Bitcoin nodes running BIP-110 crosses 2% as spam wars heat up

The fig of Bitcoin (BTC) nodes signaling enactment for Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 110 (BIP-110), a impermanent brushed fork limiting the magnitude of information included successful each transaction astatine the statement level, roseate to 2.38%. 

583 retired of 24,481 nodes are moving BIP-110, and the superior node bundle implementation for moving the brushed fork connection is Bitcoin Knots, according to The Bitcoin Portal.

BIP-110 limits the size of transaction outputs to 34 bytes and caps the OP_RETURN information bounds to 83 bytes. The impermanent brushed fork volition beryllium deployed for 1 year, with imaginable hold oregon alteration aft the 1-year term, according to the proposal’s GitHub page.

A timeline for BIP-110 deployment. Source: BIP-110.org

OP_RETURN is simply a publication codification that allows users to embed arbitrary information and has been the subject of aggravated debate wrong the Bitcoin assemblage pursuing the merchandise of Bitcoin Core mentation 30, the latest upgrade of the astir wide utilized Bitcoin node software.

The OP_RETURN bounds was capped astatine 83 bytes, which Bitcoin Core developers unilaterally removed successful Bitcoin Core mentation 30, pursuing a arguable propulsion request, archetypal projected successful April 2025. The connection was mostly opposed by the Bitcoin community.

The propulsion petition proposing the removal of arbitrary information limits connected Bitcoin. Source: GitHub

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The arbitrary information contented creates a disagreement wrong the Bitcoin community

The Bitcoin Core update that removed the information bounds went unrecorded successful October 2025, sparking a torrent of antagonistic feedback from critics, who accidental that removing the arbitrary information bounds incentivizes spam connected the Bitcoin ledger.

Arbitrary information increases the retention costs of running a Bitcoin node, and the prohibitive outgo leads to accrued centralization of the Bitcoin network. 

Bitcoin nodes tin beryllium tally connected consumer-grade computers, dissimilar high-throughput blockchains that make ample quantities of information and necessitate specialized hardware.

Hardware requirements for moving a Bitcoin node. Source: Cointelegraph

Increasing node hardware requirements undermines the Bitcoin protocol’s worth proposition of being a decentralized monetary network, according to critics. Bitcoin advocator and pedagogue Matthew Kratter said:

“It's similar 1 of those parasitical plants, similar ivy, wholly covering a tree, eating up the tree, and past the interior scaffolding collapses, and the ivy collapses due to the fact that it's fundamentally destroyed the structure. This is what spam has the imaginable to bash to Bitcoin.” 

Others similar Jameson Lopp, a Bitcoin Core contributor, enactment the uncapped OP_Return Limit, arguing that filters bash small to halt spam connected the network.

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