Catenaa, Friday, March 06, 2026-Slovak Bitcoin developer Martin Habovštiak successfully embedded a 66-kilobyte image directly in a single Bitcoin transaction, testing limits targeted by the anti-spam BIP-110 proposal.
The file, viewable as a standard TIFF image, omits OP_RETURN opcodes, Taproot, and OP_IF instructions, highlighting ways to bypass BIP-110’s intended restrictions.
BIP-110, formerly BIP-444, proposes a one-year soft fork to cap OP_RETURN outputs at 83 bytes, limit individual data pushes to 256 bytes, and restrict other scripting features that allow large data storage.
Proponents argue that large contiguous data files pose legal and operational risks for node operators.
Habovštiak’s demonstration challenges these claims, showing that sizable data can be stored without using restricted features.
He also produced a BIP-110-compliant version of the image, which was larger than the original, suggesting that the proposal might actually increase blockchain data rather than reduce it.
The demonstration emerges amid ongoing disputes between Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots communities over permissible data on the blockchain.
Bitcoin Knots, maintained by developer Luke Dashjr, implements BIP-110 and has grown to represent roughly 8.8% of network nodes. Dashjr has criticized Habovštiak’s work, disputing the characterization of the transaction as “contiguous.”
Habovštiak said the effort was a one-time experiment aimed at correcting what he viewed as misinformation from Knots supporters and stated he would not release the code to avoid encouraging blockchain spam or NFT-like activity.
The project underscores ongoing tensions in the Bitcoin developer ecosystem over how to balance data storage flexibility with network integrity.
