Foreign media reports that Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Thaler recently published a series of articles stating that the biggest long-term risk facing Bitcoin after it gains wider market acceptance is not external competitors or governments, but rather internal efforts to change the consensus rules.
He likened Bitcoin's consensus rules to a "constitution." In his view, these rules determine how ownership is confirmed, how scarcity is maintained, how transactions are settled, and what network participants can modify. Thaler argues that if someone attempts to serve a particular group by altering the underlying rules, protocol disputes could become protracted, further impacting capital inflows, development pace, and cybersecurity.
Thaler specifically named BIP-110
Thaler mentioned that proposals like BIP-110 could have long-term side effects. His core concerns are twofold: first, restricting some transaction data could weaken competition for block space; second, addressing congestion by increasing block size could dilute the scarcity of block space.
Supporters argue that restricting the use of certain data can alleviate the storage and verification burden on nodes and allow Bitcoin to focus more on monetary transactions rather than storing inscriptions, tokens, or files. Thaler acknowledges that some on-chain data may not be valuable and could even be used for harmful purposes, but he believes that Bitcoin cannot reliably determine the purpose behind transaction data, and therefore consensus rules should not determine which valid transactions with paid fees can enter the block.
The fee market is considered key
Thaler believes that if more restrictions are imposed on valid transactions, competition for block space will decrease, and miners' transaction fee revenue may also be suppressed. As block subsidies halve approximately every 210,000 blocks, the importance of transaction fees in miners' income will continue to rise.
He also stated that larger blocks would increase the bandwidth and hardware costs required to run nodes; the introduction of more complex protocol functions could also create new attack surfaces. These assessments represent Thaler's views on the relevant proposals and do not signify a unified conclusion among Bitcoin developers.
Advocating placing innovation on the second level
According to Thaler, the underlying Bitcoin architecture should remain as simple, neutral, scarce, and secure as possible. New features are better suited for implementation at the Layer 2 network and application layers because such adoption is usually voluntary, and even if it fails, the impact is more limited.
He also stated that if Bitcoin does become part of the global capital market infrastructure in the future, then a poorly designed rule introduced today could restrict future financial products, technologies, and economic activities that have not yet emerged.
Nine institutions pledged $15 million.
In addition to its public statements, Strategy recently joined the Bitcoin Security Consortium. Other members of this consortium include Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, BlackRock, Block, Blockstream, Coinbase, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Galaxy.
According to the disclosure, nine organizations plan to invest a total of $15 million over three years to support developers and researchers involved in Bitcoin security, including preparations for potential quantum computing risks. The consortium stated that each member will independently decide where the funds are allocated, and the consortium itself will not control Bitcoin development or comment on any individual protocol modification proposals.
