What Bitcoin Did Bitcoin Core v30 Explained: Spam, Filters & the Knots Debate | Antoine Poinsot
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Oct 7, 2025 
Antoine Poinsot, a Bitcoin Core contributor and researcher at Chaincode Labs, shares his insights on the evolving dynamics of Bitcoin development. He delves into the contentious Core vs. Knots debate, shedding light on concerns around spam and the implications of the OP_RETURN policy change. Antoine discusses the potential risks of unreviewed Knots code, the challenges of UTXO bloat, and the balance between filtering spam and maintaining network resilience. This conversation navigates the delicate intersection of technical decisions and the future of Bitcoin.
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BitVM Encounter Sparked Policy Change
- Antoine recounts meeting a BitVM proponent who needed fast penalty transactions with attached data.
- That meeting convinced him the op_return limit pushed people toward worse UTXO workarounds.
Divergent Forks Raise Systemic Risk
- Multiple implementations are healthy but forks with many unreviewed changes increase consensus risk.
- Antoine prefers forks that stay close to Core rather than separate-from-scratch implementations with little review.
Review Volume Lowers But Doesn't Eliminate Risk
- 'Many eyeballs' across Core reduce but do not eliminate security bugs; unreviewed changes are risky.
- Antoine warns that 1,500 unreviewed changes on Knots touching validation are a serious hazard.