Bitcoin Core’s Major v30 Update Divides Community Over Massive OP_RETURN Data Expansion – Bearish for BTC?

Bitcoin Core released version 30.0 on October 12, removing the 80-byte OP_RETURN limit and increasing the default data carrier size to 100,000 bytes, effectively allowing nearly 4MB of arbitrary data per transaction while permitting multiple OP_RETURN ￰4￱ controversial upgrade has split the community, with community members like Eric Gens issuing the “ strongest warning ” against running the version due to spam risks and potential legal ￰5￱ the same time, Blockstream CEO Adam Back defended the update, arguing that it contains essential security patches from “ 200 most skilled people on the planet. “ Bitcoin Core v30.0 was released! It is available from: ￰0￱ Release notes: ￰1￱ — Bitcoin Core Project (@bitcoincoreorg) October 12, 2025 Technical Changes Trigger Philosophical War Over Bitcoin’s Purpose The update also reduced the minimum relay fee from 1 to 0.1 satoshis per vByte and implemented TRUC transaction support for Lightning Network ￰6￱ Core has announced that it will disclose five low-severity vulnerabilities fixed in v30 within two weeks, with versions 27.

x and older now at end-of-life ￰7￱ release marks Bitcoin’s most significant policy shift since the block size wars, as the alternative implementation Bitcoin Knots has grown to represent 28% of network nodes, up from just 67 nodes in March ￰8￱ CTO Pavol Rusnak announced he’s running Bitcoin Core v30, while critics urged users not to ￰9￱ great reason not to use ￰10￱ how shitcoin companies all support Core ￰2￱ — Matthew ￰11￱ (@mattkratter) October 12, 2025 Earlier this month, Nick Szabo warned that the “ very well-publicized increase in the OP_RETURN allowance very publicly invites more non-financial data onto Bitcoin ,” arguing that “ Bitcoin is money, not a data spam Dropbox .” The upgrade removed legacy BDB wallet support entirely, eliminating multiple wallet-related RPCs and requiring migration to the descriptor wallet ￰12￱ philosophical divide centers on Bitcoin’s core function, with Ordinals ecosystem leader Leonidas threatening last month to fund a Bitcoin Core fork backed by miners controlling over 50% of the hash rate if developers attempt to censor ￰13￱ claims that Ordinals and Runes have contributed over $500 million in transaction fees since ￰14￱ Patches Fuel Upgrade Pressure Despite Controversy Adam Back argued that “ socially attacking, urging rejection of security and robustness fixes ” constitutes “ itself an attack on Bitcoin ,” emphasizing the importance of v30’s security ￰15￱ criticized Luke Dashjr for “ unblocking, replying, and reblocking so that people can’t correct him in thread ,” calling it “ such a weak move ” and urging developers to rebase on v30 for half a dozen security bug ￰16￱ Core’s security disclosure policy states that five low-severity vulnerabilities fixed in v30 will be disclosed in two weeks, while any medium or high-severity fixes won’t be revealed until a year after ￰17￱ fixes in v30 have been backported to v29.2; however, developers noted that some vulnerabilities may be impossible to backport without revealing the issue to users before they can ￰18￱ we socially lose the ability to make rational changes, Bitcoin has far worse ￰19￱ attacking, urging rejection of security & robustness fixes from 200 most skilled people on the planet is itself an attack on ￰20￱ are security fixes in v30. — Adam Back (@adam3us) October 12, 2025 Luke Dashjr responded that security issues are “also fixed in Knots 29.2”.

He blamed “ people actively trying to hide security issues from Knots devs ,” claiming he was removed from the security list after serving for over a decade. Notably, Bitcoin Advocate Alan Watts also argued that “ Core v30 is not an existential threat to Bitcoin ,” noting that “ never again will nodes blindly update to the latest version ” and calling this increased vigilance “a great victory.” Data Expansion Stirs Block Size War-Era Tensions The OP_RETURN expansion allows Atomicals Virtual Machine to execute more complex contracts directly on Bitcoin, with supporters arguing it enables crowdfunding protocols to store all participation and validation data within a single ￰21￱ Adam previously noted , 105 million JPEGs now exist on-chain, up 20% since May, with average inscription costs of $8, displacing legitimate monetary ￰22￱ last month, Bitcoin Core developer Jimmy Song criticized the Taproot upgrade for overlooking the “ social attack surface ,” arguing that developers underestimated the unintended consequences of enabling non-financial transactions at ￰23￱ said Taproot failed to deliver on its promises of privacy and efficiency, with a poor multisig user experience making it “ basically a non-starter .” However, he acknowledged that future applications, such as BitVM and Ark, could potentially justify the upgrade’s ￰24￱ Core developer @jimmysong criticized Taproot upgrade for overlooking the “social attack surface” that allowed spam-like activity like Ordinals. #Bitcoin #Taproot ￰3￱ — ￰25￱ (@cryptonews) September 15, 2025 Back estimates Ordinals generate roughly 1% of excess fees, translating to approximately 0.1% of miner profits after network ￰26￱ spam industry generates $250 million annually in fees, but it also potentially damages Bitcoin’s reputation and prices out legitimate ￰27￱ suggested economic lobbying mechanisms where fee-paying users direct payments toward pools that filter JPEG ￰28￱ Bearish?

Big Uncertainty Ahead The most intellectually honest assessment acknowledges that Bitcoin faces a critical juncture, where recovery from the Friday-Weekend liquidation event must prove sustainable by reclaiming key resistance levels or risk a deeper ￰29￱ immediate challenge is breaking above $116,000 with conviction, which would validate the recovery and potentially trigger momentum buying toward the upper channel boundary around $120,000 – $126,000 ATH.