bip-444 is a proposed one-year bitcoin soft fork to curb spam by limiting arbitrary data in transactions, such as capping op_return at 83 bytes and other scripts at 34 bytes—reversing bitcoin core v30's removal of those limits to prioritize payments over things like ordinals inscriptions. it's sparked debate: supporters say it protects against illegal content and node centralization risks, while critics fear it weakens bitcoin's censorship resistance. ccn.com

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BIP-444 Explained: The Bitcoin Soft Fork Proposal Dividing Developers and the Community

Bitcoin’s new BIP-444 proposal has ignited fierce debate, splitting developers over censorship, legality, and the network’s purpose.