First consider the upcoming Bitcoin Core 30 release slated for October 2025 which removes the longstanding 80 byte mempool limit on OP_RETURN outputs effectively allowing up to 100 kilobytes of arbitrary data per transaction. This is not mere speculation it was merged in June 2025 as documented in pull requests and discussed extensively on platforms like Bitcoin Stack Exchange and Bitcointalk. Proponents argue it aligns with consensus rules where such data is already possible through custom relaying but this ignores the practical shift from fringe abuse to normalized use.
First consider the upcoming Bitcoin Core 30 release slated for October 2025 which removes the longstanding 80 byte mempool limit on OP_RETURN outputs effectively allowing up to 100 kilobytes of arbitrary data per transaction. This is not mere speculation it was merged in June 2025 as documented in pull requests and discussed extensively on platforms like Bitcoin Stack Exchange and Bitcointalk. Proponents argue it aligns with consensus rules where such data is already possible through custom relaying but this ignores the practical shift from fringe abuse to normalized use.