David Bailey has revived a 12-year-old controversy involving developer Luke Dashjr to challenge his current Bitcoin governance push. According to reports from CoinDesk, Bailey wrote on Friday that Dashjr secretly added Bitcoin address blacklists to the Gentoo Linux package he maintained in 2014. The 2014 patch shipped by default, blocking payments to gambling services such as SatoshiDice from the Gentoo build of Bitcoin software. Node operators noticed only when transactions failed, and the backlash filled a widely shared thread. Supporters stress the context, noting that Dashjr reversed the default, made it optional, and apologized, with Bitcoin Core never shipping the blacklists.
The rule targets Ordinals inscriptions, the images and text people embed on Bitcoin, which backers call spam. As reported by CoinDesk, Dashjr runs Bitcoin Knots, an alternative version of the software that already enforces the limit. Knots powered about a fifth of the network's public computers during 2025's spam fight, according to data. The proposal needs 55% miner support, below Bitcoin's usual 95% bar, yet support has stayed under 1% since December 2025, never topping 0.79%. Miners can back the change by flagging the blocks they mine. The measure would temporarily tighten limits on OP_RETURN and other data-carrying methods for one year, capping OP_RETURN at the old small size, blocking most arbitrary data chunks above 256 bytes, and restricting some script formats used mainly for data storage.
Blockstream CEO Adam Back has intensified his criticism of BIP-110, arguing that misconceptions about Bitcoin's architecture are fueling discussions over the proposal. As reported by AMBCrypto, Back contended that misconceptions about Bitcoin's architecture are fueling discussions over BIP 110 and the OP_RETURN policy. Acknowledging many BIP 110 proponents as well-intentioned newcomers, he added, "If these are the people with #110 in their handles, I'm sad to see them about to fork off and get disillusioned without understanding why bitcoin rejected 110 robustly." Back acknowledges that spam is a genuine issue but argues that Bitcoin already addresses it through market-driven mechanisms including transaction fees, miner incentives, and decentralized consensus, rather than restrictive rules. He further argued that BIP 110 goes against the permissionless nature of Bitcoin, concluding that anyone who disagrees with its direction can fork the network and impose their own regulations.
The activation window opens in early August, with the current signaling period running from block 957,600 to 959,615, and a voluntary lock-in deadline at block 961,542. As reported by CoinDesk, miner signaling has never risen above about 1% in any period and stands at zero in the current one, with no major mining pool behind it. Among nodes that store and relay the chain, adoption sits in the low single digits, carried almost entirely by Bitcoin Knots. Nodes running BIP-110 software would then begin rejecting any block that does not signal support, with activation projected near September. Back has dismissed that deadline as the road to a minority altcoin, a small spinoff few would follow. The proposal uses a modified activation process requiring miners to signal support in 1,109 of 2,016 blocks, equal to 55%, with mandatory signaling before block 963,648 and activation at block 965,664.
Market dynamics have intensified criticism of BIP-110, with recent data showing only 10 blocks out of 2,016 supported the temporary upgrade on July 4th. Adding further pressure, AMBCrypto reports that Ordinals activity has dropped to all-time lows, with fewer than 10,000 Ordinals added to the Bitcoin blockchain each day for the past month. This decline in Ordinals activity coincides with Bitcoin's price falling 45% over the past year, dropping from its peak of $124,500 to $63,901.24 at press time. Bitcoin's market value sits near $1.3 trillion, with critics saying that trillion-dollar market value should not hinge on one developer's preferences, while proponents argue that the proposal represents a fundamental shift away from Bitcoin's core principles of permissionless innovation and market-driven solutions.
