Saylor Drops 110 Reasons Bitcoin Should Probably Just Stay Bitcoin

A Bitcoin Improvement Proposal aimed at curbing onchain data embedding has split developers, miners and companies ahead of an August mandatory signaling window, with backing from just 1% of miners recorded on the proposal's monitoring dashboard. The dispute centers on BIP-110, a soft fork that would limit most new transaction outputs to 34 bytes, restore an 83-byte cap on OP_RETURN outputs, restrict certain witness elements to 256 bytes and temporarily limit several Taproot features commonly used for inscriptions. Proponents argue the measures would reduce blockchain spam and reinforce $BTC's role as money, while critics maintain the change would invalidate currently valid, fee-paying transactions and establish a precedent for future protocol alterations.

Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor opposed the proposal on X, writing, "There are 110 things more dangerous to Bitcoin than spam. BIP 110 turns a spam dispute into a consensus change that would invalidate some currently valid, fee-paying transactions. That precedent is the danger. We should save our energy for threats that really matter." Casa Chief Security Officer Jameson Lopp said in a February blog post, "Bitcoin's strength lies in its censorship resistance and predictability. BIP-110 signals that the protocol can be altered to censor subjectively 'undesirable' transactions, eroding its image as permissionless programmable money." Lopp, along with developer Luke Dashjr, Bitcoin advocate Samson Mow and Blockstream CEO Adam Back, has publicly weighed in on the proposal, which targets the text, images and token metadata often carried in transaction scripts and witness data.

Back framed the protocol change as a sovereignty issue, writing on X, "If you won't listen to reason, educate yourself, learn, the same radical freedom applies to you: your permissionless recourse is to club together and create a fork." He added, "Bitcoin won't be joining it," reflecting the argument that $BTC's consensus process is designed to resist unilateral changes even as supporters remain free to launch a competing chain. The proposal's origins trace back to early 2023, with the current round of debate intensifying as the August signaling deadline approaches and miners, node operators and businesses evaluate whether to support the restrictions.

BIP-110's mandatory signaling period begins in August, after which the proposal's monitoring dashboard will track whether the network of miners crosses the threshold required to activate the soft fork. The figures listed in the proposal, including the 34-byte output limit, the 83-byte OP_RETURN cap and the 256-byte witness cap, would apply to new transactions under the tightened rules, with the Taproot feature restrictions set as a temporary measure. As of the latest dashboard data, only 1% of miners have signaled support, leaving the activation outcome contingent on participation in the months ahead.