Bitcoin Core Developers Remove Transaction Data Limits in Upcoming Upgrade, Sparking Controversy

Bitcoin Core developers are set to enhance the protocol by removing the current limitation on transaction data in an upcoming network upgrade. This pivotal change, announced by developer Greg Sanders on GitHub on May 5th, will allow for default transaction relaying and mining with OP_RETURN outputs that exceed the previous cap of 80 bytes and will enable an unrestricted number of outputs. However, this initiative has drawn criticism due to a perceived lack of community consensus. Marty Bent, Managing Partner at the Ten31 Fund, voiced concerns, stating, “There is currently no consensus on the OP_RETURN issue.” OP_RETURN outputs, which enable the storage of minor data on the blockchain, have surged in popularity amid the recent boom of ordered data in early 2024. Unlike standard transaction outputs, they remain unspendable and do not contribute to the Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) set.