How Bitcoin sets up to undergo another major fork in 2026

Bitcoin faces a significant ideological challenge regarding the amount of data stored on its ledger, centered around Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 444 (BIP-444). This proposal, supported by long-serving developer Luke Dashjr, aims to reverse a recent Bitcoin Core update (v30.0) that increased the OP_RETURN function's capacity from 80 bytes to 100,000 bytes, effectively turning Bitcoin into a limited data ledger.

Supporters of the rollback argue that the expanded capacity allows for the upload of illegal content, such as CSAM, exposing full node operators to legal liability simply for running the validating software. BIP-444 proposes a temporary one-year soft fork to drastically reduce OP_RETURN capacity and limit other data fields, allowing the community to reject data standardization at the consensus level while preserving legal neutrality.

The proposal has caused controversy due to its language, which critics found coercive, warning that dissenters could "end up forking into an altcoin like Bcash." Critics, including Alex Thorn of Galaxy Digital, view the soft fork as an "attack on Bitcoin." Despite the tension, the practical impact is currently limited as only about 6.5% of nodes have adopted the v30 update. This controversy signals a maturing governance dilemma for Bitcoin: balancing its foundational neutrality with the increasing use of blockchains as permanent data stores.

(Source：CryptoSlate)