Murch joins the Bitcoin Infinity Show to talk about Bitcoin Core's approach to mempool policies, OP_RETURN limits, and the practical challenges of fighting non-monetary data like inscriptions on the blockchain. He explains why harm reduction through flexible scripting and miner incentives may be more effective than strict enforcement, while pushing back on claims that developers are enabling spam or ignoring censorship resistance. From Lightning's early days to the realities of node running and block space demand, this technical deep dive explores Bitcoin's balance between innovation, decentralization, and long-term resilience.

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The Bitcoin Infinity Show is a Bitcoin podcast hosted by Knut Svanholm and produced by Luke de Wolf.

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00:00 Welcoming Murch
01:23 What is Bitcoin?
03:39 Bitcoin As Money
10:18 Censorship Resistance
13:55 The Segwit Discount
19:09 Mempool
22:34 Bitcoin Core
24:39 Metaphors
26:39 Citrea
32:30 Censorship Resistance
34:30 Fighting For Bitcoin
37:29 Mining Pools
41:57 Knots
47:25 OP_RETURN
53:16 Initial Block Download
01:01:54 Exploits
01:05:03 Block Space
01:09:49 Control of Bitcoin
01:14:23 CSAM
01:23:00 Listening to Shitcoiners
01:26:16 Do Filters Work?
01:28:31 Sub Sat Summer
01:30:23 The Positives and Negatives
01:32:50 Core Developers
01:37:59 Finding Alignment
01:40:23 BIP-110 / 444 / RDTS
01:50:06 Wrapping Up