Bitcoin Core maintainers who management a central GitHub repository are flexing a rarely-exercised energy to censor speech between builders.
This week, dozens of builders voted in cut up disagreement over a proposal to calm down the info storage skill in transactions utilizing a Bitcoin operation code, OP_RETURN.
The dispute led quite a lot of distinguished builders to decry what they noticed as banishment after mods muted senior members with passionate viewpoints.
On one aspect of the controversy, conservatives are arguing for sustaining and even additional constricting OP_RETURN’s 83-byte datacarrier restrict. On the opposing aspect, progressives wish to calm down that threshold, noting plentiful knowledge storage choices elsewhere.
As the controversy roared, GitHub moderators muted two main conservatives, Luke Dashjr and Bitcoin Mechanic. The 2 males argued towards easing filters that make using Bitcoin’s blockchain simpler for storing non-financial knowledge.
They identified company pursuits, spam dangers, and UTXO validation issues round lifting OP_RETURN’s knowledge storage skill.
In order that’s a brand new one….now Core devs simply block folks they do not like and we will not touch upon any of their PRs any extra.
cOnSeNsUs!!1 pic.twitter.com/hAqC1R0bXj
— Mechanic #FixTheFilters #300kb (@GrassFedBitcoin) April 30, 2025
The censorship of their speech incensed a neighborhood that values bitcoin’s (BTC) censorship-resistant properties.
Giacomo Zucco referred to as the moderators “absolutely out-of-control” and a “cabal of self-appointed politicians.” Michelle Weekley referred to as the censorship “antithetical to the ethos of bitcoin.”
One other observer thought of it “concerted community sabotage.”
Censoring OP_RETURN speech
Jameson Lopp, main the opposite aspect of the controversy, conveniently defended the “moderation” of GitHub that censored the speech of his opponents.
He blamed his muted interlocutors for advert hominem assaults, praising the censorship as a strategy to return focus to the technical pull request (PR). He additionally claimed that the GitHub repository maintainers had been solely blocking individuals who by no means contributed to Bitcoin Core.
In actuality, moderators muted a username belonging to Bitcoin Mechanic, who has contributed to Core growth for years. Additionally they muted numerous different contributors.
Rockstar Dev warned, “It seems ban season is in full swing.”
Samson Mow summarized the state of the OP_RETURN debate that has made #FixTheFilters pattern on X. “It’s supposed to be based on rough consensus. Anyone can see that there is no consensus on relaxing OP_RETURN limits.”
