A newly surfaced Bitcoin Improvement Proposal, BIP-444, has ignited one of the most intense governance debates in the Bitcoin ecosystem since the block size wars. Published on October 24, 2025, by a pseudonymous contributor known as "dathonohm," the proposal aims to temporarily restrict the inclusion of arbitrary data in Bitcoin transactions through a one-year soft fork. This responds to concerns raised after the Bitcoin Core v30 update effectively removed data size caps on OP_RETURN outputs, allowing larger data payloads that could potentially host illegal content, such as child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
The draft proposal, not yet formally assigned a BIP number or submitted to the Bitcoin Development Mailing List, outlines several technical measures: limiting OP_RETURN data to 83 bytes, capping most script outputs at 34 bytes, restricting data push sizes to 256 bytes, invalidating unused or undefined script versions, limiting taproot control block size, and disabling OP_IF inside Tapscript. The last measure would effectively break Ordinals-style inscriptions, which have driven significant block space usage and miner fee revenue over the past two years.
Supporters, including longtime developer Luke Dashjr, frame the move as an "emergency response" to a "direct existential threat" to Bitcoin's decentralization. They argue that without restrictions, node operators could face criminal liability for hosting illegal data, potentially consolidating validation into a small set of legally protected institutional nodes. Dashjr stated on social media that the proposal is "already on track with no technical objections."
Critics, however, decry the proposal as "censorship theater" and warn of unintended consequences. Cryptographer Peter Todd and BitMEX Research highlighted that the change could create a censorship-based double-spend attack vector, where malicious actors embed illegal content to force chain reorganizations. Galaxy's head of research, Alex Thorn, called it "an attack on bitcoin" and "incredibly stupid," while developer Matt Corallo mocked the approach as "YOLO" compared to Bitcoin's cautious fork design norms. Critics also note that the proposal's temporary nature—set to expire at block height 987424—does not mitigate risks of funds being stranded or transactions retroactively invalidated.
The debate has escalated beyond GitHub and mailing lists to social media, with concerns that miner and user disagreements could lead to a chain split reminiscent of the 2017 Bitcoin/Bitcoin Cash schism. At press time, Bitcoin traded at $115,743, reflecting market uncertainty. The outcome will test Bitcoin's ability to balance neutrality as a settlement layer against real-world legal pressures.
HYPE