Rising backlash is being faced by Bitcoin Core as node operators protest censorship and policy changes, and the debate over neutrality intensifies.
“Bitcoin is and must remain censorship resistant.” That’s the promise, the conflict, and the definitive boundary that was established this week by Leonidas, the host of The Ordinal Show, as he weighed in on the intensifying Spam Wars, cautioning Bitcoin Core:
“Any serious attempt by Bitcoin Core to tighten policy rules or censor Ordinals and Runes transactions will be met with decisive action.”
A Dangerous Precedent: Bitcoin Core Warns Against Transaction Censorship
Leonidas maintains that the Bitcoin network was designed to be neutral, permissionless, and open to anyone willing to pay competitive fees. He stated that censoring JPEGs, memecoins, or any on-chain experiment under the guise of ‘spam’ is to undermine what sets Bitcoin apart: base-layer censorship resistance.
“There is no meaningful difference between normalizing the censorship of JPEG or memecoin transactions and normalizing the censorship of certain monetary transactions by nation-states. Both would set very dangerous precedents.”
He warns:
For anyone tracking the 2025 Spam Wars, the Core versus Knots debate is being seen everywhere, and node operators have begun voting with their feet, migrating to Knots due to its aggressive anti-spam functionality.
The number of Knots nodes has soared from 69 in early 2024 to more than 4,200 in September 2025, now constituting over 18% of the reachable network. This dramatic display of opposition is being directed against Core’s imminent v30 release.
More than just OP_RETURN data limitations are at stake here. It is a battle for the very essence of Bitcoin: should the protocol remain a strictly monetary settlement layer, or can it evolve to facilitate innovative on-chain uses, as long as transaction fees are paid?
Bitcoin’s New Revenue Engine: The Ordinals and Runes Perspective
According to Leonidas, the Ordinals and Runes ecosystem has generated over half a billion dollars in fees, providing support for miners and network security, while “Bitcoin is being used as money every day” apart from traditional narratives. Its proponents are tired of being gaslit by Knots proponents.
He states that miners are also not remaining on the sidelines. Many mining pools that control more than half of Bitcoin’s hash rate have privately indicated a readiness to accept any consensus-valid transaction, provided security and implementation are deemed sound. This is not merely nominal neutrality; it is how protocol resilience is achieved in practice.
A ‘Non-Negotiable’ Stance: Shinobi’s Defense of Censorship Resistance
The prevailing mood was best expressed by a comment from Bitcoin Core’s Shinobi:
“As retarded as I think all the sh*t they do is, I stand with the Degens. I will not participate or standby while a bunch of moralizing puritanical clowns try to undermine the very thing Bitcoin exists to be: a censorship resistant system.”
The sentiment is raw and frustrated, and it reflects a broader view among those who diverge from Knots’ philosophy: resistance to any transaction censorship is deemed non-negotiable, irrespective of whether the threat comes from JPEGs, memecoins, or nation-state financial conflicts.
Tensions continue to escalate on X and Nostr, as heated debates are being held by miners, node operators, and developers regarding almost every technical detail, from OP_RETURN limitations to what constitutes “spam.”
Fragmentation and chain splits have been made more than theoretical by the dramatic rise in Knots’ node share. As Bitcoin Core developer Peter Tood observed:
“This has gotten so out of hand that the Knots crowd are becoming a serious risk to Bitcoin.”
A clear message is being sent this week by Leonidas and many other community members: if adoption continues, Knots could reach 23% of the network by October, representing a critical turning point for consensus.
“We will not remain idle while transaction censorship is made commonplace on Bitcoin. We will champion the core principles that have always distinguished Bitcoin, including open access, censorship resistance, and base-layer neutrality.”
“To the gatekeepers at Bitcoin Core: Bitcoin is and must remain censorship resistant. Anything less would betray the very thing the world’s first digital currency was built to oppose.”
