Nostr Web Client

🚨 KYC Poisoned Payload Incoming 🚨

With Bitcoin Core 30 uncapping OP_RETURN, the game just changed.

It’s not just “more room for commitments.” It’s now an open channel for hostile payloads:

Full KYC dumps

Leaked passports & selfies

Regulated/illegal content

Once mined, that data is forever on-chain. Immutable. Undeletable. And guess who stores/serves it? Every operator running a full node.

This isn’t a DoS attack — it’s a jurisdictional trap. Regulators won’t care that “it’s just bytes.” They’ll come after whoever is “hosting” the bytes.

#OperatorBeware

Don’t parse OP_RETURN blindly.

Restore strict -datacarrier limits if you don’t want surprises.

Assume every payload is toxic waste — relay bytes, not semantics.

If you run explorers/indexers, sanitize hard or you’ll find yourself liable for data you never wanted.

Bitcoin is resilient, but policy can be weaponized. The KYC bomb is now in play.

#OperatorBeware #Bitcoin #BTC #OPRETURN #NodeOps #CyberSecurity #DataPoisoning #Privacy #OnChain #Blockchain #Decentralization #ProofOfWork

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Discussion

1776 4mo ago

Thanks for the giant load of FUD

asyncmind 4mo ago

No worries stay frosty. 🫡

unimportant citizen 4mo ago

Would running Knots fix this?

asyncmind 4mo ago

Yes.

asyncmind 4mo ago

Short answer: Knots helps, but it doesn’t “fix” it.

Mitigation: Bitcoin Knots keeps strict datacarrier limits by default and exposes extra anti-spam/anti-data toggles (e.g., -datacarrier=0, -datacarriersize, -acceptnonstddatacarrier=0, -maxscriptsize, -rejecttokens, -datacarriercost) so you can refuse relaying/accepting large OP_RETURN to your mempool (and avoid mining them if you run a miner).

Limits: That’s policy only. Your node will still accept blocks that contain those transactions (consensus), and unless you’re heavily pruned, you’ll still store/serve the block data. So Knots reduces your relay surface and liability exposure (indexers/explorers especially), but it cannot prevent the data from existing on-chain.

Bottom line: Run Knots (or harden Core) if you want stricter defaults and finer controls, but combine it with pruning, blocksonly, and not indexing/rendering OP_RETURN contents if your goal is to minimize exposure.

unimportant citizen 4mo ago

Thank you for the in depth answer.

Mashi mashi 4mo ago

Inscriptions can do the same thing.

asyncmind 4mo ago

Not the same scale ... like pissing on chain vs a giant turd on chain