Charles Hoskinson Takes a Jab at Bitcoin's Internal Struggles Over Controversial Code Update

The main issue causing internal struggles within Cardano is a proposed change to Bitcoin Core's transaction relay policy, which has sparked heated debate among developers.

This change, a pull request (PR) by Bitcoin developer Aim trên GitHub aims to modify how nodes relay transactions with non-financial data embedded using OP_RETURN.

This feature allows users to attach a small amount of data to a Bitcoin transaction, initially envisioned for light metadata like a URL or short message. However, some developers believe the new PR could lead to high volumes of unnecessary or spam-like data, causing "blockchain bloat."

Developer Jason Hughes, known for his contributions to Bitcoin Knots, expressed strong criticism, warning that the update could threaten the protocol's integrity and usefulness.

Hughes claimed the PR would permit gigabytes of data to be relayed across the Bitcoin network, although it wouldn't necessarily make it onto the blockchain.

Despite this, the change would slow down transaction processing and overwhelm individual nodes responsible for relaying information, rendering the network unusable.

In response, Hughes urged mining pools—including AntPool, ViaBTC, Luxor, and others—to reject the update and move away from the current Bitcoin Core codebase.

He recommended Bitcoin Knots—a version of Bitcoin maintained by developer Luke Dashjr—as a safer and more rational alternative, using stricter validation rules and less susceptible to spam-like behavior in transaction data.

This recommendation comes as part of a broader effort to raise awareness about the potential negative impacts of the proposed code update on the Bitcoin network.

As the discussion continues, developers are exploring solutions to mitigate spam and maintain the efficiency of the Bitcoin blockchain.

Stay tuned for further updates on this developing story.