Ripple CTO Schwartz: Bitcoin opinions "don't matter" after BIP-110 fails
In brief
- BIP-110 soft fork to limit Bitcoin data bloat failed to gain consensus
- Bitcoin block 962266 filled with NFT inscriptions and custom scripts, not traditional transfers
- Schwartz: paid resource consumption grants transaction legitimacy regardless of utility
- Bitcoin maintains neutrality principle—remains open as long as users pay fees
The BIP-110 Collapse and What Followed
The BIP-110 soft fork, designed to limit data on the Bitcoin network, failed. Days after its collapse, Bitcoin was flooded with deliberately heavy blocks — a clear signal from miners and users that the network would remain open to all transaction types.
Bitcoin block 962266 contained mostly NFT inscriptions and custom scripts rather than traditional monetary transfers. For advocates of BIP-110, this was proof that the network needed guardrails. For Schwartz, it was a demonstration of a different principle altogether.
Paid Resources, Neutral Networks
Schwartz's argument cuts to the philosophical core of public blockchains. Arguments about excessive resource consumption are legitimate only until that consumption is paid for, he stated. Once users pay network fees, the moral judgment of other participants becomes irrelevant.
Schwartz urged that demands to ban transactions be treated with extreme skepticism. The implication is clear: the moment a blockchain starts filtering transactions based on perceived utility rather than fee-market mechanics, it stops being truly neutral.
What Bitcoin Learned
The BIP-110 failure established that Bitcoin will remain neutral as long as its resources are paid for. This isn't a technical mandate. It's a social one. The network's users and miners chose, through consensus, not to restrict transaction types — even when those types annoyed them.
As the chief architect of the XRP Ledger, Schwartz has built systems with different trade-offs. But on this point, his view aligns with Bitcoin's demonstrated values: decentralization means accepting uses you don't approve of, so long as they play by the fee rules.
