A 12-Year-Old Bitcoin Dispute Returns as BIP-110 Divides the Community

Bitcoin, Blockchain BIP-110, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Core, Bitcoin Knots, David Bailey, Luke Dashjr, Ordinals

Nakamoto CEO David Bailey has resurfaced a 2014 controversy involving developer Luke Dashjr. He argues the record disqualifies Dashjr from steering Bitcoin (BTC) as the BIP-110 fight intensifies.

The claim revives a dispute over blacklists Dashjr once built into a version of Bitcoin’s software. It resurfaces as he backs BIP-110, his proposed one-year ban on storing images and other non-money data on Bitcoin.

Bailey Points to a 12-Year-Old Blacklisting Incident

On Friday, Bailey wrote that Dashjr secretly added Bitcoin address blacklists to the Gentoo Linux package he maintained in 2014.

Back in 2014 Luke secretly added bitcoin address blacklisting to Gentoo repository. His judgement cannot be trusted to run a trillion dollar asset as sole maintainer. I’m not denying he’s a brilliant person, but anyone with eyes can see it’s a non-starterhttps://t.co/r0Btv1ZrWZ

— David Bailey🇵🇷 $2.0mm/btc is the floor (@DavidFBailey) July 10, 2026

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The 2014 patch shipped on 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.

Even then, a fellow Core developer said such changes belonged in a separately named version, not the default software.

Supporters stress the context. Dashjr reversed the default, made it optional, and apologized, and Bitcoin Core never shipped the blacklists. That same developer now drives Bitcoin’s anti-spam rule change.

BIP-110 Turns an Old Dispute Into a Trust Test

The rule targets Ordinals inscriptions, the images and text people embed on Bitcoin, which backers call spam. 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, known as nodes, during 2025’s spam fight, data shows. He calls the fight existential, warning Bitcoin fails if the proposal fails.

Miners can back the change by flagging the blocks they mine. BIP-110 needs 55% of them, below Bitcoin’s usual 95% bar. Yet support has stayed under 1% since December 2025, never topping 0.79%.

Even so, computers running the software plan to reject any block that withholds support from early August. The move echoes 2017, when users forced an upgrade called SegWit the same way. That push carried broad market backing. BIP-110 does not.

Prominent voices oppose the plan. MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor called it a self-inflicted protocol risk. Blockstream’s Adam Back warned of fork risk that could strand supporters on a separate chain.

Bailey also argued that Wall Street misjudges the stakes. If the network ever split, he asked, which side would the cash-settled futures on the CME exchange treat as the real Bitcoin?

“very clear to me the Wall Street universe has no idea how Bitcoin governance works. Like which chaintip does a cash settled Bitcoin future traded on the CME settle against? Whether TradFi like it or not, they’re locked in the insane asylum with all of us,” Bailey added.

Bitcoin’s market value sits near $1.3 trillion. Critics say that trillion-dollar market value should not hinge on one developer’s preferences.

Dashjr is not Bitcoin Core’s sole maintainer, a role shared among several contributors. His direct influence runs through Knots and the people who run it.

The activation window opens in early August. Back has dismissed that deadline as the road to a minority altcoin, a small spinoff few would follow. The 2014 fight now stands in for a bigger question, who gets to shape Bitcoin.

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Bitcoin Developers are Fighting Over What the Blockchain is For

Bitcoin, Blockchain Adam Back, BIP-110, Bitcoin, Blockchain Development, Inscriptions, Luke Dashjr, Ordinals

Ordinals developers say their technology will survive BIP-110, a proposed rule change that aims to stop people from storing files on Bitcoin. The fight comes down to one question. Should Bitcoin (BTC) handle only money, or anything users pay for?

Inscriptions let people store images and text on the Bitcoin blockchain, similar to NFTs. BIP-110 would block most of that data for one year. Supporters call it spam, while critics say Bitcoin should stay open to everyone.

What Would BIP-110 Change for Bitcoin?

Every Bitcoin transaction can carry a little extra data, and inscriptions use that space to store pictures and messages forever. The proposal would shrink the allowed space to 256 bytes per piece, about one short paragraph of text.

That limit would break the storage method inscriptions use today. The rule would last for one year, then switch off automatically, and old coins would not be affected.

Its author, who writes under the pen name Dathon Ohm, credits Bitcoin Knots maintainer Luke Dashjr for the first draft.

Miners vote by adding a small flag to the blocks they mine. The plan needs 1,109 flagged blocks out of 2,016 in a two-week window. However, the public monitor counted just three flagged blocks as of June 30, under 1%.

BIP-110 miner signaling chart showing 0.73% support versus the 55% activation threshold, alt text "BIP-110 signaling status", Source: bip110.org monitor] — BIP-110 miner signaling chart showing 0.73% support versus the 55% activation threshold, alt text “BIP-110 signaling status”, Source: bip110.org monitor

Support has never passed 1% since voting opened in December 2025. The best two-week stretch reached 0.79% in mid-June.

Here is the twist. The plan does not need a majority to activate. From around early August, computers running the BIP-110 software will reject blocks that do not carry the flag.

Blockstream CEO Adam Back has warned of fork risk, meaning Bitcoin could split into two competing versions. MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor called the plan a self-inflicted risk.

Dashjr, for his part, framed the stakes as existential on Thursday.

“If BIP110 fails, Bitcoin fails with it. I am not interested in any CBDC, much less an unregulated CBDC pretending to be decentralised,” he wrote.

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A CBDC is a government-issued digital currency. In his view, a Bitcoin that cannot reject spam loses what makes it different.

Ordinals Developers Say They Are Ready

On July 2, Ordinals developer lifofifoX published a fix that stores data in a new way. It cuts files into small, allowed pieces instead of using the method that BIP-110 bans. In short, inscriptions would keep working even if the rule passes.

Ordinals creator Casey Rodarmor approved the fix the same day.

“Looks good to me! Let’s wait until BIP-110 activates to merge this,” Rodarmor wrote on GitHub.

The other side has already hit back, filing a counter-update to Bitcoin Knots, the software most BIP-110 supporters run. He argues the software simply does not notice the new format, letting it slip past the size checks.

The back-and-forth echoes an earlier inscription debate that also split the community.

Money sits at the center of the fight. In October 2024, Runes, a similar data-based format, drove a 32% fee increase that paid miners.

In contrast, supporters say the volunteers who run Bitcoin’s network computers must store all that data forever and get nothing for it.

The forced voting phase is about five weeks away. Back has already dismissed the August deadline as a path to a minority altcoin, a spinoff coin few would follow.

The coming weeks will show whether the miner’s silence means opposition or indifference.

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