The developers of Bitcoin Core, the primary open source software to connect blockchain behind the world’s largest cryptocurrency, said October Version 30 release will increase the standard limit for OP_RETurn data transactions from the current 80 bytes to almost 4MB, a limit imposed by Bitcoin’s block size.
The proposal for the change confirmed in an update of GitHub had given rise to debate within the Bitcoin community. Critics claimed that the removal of the border could encourage increased embedding arbitrary data, which could potentially lead to network spam and a shift from Bitcoin’s
Primary function as a financial tool.
This decision to go further marks another significant moment in society’s debate on blockchain use, which highlights sustained tension between network efficiency, practical application cases and ideological principles.
OP_RETurn code allows Bitcoin users to include data in transactions. The functionality is conceptually, although technically separated from how inscriptions embed images and text directly in blockchain using ordinals and knowledge data.
Some claim that the addition of these transaction data is “arbitrary” and contradicts the original vision of Bitcoin blockchain as suggested by Satoshi Nakamoto.
The 80-byte boundary for OP_RETurn encouraged alternative methods of data storage, some of which caused problems such as bloating of the nonspent transaction output (UTXO) set.
In a detailed GitHub -Resume and subsequent X -Post, Bitcoin -core developers outlined Gloria Zhao the rationale behind the change.
Zhao emphasized the intention of mitigating unintended consequences of the existing boundary and noticing: “The primary motivation for this [change] is to correct a mismatch between harmfulness and standard of data storage techniques. “
Develops Greg Sanders, who authors the merged Pull request, said in GitHub -discusion that removal of the border “provides at least two concrete benefits: a cleaner UTXO set and more consistent standard behavior.”
Debate on governance
Zhao also dealt with wider government issues on her X -page and highlighted Bitcoin Core’s obligation to transparency and meritocracy.
She emphasized the importance of the role of society in maintaining these principles, warning against the risk of social technology or company pressure affecting the software developers’ decision -making process.
“If Bitcoin Core’s contributors ever abandon these values, for example, to reassure social media or business wishes, society will switch to another knot carer who is doing better,” Zhao wrote and encouraged users to remain vigilant and informed.
Developer Luke Dashjr has consistently opposed the boundaries and felt the speed as potentially harmful. He urged users to avoid upgrade to the new version or to adopt alternative hub implementations, such as Bitcoin Knots.
The debate reflects the controversy in 2023, especially about ordinals and inscriptions when users embedded significant non-financial data, such as images and text, in Bitcoin transactions, causing similar concerns about blockchain abuse and networking load.
Despite these concerns, Zhao maintained that attempts to censor transaction types through relay policy are impractical and ineffective against strong economic incentives. Bitcoin Core’s approach must remain neutral, reflecting the basic principles of the network for censorship and decentralization, she said.
The Core 30 release will retain manual control options so that users can enforce stricter boundaries through existing command line parameters. However, these settings are now marked as outdated and will trigger warning messages, indicating potential removal in future updates without a fixed timeline.
