Political tensions and Bitcoin Core v30 threaten to disconnect 3.000 nodes
- Bitcoin Core vs. Bitcoin Knots conflict deepens divide
- Removing OP_RETURN limit generates network of isolated nodes
- Bitcoin faces fragmentation with the arrival of v30
Bitcoin is facing a moment of technical and political tension with the imminent arrival of version 30 of the Bitcoin Core client, scheduled for October. The most controversial change is the removal of the old 80-byte limit for OP_RETURN fields, which has reignited a technical debate that remember the block size disputes experienced in 2017.
🚨 Bitcoin Cold War Alert 🚨
Nearly 3,000 Bitcoin nodes at risk as policy tensions escalate ahead of the new #BitcoinCore release. ⚠️
A critical moment for the network's future. 🔥 #cryptonews # Bitcoin #BTC #Blockchain #BitcoinCore #Decentralization pic.twitter.com/rjlcc5eJcb
— Crypto News Hunters 🎯 (@CryptoNewsHntrs) June 24, 2025
This change, implemented by Antoine Poinsot, caused a backlash among developers and node operators. In response, emerged an auto-ban script published on GitHub that isolates nodes running Bitcoin Knots — an alternative to Core that opposes the new relay policy. It is estimated that nearly 3.000 publicly accessible nodes, or about 13% of the network, could be affected.
The main criticism comes from developers like Luke Dashjr, who called the removal of the limit “complete insanity.” The OP_RETURN field, originally used for simple data entries, has been exploited by projects like BRC-20 and Ordinals tokens, congesting the network with high-volume, high-fee transactions.
The current split does not involve consensus rules, but it directly affects the relay policy and how data propagates between nodes in the network. This influences which transactions miners see first and therefore which are prioritized for inclusion in blocks.
The situation has become even more polarized with the spread of tools like btc-magic-guard, which uses iptables to block divergent clients. While the network still operates on shared consensus rules, the fragmentation of the relay infrastructure could compromise on-chain analytics, block propagation, and network efficiency.
Major miners like Foundry, F2Pool, and Binance Pool have yet to comment on their relay policy, leaving it unclear whether they will follow Core v30 or adopt their own policies. Silent resistance could make certain transactions less efficient or even economically unviable.
With Knots’ node count growing and an upgrade scheduled for the coming months, the risk of functional segregation between implementations becomes increasingly relevant for the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
You may also like
AI Capital Expenditure Faces a Dilemma: Accelerating Puts Pressure on Cash Flow, Slowing Down Undermines the Growth Narrative
Nomura Securities believes that the AI investment narrative is mired in an internal contradiction: if hyperscale cloud providers accelerate capital expenditures, their free cash flow will continue to be drained, raising doubts about the sustainability of financing; if they slow down, it would indicate a loss of confidence in AI demand and profitability expectations. Both paths lead to sell-offs. The crowded long positions accumulated during the AI agent boom in September have triggered large-scale stop-losses under negative catalysts, spreading to US Treasury bonds, exchange rates, and commodity markets, resulting in systemic deleveraging.
Amazon (AMZN.US) CEO: AWS cloud computing capacity is fully booked until 2027, and a large amount of capacity has already been committed by customers for 2028
On Friday, Jassy stated that with the growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, Amazon AWS cloud computing capacity is virtually sold out through 2027, and a significant portion of 2028 capacity has also been pre-booked by customers.
AI trading collapse: Will Anthropic postpone its "Super IPO"? The "scheduled listing date" in mid-November is approaching.
The time window is extremely tight—according to SEC regulations, the S-1 filing must be submitted by next week at the latest, and prediction markets estimate the probability of a listing within the year at around 80%. The sell-off in the AI sector has cast a shadow over the listing prospects, and the previous plan to go public in September has already fallen through. Several market participants say that Anthropic may face pressure to delay its listing, but some analysts point out that the company's urgent need for capital may drive it to stick to the original plan.
Crypto prices
More
