A 12-Year-Old Bitcoin Dispute Returns as BIP-110 Divides the Community
Nakamoto CEO David Bailey has resurfaced a 2014 controversy involving developer Luke Dashjr. He argues the report disqualifies Dashjr from steering Bitcoin (BTC) as the BIP-110 battle intensifies.
The declare revives a dispute over blacklists Dashjr as soon as constructed right into a model of Bitcoin’s software program. It resurfaces as he backs BIP-110, his proposed one-year ban on storing photos and different non-money knowledge on Bitcoin.
Bailey Points to a 12-Year-Old Blacklisting Incident
On Friday, Bailey wrote that Dashjr secretly added Bitcoin tackle blacklists to the Gentoo Linux bundle he maintained in 2014.
Follow us on X to get the newest information as it occurs
The 2014 patch shipped on by default, blocking funds to playing providers such as SatoshiDice from the Gentoo construct of Bitcoin software program. Node operators observed solely when transactions failed, and the backlash stuffed a broadly shared thread.
Even then, a fellow Core developer mentioned such adjustments belonged in a individually named model, not the default software program.
Supporters stress the context. Dashjr reversed the default, made it elective, and apologized, and Bitcoin Core by no means shipped the blacklists. That identical developer now drives Bitcoin’s anti-spam rule change.
BIP-110 Turns an Old Dispute Into a Trust Test
The rule targets Ordinals inscriptions, the photos and textual content folks embed on Bitcoin, which backers name spam. Dashjr runs Bitcoin Knots, another model of the software program that already enforces the restrict.
Knots powered a couple of fifth of the community’s public computer systems, identified as nodes, throughout 2025’s spam battle, data exhibits. He calls the battle existential, warning Bitcoin fails if the proposal fails.
Miners can again the change by flagging the blocks they mine. BIP-110 wants 55% of them, beneath Bitcoin’s common 95% bar. Yet help has stayed underneath 1% since December 2025, by no means topping 0.79%.
Even so, computer systems operating the software program plan to reject any block that withholds help from early August. The transfer echoes 2017, when customers compelled an improve referred to as SegWit the identical means. That push carried broad market backing. BIP-110 doesn’t.
Prominent voices oppose the plan. MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor referred to as it a self-inflicted protocol risk. Blockstream’s Adam Back warned of fork risk that would strand supporters on a separate chain.
Bailey additionally argued that Wall Street misjudges the stakes. If the community ever break up, he requested, which aspect would the cash-settled futures on the CME trade deal with as the actual Bitcoin?
“very clear to me the Wall Street universe has no concept how Bitcoin governance works. Like which chaintip does a money settled Bitcoin future traded on the CME settle in opposition to? Whether TradFi prefer it or not, they’re locked in the insane asylum with all of us,” Bailey added.
Bitcoin’s market worth sits close to $1.3 trillion. Critics say that trillion-dollar market value mustn’t hinge on one developer’s preferences.
Dashjr is just not Bitcoin Core’s sole maintainer, a job shared amongst a number of contributors. His direct affect runs by means of Knots and the individuals who run it.
The activation window opens in early August. Back has dismissed that deadline as the street to a minority altcoin, a small spinoff few would comply with. The 2014 battle now stands in for a much bigger query, who will get to form Bitcoin.
The put up A 12-Year-Old Bitcoin Dispute Returns as BIP-110 Divides the Community appeared first on BeInCrypto.
