The Bitcoin community is divided over the decision made by Bitcoin Core developers to eliminate a cap on arbitrary data stored within transactions, a debate originating from a discussion initiated by Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, in 2010.
Expected next month, the release of Bitcoin Core v30 will lift the 80-byte restriction on OP_RETURN, an opcode for saving arbitrary data (non-financial data) on-chain. This decision has sparked controversy, with some critics claiming that developers are succumbing to corporate pressures, while others believe that storing arbitrary data deviates from Bitcoin’s original purpose.
This contention predates OP_RETURN, which was introduced in Bitcoin Core 0.9.0 in March 2014. Back in 2010, when Bitcoin (BTC) was just a year old, Satoshi Nakamoto ignited the same debate by implementing checks to guarantee that transaction data conformed to the designated standards.
The decision to limit the storage of arbitrary data on-chain is instantly contentious. “Why on Earth would any miner adopt this change, when it means that they will be getting fewer transaction fees due to the lost non-standard transactions?” one user questioned.
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Governing with incentives
Bitcoin functions as a decentralized network without a central authority to enforce its rules, complicating enforcement efforts.
If miners are financially motivated to support something, like the inclusion of non-financial data on-chain, they will likely adjust their software settings accordingly. This was evident in the past, as several miners announced their willingness to accommodate non-standard transactions with arbitrary data.
One user proposed permitting non-standard transactions up to 128 bytes, but Bitcoin Core developer Jeff Garzik stated that imposing such limits would be counterproductive:
“It seems pointless for the official Bitcoin client to attempt to ‘legislate’ any restrictions of this type when all miners have an interest in including any and all fee-carrying transactions.”
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Accepting the inevitable
Users rapidly created a patch for Bitcoin Core’s latest version that omitted checks to ensure adherence to established standards. Early Bitcoiner Christian Decker pointed out that this marks a significant moment for Bitcoin’s community:
“I guess we have the first official release that is disputed by the majority of computation power, Bitcoin’s coming of age.”
As some commentators noted back in 2010, enforcing a rule that contradicts miners’ incentives to include fee-paying transactions presents challenges. A review from January 2024 indicated that miners like F2Pool had already integrated non-standard transactions that surpassed OP_RETURN limits.
The OP_RETURN discussion is also unfolding in a different context than the original debate about arbitrary data, with corporate interests pressuring developers to permit greater on-chain data storage. This shift is prompted by the development of Bitcoin-based systems, like layer-2 networks and others.
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