A heated debate is unfolding in the Bitcoin community over two competing proposals for the cryptocurrency's development. At stake are $25 million worth of locked transaction padding and the future of Ordinals, a protocol that allows users to attach data to individual satoshis.
The proposal put forth by Leonidas, a pseudonymous developer and co-founder of Runestone, is called DOG Mode. It would relax Bitcoin's relay policy, allowing transactions close to the full block size and reducing the dust limit from 1 satoshi to 0. This would release an estimated $25 million worth of locked padding back into circulation.
DOG Mode is a direct counter to BIP-110, an anti-spam proposal that aims to limit non-payment data on Bitcoin. Unlike DOG Mode, which requires no coordination or miner signaling, BIP-110 needs 55% miner support to pass.