The Bitcoin community has diverged over the decision by Bitcoin Core developers to remove the limit on storing arbitrary data in transactions, a move that can be traced back to discussions first raised by Bitcoin's creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, in 2010.
Bitcoin Core v30 is expected to be released next month and will eliminate the 80-byte limit on OPRETURN. The OPRETURN opcode is used to store arbitrary data (i.e., non-financial data) on-chain. This decision has sparked intense controversy, with some accusing developers of being influenced by corporate interests, while others believe that storing arbitrary data is not in line with Bitcoin's original intent.
In fact, this debate predates OPRETURN itself. OPRETURN was introduced in the Bitcoin Core 0.9.0 version in March 2014. As early as 2010, about a year after Bitcoin (BTC) was created, the pseudonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto introduced a verification mechanism to ensure that transaction data met expected standards, which also sparked similar discussions.
The community immediately raised concerns about the decision to limit on-chain storage of arbitrary data. "Why would miners adopt this change? It means they will earn less in fees due to the loss of non-standard transactions," one user questioned.
As a decentralized network, Bitcoin's rule enforcement lacks central authority, making it more complex.
If miners have economic incentives to allow certain behaviors, such as including non-financial data on-chain, they will typically adjust software parameters to meet this demand. At that time, several miners also announced they would allow non-standard transactions that included arbitrary data.
Regarding the data limit for non-standard transactions, some users suggested raising it to 128 bytes, but Bitcoin Core developer Jeff Garzik argued that enforcing such limits is unreasonable:
Users quickly released a patch for the latest version of Bitcoin Core that removed the verification mechanism ensuring transactions adhered to established standards. Early Bitcoin participant Christian Decker recognized this as a significant moment for the Bitcoin community:
As some commentators in 2010 pointed out, if the rules do not align with the incentives for miners to earn fees, it becomes difficult for miners to enforce those rules. Additionally, a review in January 2024 showed that miners like F2Pool have already included non-standard transactions exceeding the OP_RETURN limit.
The controversy surrounding OP_RETURN occurs in a different context than the original arbitrary data debate, with some arguing that corporate interests are driving developers to allow more on-chain data storage. The rationale is that storing this data helps promote the development of Bitcoin-based systems, such as layer two networks.
Related: Tether (USDT) and USDC dominate, with quarterly stablecoin inflows reaching $45 billion.
Original article: “Satoshi's Comments on Arbitrary Data Show How Old the OP_RETURN Debate Is”
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