Latest news with #Inscriptions
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Bitcoin Core 30 to Increase OP_RETURN Data Limit After Developer Debate Concludes
The developers of Bitcoin Core, the primary open-source software for connecting the blockchain behind the world's largest cryptocurrency, said October's version 30 release will increase the default limit for OP_RETURN data transactions from the current 80 bytes to nearly 4MB, a limit imposed by Bitcoin's block size. The proposal for the change, which was confirmed in an update on GitHub, had sparked debate within the Bitcoin community. Critics argued that removing the limit could encourage increased embedding of arbitrary data, potentially leading to network spam and a shift from bitcoin's BTC primary function as a financial tool. This decision to go ahead marks another significant moment in the community's debate about blockchain usage, highlighting persistent tensions between network efficiency, practical use cases and ideological principles. The OP_RETURN code allows Bitcoin users to include data in transactions. The functionality is conceptually similar to, though technically distinct from, the way Inscriptions embed images and text directly into the blockchain using Ordinals and witness data. Some argue that adding this transaction data is "arbitrary" and contradicts the original vision for the Bitcoin blockchain as proposed by Satoshi Nakamoto. The 80-byte limit on OP_RETURN encouraged alternative methods of data storage, some of which caused issues like bloating the unspent transaction output (UTXO) set. In a detailed GitHub summary and subsequent X post, Bitcoin Core developer Gloria Zhao outlined the reasoning behind the change. Zhao emphasized the intention to mitigate unintended consequences of the existing limit, noting, 'The primary motivation for this [change] is to correct a mismatch between the harmfulness and standardness of data storage techniques.' Developer Greg Sanders, who authored the merged pull request, said in GitHub discussions that the removal of the limit 'yields at least two tangible benefits: a cleaner UTXO set and more consistent default behavior.' Zhao also addressed broader governance issues on her X page, highlighting Bitcoin Core's commitment to transparency and meritocracy. She stressed the importance of the community's role in maintaining these principles, warning against the risks of social engineering or corporate pressure influencing the software developers' decision-making process. 'If Bitcoin Core's contributors ever abandon these values, e.g., to appease social media or corporate wishes, the community will switch to another node implementation that does it better,' Zhao wrote, urging users to remain vigilant and informed. Developer Luke Dashjr has consistently opposed easing the limits, labeling the move as potentially harmful. He encouraged users to avoid upgrading to the new version or to adopt alternative node implementations, such as Bitcoin Knots. The debate mirrors the controversies of 2023, notably around Ordinals and Inscriptions, when users embedded substantial non-financial data, such as images and text, into Bitcoin transactions, prompting similar concerns about blockchain misuse and network congestion. 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 should remain neutral, reflecting the network's foundational principles of censorship resistance and decentralization, she said. The Core 30 release will retain manual control options, allowing users to enforce stricter limits through existing command-line parameters. However, these options are now marked as deprecated and will trigger warning messages, indicating potential removal in future updates without a set timeline.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Yahoo
Bitcoin Debate on Looser Data Limits Brings to Mind the Divisive Ordinals Controversy
Bitcoin developers are again at odds over how the world's oldest and largest blockchain should handle storing information on-chain, with a proposal to relax long-standing limits on the size of data held sparking fierce debate reminiscent of 2023's battles over Ordinals. The blockchain's OP_RETURN feature allows people attach a small piece of extra data to a transaction It is often used for things like notes, timestamps or digital records. The proposed change, put forward by developer Peter Todd, would remove the 80-byte cap on such data, a limit originally designed to discourage spam and preserve the blockchain's financial integrity. Supporters argue the current limit is pointless because users are already bypassing it by using Taproot transactions, to hide data inside parts of the transaction meant for cryptographic signatures. This is how Ordinals and Inscriptions work (and why they have their critics): They embed images or text into Taproot transactions that are often unspendable, turning the Bitcoin blockchain into a kind of data storage system. Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr, a vocal critic of Ordinals, which he has long labeled a 'spam attack' on the blockchain, called the proposal 'utter insanity' and warned that loosening data restrictions would accelerate what he sees as the degradation of Bitcoin's financial-first purpose. 'It should be needless to say, but this idea is utter insanity,' Dashjr posted. 'The bugs should be fixed, not the abuse embraced.' Critics of the proposal also have another concern. The change could normalize illegal content storage, degrade the chain's fungibility, and turn node operators into unwitting hosts of malware and copyright violations. To demonstrate the potential maelstrom this may bring, one Ordinals team inscribed a whole Nintendo 64 emulator onto the blockchain, which may get the attention of Nintendo, a company known for being protective of its intellectual property. Supporters of the change, including Pieter Wuille and Sjors Provoost, argued that relaxing OP_RETURN limits may actually reduce what's known as UTXO (unspent transaction output) bloat, a phenomenon that slows down the blockchain when the network gets cluttered with non-financial transactions, and mempool fragmentation. UTXO bloat is a documented side effect of Ordinals and Inscriptions using Taproot transactions. For example, in May 2023, at the height of Ordinals' popularity, the Bitcoin blockchain became so congested Binance had to suspend bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals for a number of hours. 'The demand exists,' Wuille wrote. 'And pushing it outside the public relay network only causes greater harm.' For now, the proposal remains under review. One thing is for certain: The intensity of debate on GitHub and blockchain developer mailing lists shows the battle for Bitcoin's identity is far from in to access your portfolio
