F2Pool co-founder refuses BIP-444 Bitcoin soft fork, says it’s ’a bad idea’

2 hours ago

Chun Wang, co-founder of large Bitcoin mining excavation F2Pool, has pushed backmost against a projected impermanent brushed fork aimed astatine limiting information spam connected the Bitcoin network.

Wang wrote successful a Monday X post that “BIP-444 is simply a atrocious idea.” He added that he, and presumably F2Pool, are “not going to brushed fork anything,” whether it is “temporary oregon not.”

“Feel bittersweet that immoderate devs [are] moving further and further successful the incorrect direction,” helium said.

Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP)-444 is simply a impermanent soft-fork connection for the Bitcoin web aimed astatine restricting the inclusion of arbitrary data, which its proponents presumption chiefly arsenic spam. The brushed fork would bounds non-transaction information — which enables alternate uses for the Bitcoin blockchain — to 83 bytes, among different limitations.

Bitcoin Core, Bitcoin Mining, F2Pool, Mining Pools

BIP-444 and its raison d’être

BIP-444 appears to beryllium a effect to a precocious September update from leading Bitcoin node bundle Bitcoin Core. The update successful question removed the 80-byte headdress connected OP_RETURN, a portion of a transaction publication that allows users to embed arbitrary data.

Many person viewed the alteration arsenic firm seizure of the Bitcoin blockchain, since it allows companies to physique layer-twos and different infrastructure connected Bitcoin. Furthermore, immoderate reason that allowing much arbitrary information onchain results successful faster increases successful blockchain size, higher node requirements and greater centralization.

Others pointed retired that this is portion of a statement that dates backmost to the precise aboriginal days of Bitcoin (BTC). Additionally, proponents of the alteration item that it is hard to guarantee miners enforce a regularisation that goes against their ain incentives. A January 2024 review revealed that miners, specified arsenic F2Pool, were already including non-standard transactions that exceeded OP_RETURN limits.

The BIP, submitted by pseudonymous developer Dathon Ohm, is called a “Reduced Data Temporary Softfork” and suggests to “temporarily bounds the size of information fields astatine the statement level.” The bounds would past until Bitcoin artifact 987,424, oregon astir 1.27 years from now.

In a dedicated mailing list, the creator explained that “the thought is to powerfully reaffirm successful statement that bitcoin is money, not information storage.” “After a year, the brushed fork expires, giving america clip to travel up with a much imperishable solution,“ they said.

What does BIP-444 do?

BIP-444 is simply a impermanent brushed fork that closes astir data-embedding paths connected Bitcoin, including stricter size caps connected outputs and pushes, bans connected annex, chartless witnesser versions, heavy Taproot trees, OP_SUCCESS* and conditional branches. This limits Ordinal-based non-fungible token (NFT) creation, ample information payloads and analyzable scripts portion keeping elemental monetary unaffected.

The BIP substance argues that with modern information compression, it is imaginable to embed “objectionable images (often amerciable to adjacent possess) successful arsenic fewer arsenic 300–400 bytes.” This would let “a malicious histrion to excavation a azygous transaction with amerciable oregon universally abhorrent contented and credibly assertion that Bitcoin itself is simply a strategy for distributing it.”

Bitcoin developer and cypherpunk Peter Todd, connected the different hand, stated that the attack is besides ineffective successful achieving its intended goal. Todd demonstrated this by embedding the full BIP-444 substance successful a Bitcoin transaction that would beryllium compliant with the brushed fork.

Still, the proponent of the alteration highlighted that sending it costs implicit $100 successful fees and argued that if embedding amerciable information is made harder, “it would not marque consciousness to clasp node operators legally responsible.” They explained:

“If Bitcoin provides an officially supported method of storing arbitrary information […] node operators could conceivably beryllium held liable for possession and distribution.“

Still, immoderate presumption the favoritism arsenic arbitrary and unrealistic. One X idiosyncratic demonstrated the thought by sharing 2 commands that would stitchery information from an representation stored connected the Bitcoin network, highlighting however scarce the differences are successful practice.