The maintainer of Bitcoin Knots is reportedly considering the implementation of a multisig committee to retroactively alter the blockchain.
According to a report by The Rage, private messages reveal that Luke Dashjr, maintainer of Bitcoin Knots, has been considering the implementation of a hard fork to combat potentially illicit content on the blockchain.
The controversy stems from an ongoing debate between supporters of the alternative implementation Bitcoin Knots and those of the reference client Bitcoin Core. The dispute arose from Core’s intent to increase the OP_RETURN size to prevent non-monetary transactions from using more harmful methods on the blockchain.
Bitcoin Knots, maintained by Bitcoin Core contributor Luke Dashjr, implements filters to keep non-monetary data transactions out of a node’s mempool. Over the past year, the debate around Knots’ filters has intensified, with the narrative shifting from protecting node operators from “spam” to protecting them from child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
In the private messages shared with The Rage, Dashjr appears to acknowledge that mempool controls would be insufficient to prevent nodes from hosting CSAM material. The alleged proposal would include the implementation of a multisig quorum on Bitcoin, granting a designated group of people the ability to retroactively alter data hosted on the blockchain.
According to Dashjr’s description, the trusted multisig committee would review transactions and replace any data identified as CSAM with a zero-knowledge proof. Full-node operators could then remove such data from their nodes, altering their version of the blockchain, while still being able to prove that the transaction containing the flagged data is valid.
“Right now the only options would be Bitcoin dies or we have to trust someone,” Dashjr reportedly wrote.
Community reactions
When The Rage asked Dashjr for a comment on the alleged proposal, he reportedly replied: “You’re writing an article on completely unfounded lies?”
The initiative would raise concerns about altering Bitcoin’s permissionless nature, potentially undermining the blockchain’s censorship resistance. If the trusted committee enabled node operators to remove CSAM data, it would also gain the power to remove any other type of data deemed unfavorable, argues The Rage.
Reactions within the Bitcoin community have been mixed:
Jonas Schnelli, former Bitcoin developer and maintainer, stated:
Nicolas Dorier, founder of BTCPay Server, commented:
Calle, developer of the Cashu protocol, declared:
The developer Mononaut said:
Bitcoin Mechanic, Head of Communications at Ocean, clarified:
