Key facts
- A new open-source Bitcoin client, DOG Mode, has been proposed by Ordinals and Runes advocate Leonidas.
- DOG Mode aims to bypass the stalled BIP 110 proposal for restricting non-financial data on Bitcoin.
- The proposed client would relax Bitcoin Core's relay policies, allowing larger transactions and a dust limit of one satoshi.
- This change could release an estimated $25 million in Bitcoin currently used as padding for Ordinals and Runes transactions.
- DOG Mode's approach focuses on node forwarding policies rather than consensus rules, requiring less network-wide support than BIP 110.
A new initiative called DOG Mode has been proposed by Leonidas, a prominent figure in Bitcoin's Ordinals and Runes ecosystem, as an alternative to the stalled BIP 110 proposal. BIP 110 aimed to restrict non-financial data embedded in Bitcoin transactions but has garnered virtually no miner support. DOG Mode, an open-source Bitcoin client, seeks to bypass the need for consensus rule changes by altering what individual nodes forward. It proposes to relax Bitcoin Core's relay policies by significantly increasing the maximum transaction size from 400,000 weight units to 3,900,000, allowing transactions that fill nearly a full block. Additionally, it would reduce the dust limit, the minimum amount considered for relaying, from hundreds of satoshis down to a single satoshi. Leonidas claims that by lowering the dust limit, an estimated $25 million in Bitcoin currently used to pad Ordinals and Runes transactions could be freed up and returned to those ecosystems. Unlike BIP 110, which requires a 55% miner signaling threshold, DOG Mode would function with support from just one miner willing to accept fees, as it only affects relay policies and not consensus rules. Currently, DOG Mode exists only as an announced initiative, with Leonidas calling for developer contributions, miner support, and user engagement. This approach represents a divergence from the traditional consensus-driven development of Bitcoin, with alternative clients like Bitcoin Knots already existing for the 'restrict-data' camp. DOG Mode is positioned as a fork of Core for the opposing side.