On October 26, pseudonymous developer Dathon Ohm proposed a tender fork of bitcoin (BTC).
Certainly one of its activation strategies, a so-called reactionary fork by mining pool operators who may reject unlawful content material like CSAM or nationally labeled materials inside blocks, might break up BTC into two belongings with distinct market capitalizations.
For weeks, members of the Bitcoin group have been making an attempt — usually as a lighthearted time-killer on social media — to de-anonymize the developer.
Believing that Bitcoin’s consensus guidelines ought to restrict the storage of enormous portions of information unrelated to the on-chain motion of BTC, Ohm posted a Bitcoin Enchancment Proposal (BIP) draft for a tender fork that may impose a most OP_RETURN datacarrier of 83 bytes — far lower than the 100KB mempool threshold of Bitcoin Core model 30 (v30).
Quickly, that draft earned a preliminary BIP quantity 444, the most certainly quantity after Bitcoin’s present BIP 443.
Denial from the highest candidate for Dathon Ohm
Citing ethical and authorized dangers to Core v30 node operators, Ohm has earned assist from Knots node operators — the second-most in style model of Bitcoin node software program.
Alignment with Knots’ restricted use of OP_RETURN datacarrier, in addition to assist from Knots’ lead developer Luke Dashjr, has led many to conclude that Dashjr himself is the writer of BIP 444.
For years, Dashjr has been an outspoken critic of Bitcoin Core’s rare selections to cut back charges for or accommodate on-chain information that he classifies as “spam,” together with the current OP_RETURN datacarrier easement in Core v30.
His fork of Core, Knots, has seen an upswing in utilization because the OP_RETURN debate started.
Though he’s an apparent first guess as to the actual id of Ohm, Dashjr has denied it. This denial is backed up by his colleague and co-leader of the Knots motion, Bitcoin Mechanic.
Mechanic additionally clarified that he’s not Ohm, though he admits that he is aware of Ohm’s id.
Extra makes an attempt to unmask Dathon Ohm
Casey Rodarmor, a controversial inscription protocol developer who launched ORD and spawned a briefly speculative bubble in NFT-like Ordinals, is a 3rd potential candidate.
Though individuals have referred to as Rodarmor an entertaining guess, Ohm’s proposal would cap Bitcoin Taproot information and restrict Bitcoin script operations that may negatively impression Rodarmor’s ORD system.
Any individual else speculated that Dathon Ohm could possibly be an astrologer, with out naming anybody specifically.
One other member of the Bitcoin group guessed Dashjr’s collaborator Leo Wandersleb, admitting, “I have as much proof as I have doubt.”
Tremendous Testnet chimed in to understand the lighthearted guess, asking to be pulled into the conspiracy with out proof.
Different individuals theorised that Ohm might be Chris Guida, an outspoken critic of Core v30 and supporter of Knots, whereas others guessed Nick Szabo, a current critic of Core v30.
On the finish of the day, a lucky function of Bitcoin growth is that the exact id of Bitcoin builders isn’t significantly necessary for the success of a BIP.
Certainly, if a BIP prevails on its deserves, even nameless devs might achieve altering Bitcoin’s insurance policies or consensus guidelines with out ever revealing their identify.
Though Ohm’s id is barely recognized to some individuals throughout the Bitcoin group, the success of BIP 444 is in the end a matter of the standard of its strategies — not the id of its writer.
