Recent discussions surrounding the future direction of Bitcoin have become heated, particularly following claims made about Luke Dashjr, a prominent maintainer of the Bitcoin Knots software. On September 25, an article from The Rage ignited the debate by alleging that Dashjr is advocating for a hard fork that would empower a trusted multisignature committee to make alterations to the blockchain retroactively, review transactions, and remove forbidden content.
A hard fork represents a significant divergence in the blockchain protocol, necessitating that all participants upgrade to the new version to maintain compatibility. The article cited purportedly leaked messages in which Dashjr suggested, “Either Bitcoin dies or we have to trust someone,” further fueling the controversy that spans discussions on immutability, censorship, and the role of developers in regulating the network.
In light of the accusations, Dashjr firmly rejected the claims, stating, “The truth is I have not proposed a hard fork or anything of the sort. These bad actors are just grasping at straws to slander me and try to undermine my efforts to save Bitcoin again.” A rapid response from The Rage followed, using social media to demand clarity on the origins of the leaked messages detailed in their story.
Dashjr reiterated his position multiple times over the next day, emphasizing, “Nope, nothing changed. Nobody is calling for a hard fork still.” In a subsequent post, he insisted, “There is no hard fork.”
The incident highlights a deeper rift between Dashjr’s Bitcoin Knots project and the more widely adopted Bitcoin Core software. Key differences exist in their transaction policies; Knots enforces stricter regulations prohibiting non-financial data like Ordinals inscriptions and Runes tokens, while core developers have taken a more lenient stance, allowing such data as long as it does not disrupt consensus.
The alleged hard fork proposal struck at the heart of this ongoing tension. Critics of Dashjr perceived the claims as a confirmation of their fears that his vision would necessitate a compromise on Bitcoin’s core principle of immutability. Conversely, his supporters argued that the leak represented an opportunistic attempt to undermine the discussion around enhanced spam filters for the network.
Among his defenders was Udi Wertheimer, co-founder of Taproot Wizards, a project focused on Bitcoin Ordinals, indicating that he would typically be aligned against Dashjr’s views. Wertheimer stated on social media, “Not a Luke fan but this is a hit piece and fake news. He is not proposing this.” He characterized the article as “sloppy low-quality propaganda” and emphasized that the leaked messages likely concerned hypothetical discussions on using zero-knowledge proofs to mitigate “spam” at Knots nodes.
Wertheimer concluded, “This is, as always, a nothing burger. It’s pretty obvious to me that this proposal never gets implemented, and even if it did, it does not censor the network and does not split the network, and remains fully compatible with core.”
In the wider context, Bitcoin’s price has experienced a decline; trading around $109,000, a decrease of over 2.2% in the last 24 hours and more than 5.5% for the week. While there is no direct correlation between the price drop and the controversy over Dashjr’s alleged intentions, the timing adds to the ongoing uncertainty within the crypto markets, often leading to amplified downward pressure.
