Bitcoin.org maintainer Cøbra: Knots may replace Core as the reference software for running Bitcoin network nodes

Jinse Finance reported that Cøbra, the long-term maintainer of the official Bitcoin website Bitcoin.org, stated that Knots may replace Core as the reference software for running Bitcoin network nodes. Earlier this year, most senior developers of Bitcoin Core decided to make significant changes to OP_RETURN (a Bitcoin script tool widely used for storing arbitrary data on the blockchain) in October 2025. If nodes upgrade their software from the current Bitcoin Core 29 version to version 30, the new default settings in the Core software will accept and relay a large amount of data unrelated to on-chain bitcoin (BTC) transfers. In the view of Core developers, increasing the OP_RETURN data carrier limit can modernize the data storage role of the mempool and keep it consistent with the consensus rules of the Bitcoin ledger. However, from the perspective of Knots (a forked and dissenting version of the Core software), nodes should by default filter out most arbitrary data to prevent such behavior from occupying Bitcoin's valuable block space.