A leaked conversation has revealed that Luke Dashjr, the lead maintainer of the Bitcoin Knots client, is considering a hard fork that would grant a trusted multisig committee the authority to retroactively censor and alter data on the Bitcoin blockchain. The proposal, aimed at removing illicit content such as child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and non-monetary data like Ordinals and Runes, represents a dramatic escalation in the long-standing feud between Bitcoin Knots and Bitcoin Core developers over how to handle transactions deemed "spam."
Dashjr's plan involves creating a quorum that could review flagged transactions, strip out objectionable data, and replace it with a zero-knowledge proof to maintain transaction validity while modifying the chain's history. He justified this move by stating, "Right now the only options would be Bitcoin dies or we have to trust someone," highlighting concerns about node operators potentially hosting illegal content. This idea dates back to earlier debates, where Core explored adjusting op_return sizes, while Knots took a stricter approach by filtering such transactions from its memool.
The community reaction has been overwhelmingly critical. Jameson Lopp, a prominent cypherpunk and Bitcoin advocate, condemned the proposal as "dangerously authoritarian," warning it undermines Bitcoin's decentralized ethos. Similarly, Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, echoed concerns, emphasizing that any move toward committee-driven censorship contradicts Bitcoin's permissionless foundation. Critics argue that granting such power sets a dangerous precedent, potentially leading to broader censorship under KYC/AML rules and exposing node operators to legal risks if they fail to comply with takedown demands.