Bitcoin Audible – Chat_151

Episode Title: Bitcoin Technically, Ideologically, and Actually with Murch
Host: Guy Swann
Guest: Murch (Merch Dahmes)
Date: November 21, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode dives deeply into the recent technical and social debates within the Bitcoin development community, featuring veteran Bitcoin Core developer Murch (“Merch Dahmes”). Guy and Murch explore divisive topics such as the v30 release, the cultural rifts in Bitcoin, the technical trade-offs concerning data usage on-chain (especially regarding OP_RETURN, inscriptions, and spam), and broader questions about the purpose of Bitcoin. They address misconceptions about "Bitcoin Core," sources of funding, ideological drift, and the future path for protocol development.

Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins and Culture of Bitcoin Development

• Murch’s Background:

  • First heard of Bitcoin in ~2011 (“Haha, nerd money”) but really dived in after reading the whitepaper and understanding the pain points of international payments and banking fees.
  • Started learning via Stack Exchange, became moderator there.
  • [30:14-33:07]
  • “Stack Exchange is still just an unbelievable resource.” – Guy [32:42]

• The Social Disconnect:

  • The relationship between app/biz developers and communicators was once collaborative, now marred by hostility.
  • [09:40]
  • “…the people on these sides are natural allies… Now we’re at each other’s throats and pointing fingers. That is the actual damage, in my opinion.” – Murch [10:51]

2. Debate on Spam, Inscriptions, and Policy

• The Inscription/Spam Controversy

  • Both “sides” dislike spam, but one group is passionately antagonistic, while the other views it as a technical nuisance.
  • The “war” is more cultural/social than purely technical.
  • [15:08-17:53]
  • “Neither likes spam, neither works on propagating spam or enabling spam, but one side hates it with a glowing passion, the other side thinks it’s a nuisance, an inevitable nuisance.” – Murch [15:50]

• Economic Reality of Blockspace:

  • Blockspace is now 90%+ full (vs. nearly empty a decade ago), so fee pressure naturally prices out low-value transactions (e.g., inscriptions/spam).
  • [21:27-24:45]
  • “People who have an urgent need… can get in and outbid the others and they buy the block space.” – Murch [25:05]

• Lightning vs On-chain:

  • Lightning is better for low-value payments, whereas on-chain space is naturally allocated to high-value ones.
  • “The relative cost of Lightning is cheaper for cheap stuff. So small payments on Lightning… Larger payments are not a problem on chain at all.” – Murch [28:48]

3. Technical/Ideological Purpose of Bitcoin

• Is Bitcoin Money or a Data Network?

  • Both. Technically, it’s a data structure that can express more than “just payments,” but all core developers Murch knows “are only interested in the monetary use case.”
  • [34:54-42:30]
  • “…everything around its data storage and verification is for the purpose of creating money. And anything in that space that hinders or crowds out… is a bad structure…” – Guy [37:42]

• Long-term View & Scaling

  • The blockspace scarcity necessitates ideas like Lightning, UTXO sharing, and eventually covenants (CTV etc.) to achieve mass global adoption.
  • [39:04-54:02]

4. OP_RETURN, v30 Release, and Community Trust

• OP_RETURN Debate:

  • The technical change was relatively minor, but the social blow-up was massive due to existing trust rifts and the highly charged atmosphere.
  • Social media accentuates and perpetuates division.
  • [11:28-15:00; 59:04-61:48]

• Process of Decision-Making in Core:

  • Merges and changes require broad consensus (e.g., 12 acks, 4 concept acks for the OP_RETURN PR); not “one person’s decision.”
  • [65:14-73:20]
  • “I’ve seen people characterize the merging… as being the decision of a single person. It couldn’t be further away from the truth…” – Murch [71:51]

• Hindsight & Handling Controversies:

  • Acknowledgment that moderation and process could have been better, especially given the “denial of service” effect of social blowups in issue threads.
  • [78:23-87:53]
  • “With the benefit of hindsight… the first reaction to this sudden influx of people… could have been handled a little softer touch…” – Murch [78:23]

