Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Bitcoin Core vs Knots: Why Developers Are Fighting Over a Coming Change - Ep. 918
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Bitcoin Core vs Knots: Why Developers Are Fighting Over a Coming Change - Ep. 918
On Monday, bitcoin hit a new all-time high of over $126,000, but Bitcoin’s biggest fight right now isn’t about price; it’s about purpose.
Since 2023, image files and meme tokens have clogged the network, spiking fees and making everyday payments expensive. Bitcoin Core wants to lift an 80-byte data limit that's existed since 2014. Bitcoin Knots disagrees — and has built code to enforce a different limit. Should Bitcoin stay a payments network, or evolve into a platform that stores everything from NFTs to memecoins to experimental layer 2 protocols?
Blockstream CEO Adam Back and Bitcoin and Lightning developer Chris Guida debate whether removing limits on OP_RETURN protects Bitcoin from what they call “spam,” or opens the floodgates to it.
Plus: the real lesson from 2014 when Vitalik Buterin left Bitcoin, why miners can bypass any filter by renting hash rate, and whether 22% of nodes running different code actually matters in a decentralized network.
Thank you to our sponsors!
Mantle
Aptos
Guests:
Chris Guida, Bitcoin and Lightning Ecosystem dev and Educator
Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream
Timestamps:
🎬 0:00 Intro
⚙️ 1:37 What the Core vs. Knots debate is really about
🧩 4:46 Why “spam” filtering and “censorship” aren’t the same
💾 7:28 How NFTs, ordinals, and BRC-20s created the “spam” problem
🧱 8:51 The Genesis block message vs. today’s onchain data
🔍 13:27 What op_return does and why its size limit matters
⚔️ 22:04 Why the proposed change has split the Bitcoin community
📈 26:25 Can Bitcoin stay censorship-resistant while filtering “spam”?
💣 30:26 Do economic incentives make “spam” filters useless?
🧰 34:17 Why some believe filters still work to protect blockspace
💰 36:05 Would higher fees from non-payment data help miners secure Bitcoin?
🧮 42:06 Does more data make it harder to run a node?
🧭 46:04 Can Bitcoin fight storage data without hurting its core principles?
⚡ 50:37 What counts as a “real” layer 2 on Bitcoin
🧱 55:55 How much support the Knots software actually has
🧩 1:00:35 Could this debate cause a Bitcoin chain split?
🔚 1:04:22 Closing thoughts on what’s next for the network
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
View all episodes
By Laura Shin
4.6
11811,181 ratings
On Monday, bitcoin hit a new all-time high of over $126,000, but Bitcoin’s biggest fight right now isn’t about price; it’s about purpose.
Since 2023, image files and meme tokens have clogged the network, spiking fees and making everyday payments expensive. Bitcoin Core wants to lift an 80-byte data limit that's existed since 2014. Bitcoin Knots disagrees — and has built code to enforce a different limit. Should Bitcoin stay a payments network, or evolve into a platform that stores everything from NFTs to memecoins to experimental layer 2 protocols?
Blockstream CEO Adam Back and Bitcoin and Lightning developer Chris Guida debate whether removing limits on OP_RETURN protects Bitcoin from what they call “spam,” or opens the floodgates to it.
Plus: the real lesson from 2014 when Vitalik Buterin left Bitcoin, why miners can bypass any filter by renting hash rate, and whether 22% of nodes running different code actually matters in a decentralized network.
Thank you to our sponsors!
Mantle
Aptos
Guests:
Chris Guida, Bitcoin and Lightning Ecosystem dev and Educator
Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream
Timestamps:
🎬 0:00 Intro
⚙️ 1:37 What the Core vs. Knots debate is really about
🧩 4:46 Why “spam” filtering and “censorship” aren’t the same
💾 7:28 How NFTs, ordinals, and BRC-20s created the “spam” problem
🧱 8:51 The Genesis block message vs. today’s onchain data
🔍 13:27 What op_return does and why its size limit matters
⚔️ 22:04 Why the proposed change has split the Bitcoin community
📈 26:25 Can Bitcoin stay censorship-resistant while filtering “spam”?
💣 30:26 Do economic incentives make “spam” filters useless?
🧰 34:17 Why some believe filters still work to protect blockspace
💰 36:05 Would higher fees from non-payment data help miners secure Bitcoin?
🧮 42:06 Does more data make it harder to run a node?
🧭 46:04 Can Bitcoin fight storage data without hurting its core principles?
⚡ 50:37 What counts as a “real” layer 2 on Bitcoin
🧱 55:55 How much support the Knots software actually has
🧩 1:00:35 Could this debate cause a Bitcoin chain split?
🔚 1:04:22 Closing thoughts on what’s next for the network
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More shows like Unchained
View all
CoinDesk Podcast Network
645 Listeners
The Breakdown
744 Listeners
The Pomp Podcast
1,842 Listeners
On The Brink with Castle Island
289 Listeners
What Bitcoin Did
263 Listeners
Markets Outlook
138 Listeners
The Wolf Of All Streets
240 Listeners
Empire
167 Listeners
Supply Shock
110 Listeners
Coin Stories
433 Listeners
Raoul Pal: The Journey Man
129 Listeners
Forward Guidance
270 Listeners
The Milk Road Show
47 Listeners
1000x
6 Listeners
Limitless Podcast
44 Listeners