETURN war. It only lists one letter from one side of the debate as of publication time.
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