5. Funding, “Wokeness,” and Ideological Drift

• Funding Overview:

  • Core is not a formal organization; contributors are globally self-organized, funded by grants, donations, or employment by several independent groups (Brink, Chaincode, OpenSats, HostLocal Research, 2140, Vintium, BTrust, etc.).
  • [88:03-95:52]

• Concerns About Ideological Capture:

  • Directly addresses the accusations of “going woke.”
  • Core mostly tries to keep things technical, but contributors come from across the ideological spectrum.
  • “Public money is not apolitical… it is highly political to try to separate state and money.” – Murch [104:53]
  • [95:52-106:20]

6. Bitcoin Core v30 & Consensus Cleanup

• Notable v30 Features/Changes:

  • Policy limits (e.g., 2,500 sigops for legacy scripts) as preparation for future consensus upgrades and bug fixes (e.g., Time-Warp fix, computation limits).
  • Backports to older supported branches for critical bugfixes.
  • Ongoing improvements to IBD (Initial Block Download) speed, especially for popular hardware.
  • [108:55-131:40]
  • “…he has like probably 7, 8, maybe 10 small improvements and they amount to an overall speed up of over 20% on IBD…” – Murch [130:57]

• Release Process Philosophy:

  • What gets merged and reviewed is what ships; there isn’t a hierarchy or “product manager” deciding intent.
  • [114:20-116:18]

• On Defaults and Knobs:

  • The OP_RETURN default is a minor mempool policy, easily changed by users, not “forced” on the network; "Just configure it differently if you want to do it differently."
  • [122:00-125:30]

7. Final Reflections, Olive Branch, and Call to Action

• A Plea for Mutual Understanding:

  • “One of the things that went awry is that we didn’t listen to each other… If you trust us for everything else with the software you’re running… maybe could you please also read what we have to say about OP_RETURN and not just watch videos of people on Twitter?” – Murch [132:50]

• Follow & Support:

  • Local Host Research transparency reports available at lclhost.org, donations accepted.
  • Attend SF BitDevs if you’re in the Bay Area.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Culture War and Social Division:
  “It just goes haywire so quickly… everybody ends up talking past the issue and they talk to kind of the social divide rather than the actual conversation.” – Guy [07:18]

• About Default Policy Changes:
  “Just configure it differently if you want to do it differently. It’s just we don’t recommend that the default be this low anymore…” – Murch [124:23]

• On the Purpose of Bitcoin:
  “Even if we all want this to be money, just being upset about it without a plan is a lot of energy towards, not necessarily a solution.” – Murch [42:30]

• On Funding and Independence:
  “As far as I know, nobody’s been paid directly by Citria, except for in a joke where someone was maybe being a little trolly. But yeah, I’m also not aware of any NFT projects or anything funding bitcoin core developers.” – Murch [94:46]

• On Ideological Diversity:
  “Public money is not apolitical. It is highly political to try to separate state and money.” – Murch [104:53]

Important Timestamps

• [10:51] Social rifts in Bitcoin community
• [25:05] Economic function of blockspace & spam pricing
• [34:54] Is Bitcoin money or a data network?
• [59:04] How OP_RETURN social controversy affected trust
• [71:51] Group decision-making in Core (not “one person's” decision)
• [78:23] Hindsight on moderation & controversy handling
• [88:03] Funding sources & structure
• [95:52] Addressing "wokeness" & ideological drift
• [104:53] Political diversity in Bitcoin
• [108:55] v30 technical details & future cleanup
• [132:50] Final “olive branch” to critics

Resources & Further Information

• Local Host Research transparency reports
• Bitcoin Stack Exchange

BitDevs San Francisco:

• For in-person discussions with Murch and other devs.

Host’s Note:
Guy encourages the audience to dig into source materials, engage with both sides of controversial debates, and support open-source contributors transparently.

Rich and comprehensive, this episode serves as both a technical and social deep-dive into present and future challenges facing the world’s most important monetary protocol. Ideal listening (or reading!) for anyone seeking both nuance and context behind Bitcoin’s evolving governance and development process.