Bitcoin Core Developers Merge Controversial Policy Changes: Is a Fork Ahead?

After a lengthy public discussion about its possible effects, Bitcoin Core has merged the code that lifts the guardrails to filter nonfinancial data transactions by default. The changes that will be implemented in the upcoming version of the Core client have sparked a heated debate about the project’s future.

Bitcoin Core Finally Merges Data Carrier Changes, Sets Limits as Deprecated

Bitcoin Core, the leading implementation of full node software for Bitcoin, has made a final decision regarding the ongoing debate on lifting the existing filters to allow users to include nonfinancial transactions in the blockchain.

The changes merged and implemented in the upcoming release, slated for next October, and proposed by developer Gregory Sanders, lift the default data carrier size limitation from 80 bytes, allowing an unlimited size for OP_RETURN. However, users can still set this limit manually, though the option is now deprecated and can be removed in a subsequent Bitcoin Core update.

This sparked a series of reactions from the party opposing these changes, heavily criticizing the modifications. Ocean Mining’s Bitcoin Mechanic stated that, with this, all the defenses covering Bitcoin against ‘fiat-creep’ infection had fallen, and called on bitcoiners to become the last line.

He stated:

If they (bitcoiners) fail to recognize what’s going on and continue on the Core path then the foundation will have rotted out and the fate sealed. Bitcoin can survive malicious devs acting against nodes in theory.

Before, JAN3 CEO Samson Mow had raised alarms regarding these changes, stressing that Bitcoin Core had become “a risk to Bitcoin.”

In May, Mow highlighted that the discussion around this topic signaled the need for a fork of the software to appear. “If there is economic power saying bitcoin is money, then this is how you could show it,” he stressed, stating that this new fork of the Core project would “provide a different way forward.”

This fork would be funded by grants to developers, who would remain anonymous, according to Mow’s proposal.

Read more: JAN3 CEO Samson Mow: ‘Maybe It’s Time for Another Fork of Bitcoin’