Jimmy Song Advocates for 'Conservative' Bitcoin Node Client to Preserve Decentralization

Bitcoin advocate Jimmy Song, co-founder of the non-profit ProductionReady, has called for the creation of a 'conservative' Bitcoin node client to preserve the cryptocurrency's monetary properties and strengthen network decentralization. Song, who focuses on funding open-source Bitcoin software development and education, emphasized the need for caution in implementing code changes unless there is overwhelming community support. 'The general principle is: if you're not sure a change makes the money better, don't make it,' he stated. ProductionReady plans to restore the 83-byte OP_Return data limit for arbitrary, non-monetary information in Bitcoin transactions. Song explained that keeping node storage costs low by limiting arbitrary data is essential to maintaining decentralization. 'When storage and bandwidth requirements grow, fewer people verify for themselves, and the network centralizes by default,' he noted. The issue of node storage and onchain spam became a contentious topic in 2025 after Bitcoin Core developers unilaterally changed the 83-byte data limit in Bitcoin Core version 30, increasing it to 100,000 bytes despite significant pushback from the community. The proposal to change the limit received about four times as many downvotes as upvotes on the GitHub pull request page. Bitcoin Core 30 went live in October 2025, leading to a surge in the number of Bitcoin Knots nodes, an alternative implementation of the node client software. As of now, there are 4,746 Bitcoin Knots nodes, representing over 21.7% of the network, according to Coin Dance. This marks a significant increase from the approximately 1% of nodes running Knots software in 2024 before the decision to remove the OP_Return function was announced.