The Bitcoin Core Spam Controversy, Explained

There’s a fierce debate happening in the Bitcoin community right now, and it’s not just about 80 bytes of data.

A recent Bitcoin Core pull request reignited controversy over how arbitrary data is stored on the blockchain, sparking accusations of censorship, centralization, and even insider conflicts of interest. Some say Core is just cleaning up the code. Others say this is an attack on Bitcoin’s very principles.

I’m not a protocol dev. I’m just someone who cares deeply about Bitcoin. So I spent hours reading, watching, and researching both sides of the argument. In this video, I break it all down so you can understand:

0:00 Why this debate matters
1:20 What is OP_RETURN?
3:00 Why mempool diversity matters
6:10 The proposed change (and who’s behind it)
8:30 The controversy
10:00 Conflict of interest concerns
12:00 The deeper trust issue with Core
14:00 Why this PR? Why now?
16:30 Historical context of Core's other decisions
18:00 Core’s potential overconfidence
20:00 Is this setting a dangerous precedent?
22:00 What you can actually do about it
24:00 Everything is good for Bitcoin
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