The Bitcoin Core development team has announced that version 30 of the software, set for release in October 2025, will raise the default OP_RETURN data limit from 80 bytes to nearly 4 megabytes. This significant change will expand Bitcoin's on-chain data capacity and is seen as a victory for reformist developers led by Antoine Poinsot. The decision has sparked debate within the Bitcoin community, with concerns about centralization, censorship resistance, and UTXO bloat. Critics like Jimmy Song argue that the update could lead to more on-chain spam. The push for a larger OP_RETURN has been ongoing since Peter Todd's proposal in April, highlighting a divide between developers and users. Despite the controversy, Bitcoin Core remains the dominant protocol implementation, but alternative options like Bitcoin Knots are gaining traction. The upcoming version 30 release and recent changes in node distributions signal a pivotal moment for Bitcoin's future direction. Read more AI-generated news on: https://app.chaingpt.org/news