BIP-444 Soft Fork Proposal Sparks Bitcoin Governance Debate

A Bitcoin Improvement Proposal designated BIP-444 has sparked controversy within the Bitcoin community. Published late Friday, the proposal seeks to impose temporary restrictions on arbitrary data embedded in Bitcoin transactions via a one-year soft fork. Proponents cite concerns over potential illegal content storage following changes in Bitcoin Core v30, while critics warn the measure could set a precedent for protocol-level content moderation.