Ordinals Leader Leonidas Threatens Bitcoin Core Fork Over Censorship Fears
Ordinals ecosystem chief Leonidas issued an open letter threatening to fund a Bitcoin Core fork if builders try to censor Ordinals and Runes transactions, escalating tensions over Bitcoin’s future path forward of the controversial v30 improve scheduled for October 2025.
The menace emerges as Bitcoin Core v30 prepares to take away the 80-byte OP_RETURN restrict, which might doubtlessly increase on-chain information capability to just about 4MB per transaction.
The improve would dramatically enhance help for data-heavy inscriptions that critics label “JPEG spam.”
An open letter to Bitcoin Core,
Any critical try by Bitcoin Core to tighten coverage guidelines or censor Ordinals and Runes transactions will probably be met with decisive motion. If obligatory, the $DOG Army will fund the event and upkeep of an open supply fork of Bitcoin Core… https://t.co/qmWV5jXgYO
— Leonidas
$DOG (@LeonidasNFT) September 6, 2025
Technical Battleground Over Data Limits
Leonidas warned that any coverage tightening would immediate the “$DOG Army” to develop an open-source Bitcoin Core fork stripping coverage guidelines whereas sustaining consensus necessities.
The Ordinals chief claims help from over twenty Bitcoin startups and miners controlling greater than 50% of the hash charge.
The ecosystem has contributed over $500 million in transaction charges since 2023, although each day income dropped from $9.99 million in December 2023 to roughly $3,000 by August 2025.
Blockstream CEO Adam Back countered that 105 million JPEGs now exist on-chain, up 20% since May, with common prices of $8 per inscription.
He characterised the exercise as wasteful spam, displacing legit financial transactions whereas pricing out new customers.
Bitcoin Knots, another node implementation refusing v30’s expanded information insurance policies, elevated community share from 67 nodes in March 2024 to over 4,380 nodes representing 18% of the community.
The scheduled v30 improve will enable a number of OP_RETURN outputs per transaction whereas deprecating consumer configuration controls over information limits.
Node operators would lose the flexibility to limit arbitrary information inclusion by native coverage settings.
Core vs. Ordinals: The Philosophy Split
The battle facilities on basic disagreements about Bitcoin’s major operate.
Leonidas advocates preserving censorship resistance and open entry as foundational ideas, arguing that policy-based filtering units harmful precedents corresponding to state transaction censorship.
Back counters that the present system permits spam to displace financial exercise important to Bitcoin’s worth proposition.
He estimates Ordinals generate roughly 1% of extra charges, translating to roughly 0.1% of miner earnings after community changes.
Mining swimming pools face stress because the spam trade contributes $250 million yearly in charges whereas doubtlessly damaging Bitcoin’s fame and pricing out legit customers.
Back suggests financial lobbying mechanisms the place fee-paying customers direct funds towards swimming pools filtering JPEG transactions.
The debate extends past technical implementation to financial philosophy.
Ordinals supporters held Bitcoin’s position as a impartial base layer infrastructure supporting numerous purposes.
Critics preserve give attention to peer-to-peer cash switch as Bitcoin’s core mission.
Over twenty Bitcoin startups working economically related nodes have broadcast almost half of all transactions over two years.
These entities welcome expanded design area that will emerge from eradicating arbitrary coverage restrictions past consensus guidelines.
As it stands now, Bitcoin Core’s market dominance faces challenges as various implementations achieve adoption.
The menace of a well-funded fork backed by established ecosystem members significantly provides credibility to Leonidas’s ultimatum.
Technical Upgrade Intensifies Tensions
Bitcoin Core v30’s OP_RETURN enlargement marks probably the most vital coverage shift because the block measurement wars.
The improve removes decade-old spam deterrents whereas enabling information payloads approaching full block capability limits.
The data-carrier-size configuration is ready to face basic redefinition, permitting roughly 9 occasions extra information for equal numeric values.
This technical change successfully removes consumer management over arbitrary information acceptance in default node configurations.
Similarly, Mempool coverage shifts will settle for transactions carrying considerably extra non-monetary information.
Multiple OP_RETURN outputs per transaction turn into permissible, doubtlessly rising blockchain bloat and node useful resource necessities considerably.
Critics warn the adjustments might increase obstacles for brand spanking new node operators whereas decreasing decentralization.
Larger blockchain measurement, elevated storage wants, and better bandwidth consumption might restrict community participation accessibility.
Supporters argue that expanded capability promotes censorship resistance whereas enabling Layer 2 improvements utilizing Bitcoin as a belief anchor.
The October 2025 implementation timeline creates urgency across the fork menace.
Leonidas’s coalition seems ready to keep up various infrastructure if Bitcoin Core proceeds with perceived censorship mechanisms.
I do not suppose you should fear about that, Core has said why relaxed relay guidelines are preferable.
But if you would like to have enjoyable, be at liberty to run a counter-Knots marketing campaign to get as many individuals as attainable to run Core nodes.
— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) September 6, 2025
While a few of the group members query Leonidas’s motivation, others, together with the “$DOG Army,” are in help of his menace.
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