The stance taken by 31 Bitcoin Core developers divides the community over non-monetary transactions and use cases.
The Bitcoin community finds itself at the center of a heated debate after 31 Bitcoin Core developers published a joint statement outlining a non-interventionist approach to network usage, amid ongoing controversy over non-financial use cases.
The document, published on June 6 on the Bitcoin Core website, has sparked mixed reactions among bitcoiners. The developers clarified their position:
“This is not endorsing or condoning non-financial data usage, but accepting that as a censorship-resistant system, Bitcoin can and will be used for use cases not everyone agrees on.”
The statement emphasizes that Bitcoin is a network “defined by its users” and that core contributors are “not in a position” to enforce mandates on what software or policies people should choose. “Being free to run any software is the network’s primary safeguard against coercion,” it reads.
Community reactions
Not everyone welcomed the developers’ statement. Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3, criticized the tone of the release:
On the other hand, Jameson Lopp, founder of Casa, defended the letter, explaining:
Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr criticized the transaction relay policy goals outlined in the statement, stating:
According to the statement, the Core devs believe it is better for Bitcoin node software to “aim for a realistic sense of what will be included in the next block, rather than intervening between consenting transaction creators and miners to discourage activity that is largely technically harmless.”
The developers identified the main goals of transaction relay as predicting which Bitcoin transactions will be mined, speeding up block propagation, and helping miners identify transactions that pay fees.
The statement concludes:
“While we recognize that this view isn’t held universally by all users and developers, it is our sincere belief that it is in the best interest of Bitcoin and its users, and we hope our users agree.”
Meanwhile, the share of nodes running the implementation created by developer Luke Dashjr, Bitcoin Knots, has surpassed the 10% threshold, according to data from Clark Moody Bitcoin.
