Jimmy Song Wants to Knock Out Core 30's OP_Return Limit: 83 Bytes of Glory Is Swinging Back

Jimmy Song, co-founder of ProductionReady, thinks Bitcoin needs a "conservative" node client to keep its monetary properties intact and decentralization strong. The non-profit, which funds open source Bitcoin node software development, has a "bias" against major code changes unless there's "overwhelming" community support. As Song told Cointelegraph: "If you're not sure a change makes the money better, don't make it."

ProductionReady wants to restore the 83-byte OP_Return data limit for arbitrary, non-monetary information in Bitcoin transactions. Why? Keeping node storage costs low is crucial for decentralization. "The more self-sovereign Bitcoin users are, the more decentralized and resilient the network becomes," Song explained. "That means keeping the cost of running a node low enough for ordinary people to do it."

When storage and bandwidth requirements spike, fewer people verify transactions themselves, and the network centralizes by default. A conservative client takes that tradeoff seriously.

The timing is spicy. Bitcoin Core 30, released in October 2025, removed the OP_Return limit entirely—bumping it from 83 bytes to 100,000 bytes despite major community pushback. The GitHub pull request got roughly 4 times more downvotes than upvotes. That decision triggered a historic surge in Bitcoin Knots adoption, with nodes running the alternative implementation jumping from about 1% of the network in 2024 to over 21.7% today—4,746 nodes total.

Bitcoin Core still dominates at 77.8% of the network, with Bitcoin Knots at 21.8%. But the trend is clear: when it comes to node software, many Bitcoiners are voting with their clients.