Veteran Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr is at the forefront of one of the most contentious debates in cryptocurrency: what the original blockchain network should be for.
The advent of the Ordinals protocol in 2023, which helped create a form of NFT on Bitcoin, and Runes a year later, which did something similar for fungible tokens, prompted calls from a number of voices – few as prominent as Dashjr’s – that they were bringing unnecessary spam to the Bitcoin network, distracting it from its core mission.
This feature is part of CoinDesk 2025 Most Influential List.
Dashjr’s resume includes helping to repair Bitcoin’s accidental hard fork in 2013 and maintaining alternative Bitcoin Knots, giving him the status of a venerable developer and commentator who warns against the proliferation of non-financial transactions on Bitcoin.
This is part of the controversy surrounding proposed changes to the blockchain’s OP_RETURN, removing the 80-byte limit on data that can be attached to transactions, via “registrations.” Dashjr called this “pure madness,” warning that easing data restrictions would clog the network with what he calls “spam” and distract Bitcoin from its primary purpose as a decentralized digital currency.
Critics of Dashjr, however, argue that its vision of Bitcoin requires compromising its principle of immutability. Ocean, the Jack Dorsey-backed mining pool of which Dashjr is a founder, has refused to process certain listing transactions.
Such debates will continue through 2026 and beyond, and it is likely that Luke Dashjr will remain one of the most prominent voices.
