Bitcoin news is no stranger to drama, but this week’s leak about Luke Dashjr planning a Bitcoin hard fork has left the community reeling.
Dashjr, lead maintainer of the Bitcoin Knots node implementation, isn’t shy about controversy. However, this latest idea may be the most divisive yet.
Bitcoin News: What’s Really Up With the Hard Fork?
Here’s the gist: In leaked messages shared with The Rage, Dashjr suggests a Bitcoin hard fork that would essentially empower a multisig committee to retroactively censor data on the blockchain.
The specific target? Illicit and non-monetary transactions, most dramatically, the hypothetical specter of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
Under Dashjr’s plan, this committee would review questionable transactions and replace objectionable data with a zero-knowledge proof, letting node operators remove the offending information but still prove the transaction is valid.
Dashjr believes this drastic change is necessary to protect node operators from theoretically hosting illegal or dangerous material, since every full node mirrors the blockchain’s entire transaction history. As he puts it:
“Right now the only options would be Bitcoin dies or we have to trust someone.”
It’s the kind of black-or-white framing that gives the debate its intensity. The plan would require support for a consensus change, meaning a real, live Bitcoin hard fork.
Why The Outrage?
The community reaction has been seismic, of course, with Bitcoiners and privacy advocates all weighing in.
The biggest concern? Such a move would fundamentally clash with Bitcoin’s core principle of being a permissionless, censorship-resistant network.
By granting power to a trusted committee, critics warn, it opens the door for further censorship.
Who’s to say what else might get erased if the precedent is set? Suddenly, Bitcoin’s much-vaunted resistance to third-party control looks awfully shaky.
And in another twist, letters supposedly supporting the move are being drafted by third parties.
The Knots team opted to keep their name off those letters after consulting with Ocean’s legal counsel, seemingly wary of getting embroiled in even more political crossfire.
Bitcoin News: Core Bitcoiners Sound the Alarm
Jameson Lopp, cypherpunk, security expert, and long-time Bitcoin advocate, has been one of Dashjr’s greatest critics, calling out Knots repeatedly for attempting to censor the Bitcoin blockchain.
Upon hearing about the leaked messages, he commented:
“If you read the lengthy post about Luke Dashjr I published earlier this week, this latest insanity should not surprise you in the least.”
Lopp’s wider critique paints Dashjr’s approach as dangerously authoritarian, warning that introducing trusted groups undermines the very essence of Bitcoin today.
It risks shifting the community’s values toward centralized control. Lopp’s blog goes deeper, reflecting on Dashjr’s history of controversial proposals.
He calls Dashjr “anti-cypherpunk” with a habit of framing non-State-approved activity as criminal.
Lopp’s fundamental objection? Any move in the direction of committee-driven censorship is a slippery slope that could irreversibly change Bitcoin’s decentralized identity today.
Adam Back, Blockstream CEO and a legendary cryptographer who’s been pivotal to Bitcoin’s development since day one, didn’t mince words either. Responding on X, Back wrote:
“If you read the lengthy post about Luke Dashjr I published earlier this week, this latest insanity should not surprise you in the least.”
Back has long defended the importance of permissionless systems. For him, the notion that protocol developers (and, by extension, committees) could retroactively rewrite the blockchain is anathema to everything Bitcoin stands for.
Bitcoin today is owned by humanity, he argued, and the protocol developers are stewards. Critical changes should never centralize decision-making powers or enable censorship.
Coming Up Next in Bitcoin News
No matter what side you’re on, it’s clear Dashjr’s proposal is shaking up the status quo.
His supporters argue the plan is the only way to shield node operators from unthinkable legal risks, especially as regulations worldwide get tougher and threats grow more real.
Critics, meanwhile, fear that creating a “trusted” committee (even in the service of the greater good) could spiral into broader censorship, government demands, or punitive control.
That would undermine the very fabric that made Bitcoin a revolution in the first place.
One thing is for sure: This isn’t just a technical spat. It’s a full-blown philosophical battle about what Bitcoin really means today. And everybody in the space is watching what happens next.