Bitcoin Core Issues Final Statement on Nonfinancial Transactions
Bitcoin Core, the most used full node software for Bitcoin, has issued a statement supporting the position of lifting the guardrails put in place to avoid data considered by some as “spam” from being added to the blockchain.
The document, signed by over 30 collaborators and developers of the project, clearly states that a restrictive policy in relaying nonfinancial transactions is considered counterproductive for the project.
The document states:
Knowingly refusing to relay transactions that miners would include in blocks anyway forces users into alternate communication channels, undermining the (transaction relay) goals.
Bitcoin Core highlights that, even if these transaction relay restrictions continue to be in place, “users and miners can directly collaborate to avoid any external attempt to impose restrictions on their activities.” This has been one of the reasons supporters of lifting the OP_RETURN limits have been leveraging to back this measure.
Nonetheless, Bitcoin Core states that, as a project, it does not condone or support these use cases as part of Bitcoin’s operation, simply stressing that it is just “accepting that as a censorship-resistant system, Bitcoin can and will be used for use cases not everyone agrees on.”
The project concluded, acknowledging that while it is aware that consensus around this stance is not unanimous, “it is in the best interest of Bitcoin and its users, and we hope our users agree.”
The statement sparked mixed reactions from the bitcoin community on social media. Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3, blamed Core developers for changing the network to enable the so-called “spam” to enter the blockchain, labeling this statement as “inappropriate.”
Juan Galt, Bitcoin reported and podcaster, sided with those he called the gray beards. “I don’t see other solutions besides soft forks or hard forks, and even then it’s a losing battle where you look like a sensor,” he stressed.
