Are non-financial uses recognized? Bitcoin Core's statement rethinks the Bitcoin ecosystem

The statement is essentially a formal response to the disputes surrounding Ordinals, inscriptions trading, and the data traffic related to non-financial uses.

Written by: ChandlerZ, Foresight News

Recently, the Bitcoin Core project released a joint statement titled “Bitcoin Core Development and Transaction Relay Strategy” on its official forum, proposing that non-financial uses on the Bitcoin network should not be restricted, and that miners and nodes should not refuse to relay and package such transactions. The statement conveys a reaffirmation of the Bitcoin network’s anti-censorship and protocol neutrality principles. However, in the current ecological context, this statement has also sparked extensive discussions among developers and the community.

Since the inscription mechanism sparked a boom in 2023, on-chain resource usage, network congestion, and controversy over the right to speak have become core issues in the Bitcoin ecosystem. The subsequent BRC20 protocol has driven diversification of asset forms and brought to the fore divisions around non-financial applications. The release of this announcement has reactivated the debate about the boundaries of the Bitcoin network, and whether Bitcoin will continue to expand the non-native application space in the future will depend on a deeper level of coordination and consensus between developers and users.

What signals does Bitcoin Core declare?

It is not difficult to see that this statement is essentially a formal response to the controversies surrounding Ordinals, inscription trading, and non-financial usage data traffic. The statement clearly points out that the Bitcoin network should adhere to the principles of decentralization and censorship resistance, and that the core development team has no right to prevent users from using on-chain space for non-financial purposes. Node operators and miners should also not selectively relay or package transactions based on subjective judgment. This stance effectively expresses a “technical neutrality” attitude towards inscriptions and other on-chain data applications.

From the background of the statement’s release, the Bitcoin Core team’s action is not a sudden shift, but rather a continuation of its long-standing position on relay policies: the responsibility of node software is to maximize the neutrality and reliability of network operation, rather than to make qualitative judgments about the purposes of transactions. Previously, there were sharp opposing opinions within the community regarding the issues of data inflation related to inscriptions, network congestion, and high transaction fees. This statement attempts to ease the long-standing differences between developers and node operators by strengthening consensus neutrality without interfering with transaction types.

However, as soon as the announcement was released, it quickly sparked a strong response at the community level. A number of developers and industry figures have expressed varying degrees of dissatisfaction and even doubts. Jameson Lopp, co-founder of Casa Wallet, believes that Bitcoin Core developers are not a unified entity, but speaking out in the form of a joint statement is suspected of losing the governance transparency that centralized projects should have; Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3, also pointed out that the “this is the way it is” statement obscures the fact that developers are gradually allowing the network structure to change. Luke Dashjr, a well-known developer from within Bitcoin Core, was even more vocal in his criticism of the poorly designed relay target, arguing that the lack of clarity on the definition of “which transactions should be forwarded” would lead to further confusion in the relay mechanism.

Behind the divergence, it actually reveals a fundamental disagreement within the current Bitcoin ecosystem regarding “network positioning.” Developers represented by Carl Horton believe that Bitcoin should focus on its function as a “peer-to-peer electronic cash system” rather than being used as a general data storage medium. This stands in stark contrast to practices such as inscriptions and BRC20. Although the current statement does not directly support such non-financial transactions, its “non-intervention” stance has been widely interpreted by the market as a tacit loosening of restrictions on on-chain expansion applications.

In the short term, this statement may reduce the subjective willingness of miners or nodes to exclude inscription-type transactions, which helps restore the network’s inclusiveness towards Ordinals. However, in the medium and long term, its implications for the entire Bitcoin ecosystem’s path choices and the redefinition of relationships between developers and users remain to be observed. The game between the core development team and other community entities may be far from over.

Internal Divisions and Technical Bottlenecks in the Bitcoin Ecosystem

Looking back at the development trajectory of the Bitcoin ecosystem in recent years, it can be seen that while there have been breakthroughs in innovation and exploration, the overall ecological construction still faces many structural challenges.

The ecosystem lacks a consistent technical direction and consensus mechanism, and there have long been differences in positions among core developers, miners, wallet service providers, and user groups. Due to the inherent limitations of the Bitcoin protocol’s native functions, there has never been a unified opinion on whether to support non-financial use cases. This division manifests in practice as a low acceptance of new technologies and a slow advancement of protocol evolution, which hinders ecological collaboration and construction efficiency.

Non-financial applications represented by inscriptions and the BRC20 protocol have injected some vitality into Bitcoin, but at the same time, they have also led to increased resource consumption and a heavier operational burden on nodes. Some miners and nodes selectively avoid these types of transactions, exacerbating the antagonistic sentiments among network participants. This inconsistency in technology and stance has made the entire ecosystem appear lacking in coordination and flexibility when dealing with emerging applications, making it difficult for innovation to form a sustained effect.

The recent statement from the Bitcoin Core team suggests that non-financial transactions should not be restricted or rejected, representing an intervention attempt in this situation. From an ecological perspective, this statement is expected to break down some technical barriers and cognitive gaps, releasing more space for the deployment of new projects and user participation. Once the core developers clearly oppose the stance of technical censorship and promote more neutral relay layers and packaging strategies, the development path surrounding non-financial applications will gain more certainty. However, this does not mean that ecological issues will be fundamentally resolved; on the contrary, whether technological evolution can truly take root and whether the developer community can form an effective collaboration mechanism will still determine whether this statement can ultimately bring about substantial change.

New Gameplay, or the Turning Point of the Bitcoin Ecosystem

Some developers have a reserved attitude towards the statement recently released by the Bitcoin Core project, but the statement clarifies the Bitcoin network’s open stance on non-financial uses, providing a relatively relaxed policy environment for ecological innovation.

Currently, the development of traditional projects in the Bitcoin ecosystem is slowing down, and the expansion of technology and applications is facing certain limitations. In this context, paying attention to emerging projects that can seize the opportunity of this policy adjustment may have more room for growth. Although these innovations bring some controversies, such as their impact on network load and stability, they also demonstrate the potential for diversified development of the Bitcoin network.

After all, what the Web3 ecosystem excels at is constantly trying and creating new things. Facing challenges and exploring new possibilities may be the direction for the future.