{"id":63416,"date":"2025-04-30T16:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T16:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/63416\/"},"modified":"2025-04-30T16:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T16:51:08","slug":"is-bitcoin-becoming-an-altcoin-op_return-change-divides-the-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/63416\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Bitcoin becoming an altcoin? OP_Return change divides the community"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Bitcoin community was divided on removing the 80-byte limit on OP_Return.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Supporters considered it an efficiency upgrade, while others termed it a \u2018spam.\u2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/ambcrypto.com\/category\/bitcoin-news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">Bitcoin [BTC]<\/a> community has been rocked by an intense division over removing limits on OP_Return. The <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/bitcoin\/bitcoin\/pull\/32359#issuecomment-2835467933\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">proposal<\/a> allows for more arbitrary data on the blockchain, like messages and images.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Some, like Jason Hughes, VP of engineering at BTC-focused Ocean Mining, strongly opposed the proposal and viewed it as a way to turn \u201cBitcoin into a worthless altcoin.\u201d He <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/wk057\/status\/1917235710781690171\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">said<\/a>,\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cBitcoin Core developers are about to merge a change that turns Bitcoin into a worthless altcoin, and no one seems to care to do anything about it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Those opposed to the change, like Hughes, termed the move as an \u2018attack on the network\u2019 and claimed that it could mark the \u2018death\u2019 of Bitcoin.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>OP_Return sows division<\/p>\n<p>In a separate mailing list on the same issue, Luke Dash Junior, a BTC core developer and network purist, <a href=\"https:\/\/groups.google.com\/g\/bitcoindev\/c\/d6ZO7gXGYbQ\/m\/Unl7kNegDQAJ\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow external noopener noreferrer\">called<\/a> the change \u2018utter insanity.\u2019<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cBut this idea is utter insanity. Disappointing to see positive responses, and not one sensible reply calling it out yet\u2026 If attackers continue to bypass filters, we can go back to a full whitelist approach.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Dash is known for opposing Bitcoin Ordinals and other arbitrary data being added to the network. Like Hughes, he has long viewed them as an \u2018attack\u2019 and \u2018spam\u2019 on the BTC network.<\/p>\n<p>The OP_Return currently allows 80 bytes of data (messages and other metadata). Some <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/basedkarbon\/status\/1917342504585679122\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">viewed<\/a> the feature as crucial for sidechains, hence, efficiency and cleaning the Bitcoin base layer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 80-byte limit, according to developers, was meant to limit harmful data from entering Bitcoin. That\u2019s why others opposed it, as increasing the size might increase \u2018spam.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>However, Peter Todd, one of the OP_Return supporters, <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/bitcoin\/bitcoin\/pull\/32359#issuecomment-2833660649\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">cited<\/a> the proposal\u2019s efficiency benefit.\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cEntities are using unspendable outputs in liu of OP_Return outputs. Precisely because of the size limit. This increases the UTXO set size unnecessarily, a harmful effect of having the arbitrary OP_Return output limitations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u00a0In short, some projects used a workaround on OP_Return to have more data, which takes more space and bogs down Bitcoin. Removing the limit on OP_Return would solve this problem, per the supporters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>OP_Return is almost similar to the <a href=\"https:\/\/eng.ambcrypto.com\/bitcoin-op_cat-proposal-gets-boost-from-taproot-wizards-30m-fundraise\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">deactivated OP_CAT<\/a>, but some people want to reactivate it to increase Bitcoin usage. <\/p>\n<p>It remains to be seen whether the community will adopt the proposal. In the meantime, BTC wasn\u2019t affected by the drama and was valued at $94.6K.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext: <a href=\"https:\/\/ambcrypto.com\/bitcoin-on-the-brink-of-98k-will-these-2-factors-ignite-btcs-rally\/\" rel=\"prev noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Bitcoin on the brink of $98K: Will these 2 factors ignite BTC\u2019s rally?<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bitcoin community was divided on removing the 80-byte limit on OP_Return.\u00a0 Supporters considered it an efficiency upgrade,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[52,51,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-63416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-ambcrypto","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114427952137188124","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}