BIP-110, a Bitcoin proposal to limit transaction data, has gained support from 3% of validators, requiring 55% for approval.
A proposal aimed at reducing spam on the Bitcoin network has garnered support from approximately 3% of validators. As of January 25, 729 out of 24,482 nodes in the Bitcoin blockchain have signaled their backing for the soft fork outlined in BIP-110.
Launched in early December 2025, BIP-110 intends to impose temporary restrictions on the data size allowed in transactions. The initiative, spearheaded by the Bitcoin Knots team, is designed for a one-year term and is open to modifications based on community input.
To be approved, the soft fork needs the endorsement of at least 55% of validators; however, interest from the top 20 mining pools has yet to materialize.
According to Luke Dash Jr., a Bitcoin Core developer and one of the proposal's authors, excessive data embedding places unnecessary pressure on node operators and detracts from Bitcoin's primary purpose of strengthening the financial system.
The proposal introduces several key restrictions:
- Transaction output size is capped at 34 bytes, with OP_RETURN limited to 83 bytes;
- Inscriptions using SegWit are restricted to 256 bytes;
- Only specific versions of SegWit (v0 and Taproot) are permitted;
- There are temporary limitations on certain aspects of the Taproot soft fork.
"All known use cases of [Bitcoin] will remain fully operational and unaffected," the authors maintain.
Discussions around transaction size limitations have intensified following the contentious Bitcoin Core v30 update last fall, which significantly raised the OP_RETURN limit from 80 bytes to 100,000 bytes. Critics assert that the increasing hardware demands on nodes due to spam threaten Bitcoin's viability as a decentralized monetary network. Matthew Crater, a Bitcoin advocate and researcher, likened spam's impact to a parasitic plant that suffocates a tree.
Additionally, in October, another developer known as dathonohm proposed BIP-444, which seeks to temporarily restrict the addition of arbitrary data to the blockchain to mitigate the risk of illegal content being posted.
