Author: Clark Moody 2021-04-16 13:59:01
Published on: 2021-04-16T13:59:01+00:00
A proposal for a Bitcoin Improvement Protocol (BIP) has been shared by Christopher Gilliard. The BIP suggests reducing the size of the Bitcoin blockchain by removing all but one OP_RETURN output per block, which accounts for 2.5 GB of the current 386 GB chain. Some of these unspendable outputs have non-zero value, meaning they are essentially paying the rest of the coin holders via supply deflation. Gilliard is concerned about the coordination required to implement this change and the centralization it may require in constructing the Merkle Tree. However, he notes that Bitcoin nodes can safely discard OP_RETURN outputs at any time, clearing up disk space without affecting the integrity of the chain. The proposal can be found on GitHub for review and discussion.
Updated on: 2023-06-14T20:06:52.351567+00:00