The Impact of the Bitcoin Community Discussion on Lifting OP_Return Restrictions

Recently, there has been a proposal to remove the limit on the size of OP_Return outputs in the Bitcoin core software repository. OP_Return is an output type used to store non-transactional data on the Bitcoin blockchain. Currently, Bitcoin core nodes do not relay transactions that exceed the limit, but they do accept blocks that contain such transactions.

This proposal has sparked controversy. Supporters believe that lifting the restrictions can better adapt to market demands, while opponents worry that it will increase spam.

In fact, a large number of images have been stored on the Bitcoin blockchain through Ordinals technology. According to statistics, there have been over 88 million inscriptions, with transaction fees paid amounting to approximately 7,000 Bitcoins. Many enterprises are also investing in the field of Ordinals.

From the perspective of the motivation for creating transactions, storing images on the blockchain is not always spam. Many people do this out of personal interest or for speculative purposes. Of course, if someone maliciously attacks others, that is spam. But overall, the value of images on the blockchain is subjective, and the market should decide.

Currently, retaining the OP_Return limitation can no longer prevent the phenomenon of image storage. Using Taproot input scripts to store images is cheaper and has been widely adopted.

From the perspective of Bitcoin mining, many large mining companies support Ordinals, believing it to be an important source of income. If OP_Return is further restricted, miners may bypass the public mempool to receive transactions directly, which could lead to some negative effects, such as damaging block propagation efficiency and exacerbating mining centralization.

For node operators, increasing the usage of OP_Return may actually make running a full node easier. OP_Return does not lead to UTXO set expansion and has lower validation requirements.

From the perspective of resisting censorship, transaction fees are fundamentally what prevents spam information. Regardless of the content of the transaction, as long as one is willing to pay a sufficiently high fee, it can enter the blockchain. This is the basic security model of Bitcoin.

Overall, removing the OP_Return limit may be a choice that aligns with economic realities. This helps maintain the competitiveness of the public mempool and preserves the decentralization of the Bitcoin network. While there may be some chaos in the short term, in the long run, the Bitcoin ecosystem will become healthier and stronger as a result.