Bitcoin Dev Martin Habovštiak tests network limits targeting BIP-110 claims

A Bitcoin developer, Martin Habovštiak, encoded a 66-kilobyte image onto the Bitcoin blockchain in a single, uninterrupted entry, pushing back against supporters of BIP 110 and Bitcoin Knots.

BIP-110 is an anti-spam proposal that would restrict non-payment-related data in transactions. The proposal sets out seven new criteria for transaction validity, restrictions on the amount of data allowed in specific parts of a transaction, and bans certain opcodes. The image Habovštiak inscribed portrays Luke Dashjr, a key advocate of BIP-110, crying.

The Slovak developer did not include OP_RETURN opcodes and OP_IF instructions

Habovštiak asserted on X: “I made a contiguous image file that can be misinterpreted by the BIP-110 Bitcoin fork as an entire transaction and contiguously stored in the BIP-110-compliant chain!” 

In another post, he defended the timing of the image and explained why he didn’t do this when BIP-110 first surfaced, arguing that validating the proof on mainnet is far more difficult — and more compelling — than an earlier demonstration would have been.

So far, much of the online community is mostly impressed that the BTC developer’s transaction did not use OP_RETURN opcodes, skipped Taproot in favor of SegWit v0, and included no OP_IF statements. Ideally, BIP-110 primarily focuses on restricting these elements, and thus Habovštiak claims his approach proves the limitations can be bypassed.

However, a user on X challenged the claim, saying the transaction isn’t contiguous in the way that actually counts at the protocol level. Habovštiak later responded, saying the critic was using a selective definition of the term.

Habovštiak claims BIP restriction would only increase the amount of data stored on the blockchain

Habovštiak’s transaction comes at a time when there’s still tension between Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots over which types of data should be allowed in Bitcoin. 

BIP-110 was first presented as BIP-444 in October 2025 and outlined a one-year soft fork that would enforce an 83-byte cap on OP_RETURN, restrict individual data pushes to 256 bytes, and limit other large-data scripting capabilities.  

Most proponents of the proposal believe arbitrary data will create liability issues for node operators and distract from Bitcoin’s monetary purpose. Since 2023, Luke Dashjr — CTO of the Ocean mining pool and developer of Bitcoin Knots — has been calling arbitrary Bitcoin inscriptions spam and is now advocating for the BIP-110. In response to the Slovak’s latest transaction, he further contended that it was not truly “contiguous.” 

Nonetheless, Habovštiak claimed he created another version of the transaction that adhered to the constraints of BIP-110, but it was significantly larger than the original. He thus contends that the plan would only paradoxically augment the total data stored on BTC’s blockchain.

He also noted this experiment was meant to be a one-time proof-of-concept, and he deliberately kept the code private to avoid encouraging NFT-style usage. He’s now framed himself as an opponent of blockchain spam and is motivated by what he views as inaccuracies from the Knots camp. 

He commented, “There’s something I hate much more than spam: Untruths. I tried arguing about this in the past, showed a contiguous image encoded to fit into the witness, and yet, the Knots supporters are still saying the same stuff over and over.”

So far, data from The Bitcoin Portal shows that 8.8% of nodes currently back BIP-110. The Bitcoin Knots node count has also seen a significant uptick; it is now 10 times what it was at the beginning of last year.

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