F2Pool co-founder refuses BIP-444 Bitcoin soft fork, says it’s ‘a bad idea’
F2Pool co-founder Chun Wang rejected the proposed BIP-444 soft fork, calling it a bad idea and stating they will not implement it.Summary
Chun Wang, co-founder of the major Bitcoin mining pool F2Pool, publicly opposed Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP)-444, a temporary soft fork designed to restrict arbitrary data inclusion on the network, labeling it "a bad idea."
BIP-444 was proposed in response to Bitcoin Core removing the 80-byte cap on OP_RETURN, which allows embedding arbitrary data. Proponents of BIP-444, which suggests limiting non-transaction data to 83 bytes until block 987,424, argue that Bitcoin should remain focused on money, not data storage, citing concerns over embedding illegal content and increasing centralization.
However, Wang asserted that neither he nor F2Pool would soft fork anything, temporary or otherwise. Critics, including developer Peter Todd, argue the proposal is ineffective, as Todd demonstrated embedding the entire BIP-444 text within a compliant transaction. The debate reflects a long-standing tension regarding the use of the Bitcoin blockchain for Layer-2 infrastructure and data embedding.
(Source：Cointelegraph)