Everything You Need to Know About the OP_RETURN Controversy That Is Tearing the Bitcoin Community Apart.

Is Bitcoin really in danger of becoming a spam machine?

Without them, Satoshi Nakamoto's gift to humanity would not have been able to continue moving in the right direction for a decade. I'm talking about the real heroes of the Bitcoin revolution: the developers of Bitcoin Core. However, controversy frequently arises within the closed community of Bitcoin Core developers.

A year ago, I already spoke of the risk of a new civil war in the Bitcoin world, in the face of differences of opinion between Bitcoin Developers and Bitcoin Influencers:

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This time, a new controversy has been making a lot of noise recently. This controversy is linked to the OP_RETURN opcode. This opcode is at the heart of the Bitcoin protocol, and it's about to change. A limit has always been set to prevent users from storing too much data in transactions. The limit is currently set at 83 bytes for the OP_RETURN opcode. This opcode was created to enable the inclusion of data on the Bitcoin blockchain while remaining light and unobtrusive. But this symbolic barrier is deemed unnecessary. Some Bitcoin Core developers even consider it counterproductive. The Bitcoin Core developers have therefore decided to remove the OP_RETURN opcode limit.

In response to this decision, many critics have pointed to the risk of a drift towards non-financial use. For some, Bitcoin risks becoming a spam machine. Others also point the finger at the centralization of technical decisions within the Bitcoin Core developer community.

In the midst of this controversy, I'd like to take a look at what's at stake for the Bitcoin system.

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