Adam Back Warns Against Consensus Change in Bitcoin Spam Debate

Last updated on March 8th, 2026 at 11:05 pm

Adam Back has pushed back against a growing effort within the Bitcoin community to reduce so-called Ordinals-related “spam,” arguing that proposed changes could damage trust in the network more than the problem itself.

The debate centres on Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 110 (BIP-110), a draft plan introduced by pseudonymous developer Dathon Ohm to temporarily restrict the amount of arbitrary data stored in transactions for one year.

permissionless censorship-resistant, decentralized systems are hard to censor. by design. bip110 doesn’t change that, it reckless and breaks multiple things for regular users.
— Adam Back (@adam3us) February 15, 2026

In comments posted on X, Back said that while Bitcoin should remain focused on sound money principles, introducing consensus-level restrictions to limit non-financial data could undermine the network’s reputation as a stable and predictable monetary system. He described the proposal as lacking broad agreement and warned that rushed changes could create unintended risks, including potential issues around transaction outputs becoming unspendable.

Node split deepens as OP_RETURN debate continues

The proposal comes amid rising tension over what types of activity should be allowed on the Bitcoin network. BIP-110 aims to temporarily cap data sizes to give developers and users time to evaluate long-term solutions, but critics argue that even temporary consensus changes carry technical and reputational risks. According to the proposal details, the change would run for about 12 months before being reviewed.

Support for BIP-110 has largely come from users running Bitcoin Knots, which has gained visibility following controversy surrounding Bitcoin Core and its decision to remove the long-standing OP_RETURN data limit in late 2025. That change opened the door for more non-financial transactions and reignited arguments about whether Bitcoin should prioritize payments over data storage.

Some supporters of data-heavy use cases say ecosystems like Ordinals and Runes have contributed significant transaction fees that strengthen network security, especially as block rewards continue to halve over time.

Ordinals activity declines despite earlier fee boom

Still, recent on-chain data suggests enthusiasm has cooled. Figures from Dune Analytics show inscription fees dropped sharply by late 2025, often generating less than $10,000 per day for miners, a steep decline from peaks seen in late 2023 when fees briefly approached $10 million in a single day.

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