Unchained
Unchained
Laura Shin
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Bitcoin Core vs Knots: Why Developers Are Fighting Over a Coming Change - Ep. 918
1 hour 5 minutes Posted Oct 7, 2025 at 4:00 pm.
Intro
What the Core vs. Knots debate is really about
Why “spam” filtering and “censorship” aren’t the same
How NFTs, ordinals, and BRC-20s created the “spam” problem
The Genesis block message vs. today’s onchain data
What op_return does and why its size limit matters
Why the proposed change has split the Bitcoin community
Can Bitcoin stay censorship-resistant while filtering “spam”?
Do economic incentives make “spam” filters useless?
Why some believe filters still work to protect blockspace
Would higher fees from non-payment data help miners secure Bitcoin?
Does more data make it harder to run a node?
Can Bitcoin fight storage data without hurting its core principles?
What counts as a “real” layer 2 on Bitcoin
How much support the Knots software actually has
Could this debate cause a Bitcoin chain split?
Closing thoughts on what’s next for the network
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Show notes
On Monday, bitcoin hit a new all-time high of over $126,000, but Bitcoin’s biggest fight right now isn’t about price; it’s about purpose. 
Since 2023, image files and meme tokens have clogged the network, spiking fees and making everyday payments expensive. Bitcoin Core wants to lift an 80-byte data limit that's existed since 2014. Bitcoin Knots disagrees — and has built code to enforce a different limit. Should Bitcoin stay a payments network, or evolve into a platform that stores everything from NFTs to memecoins to experimental layer 2 protocols?
Blockstream CEO Adam Back and Bitcoin and Lightning developer Chris Guida debate whether removing limits on OP_RETURN protects Bitcoin from what they call “spam,” or opens the floodgates to it.
Plus: the real lesson from 2014 when Vitalik Buterin left Bitcoin, why miners can bypass any filter by renting hash rate, and whether 22% of nodes running different code actually matters in a decentralized network.
Thank you to our sponsors!
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Guests:
Chris Guida, Bitcoin and Lightning Ecosystem dev and Educator
Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream
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