Knots leader says Bitcoin Core v30 could host illegal adult content

Knots community leader Bitcoin Mechanic claims that new default data storage limits could force anyone who upgrades to the latest version of Bitcoin Core to also host and relay illegal adult content.

Next month, Bitcoin Core version 30 (v30) is scheduled to ease its data storage limitations. This means that, by default, it will accept transactions with 100,000 bytes of data unrelated to the on-chain movement of bitcoin (BTC) into its default mempool.

However, the Knots community views that 1,200X increase from approximately 83 bytes in v29 as a terrible idea and will be retaining the old data cap.

For the most part, the 83-byte mempool limitation of Core and Knots has kept more than 99% of transactions below that data storage cap.

Although some workarounds exist to cram large files into OP_RETURN datacarrier outputs that technically comply with consensus rules, the default filter has served as a deterrent for more than a decade.

Soon, however, Core node operators who upgrade their OP_RETURN datacarrier limits in v30 — who have filtered out most quantities of arbitrary data in v29 and all prior versions — might no longer filter out potentially illegal content.

Illegal content on the Bitcoin blockchain

Bitcoin Mechanic claimed strong motivation for pornography perpetrators to exploit v30: “Getting other people to store it for you is vastly preferable to storing or hosting it yourself. Particularly if the storage medium is widely distributed.”

Over the past few days, the Knots community leader has repeatedly blasted Core developers for morally compromising node operators.

In his view, changing defaults to accommodate larger illegal files or other forms of reprehensible content is morally indefensible.

Moreover, the OP_RETURN change in v30 has little to do with using BTC for “peer-to-peer digital cash,” as datacarrier outputs have literally nothing to do with the on-chain movement of BTC.

Read more: Bitcoin Core devs schedule OP_RETURN change for October

In most countries, possession of particular types of adult content is illegal and is punishable with prison sentences.

Judges have been lenient in sentencing certain defendants in cases where storage might have been inadvertent or the person caught with the content did not create it, but preventing it in the first place should be a priority.

Beyond this type of illegal content, the Knots community has also expressed concern about potential malicious content enabled by v30 changes like computer viruses, malware, and other dangerous data.

If arbitrary data proliferates across nodes with v30, it might become possible to use the Bitcoin node network as an attack vector factor by adding malicious code into the Bitcoin network’s most popular mempool.