Developer Embeds 66kB Image in Single Bitcoin Transaction – Challenges BIP-110 Claims
On February 28, 2026, Slovak Bitcoin developer Martin Habovštiak (maintainer of the Rust Bitcoin library) published a verifiable demonstration embedding a 66-kilobyte TIFF image directly into the Bitcoin blockchain as a single contiguous transaction without using:
- OP_RETURN
- Taproot
- OP_IF
- Any other commonly restricted opcodes
The image — a well-known photo of Bitcoin Knots developer Luke Dashjr appearing emotional — can be extracted and viewed using any standard Bitcoin full node and basic hex decoding tools. Habovštiak shared the raw transaction hex and step-by-step verification instructions on X.
Direct Challenge to BIP-110 / Bitcoin Knots Arguments
The transaction is a deliberate rebuttal to core claims made by BIP-110 supporters and Bitcoin Knots maintainers, who argue that certain scripting patterns enable large-scale “spam” (inscriptions, NFTs, arbitrary data storage). Habovštiak’s PoC shows that even without those patterns, substantial contiguous data can still be embedded in witness data using standard SegWit v0.
Key points from Habovštiak’s announcement:
- The image is fully contiguous in the witness section
- No special opcodes or covenants are used
- He also produced a BIP-110-compliant version of the same transaction (larger in size) that passes Knots regtest, proving restrictions would increase total data footprint rather than reduce it
Habovštiak explicitly stated he will not publish the code to avoid enabling widespread NFT-like activity, describing the project as a one-time demonstration motivated by what he called “untruths” from the Knots camp.
Luke Dashjr’s Response
Dashjr contested the characterization on X, writing:
“His spam isn’t and doesn’t contain contiguous images.”
The dispute highlights the ongoing ideological divide between Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots communities over data allowance, node resource usage, and Bitcoin’s primary purpose.
Network Support for BIP-110
As of late February 2026, approximately 8.8% of reachable Bitcoin nodes run versions that implement BIP-110 (exclusively through Bitcoin Knots). Knots node count has grown roughly 10× since early 2025, per data from The Bitcoin Portal.
BIP-110 proposes a temporary one-year soft fork that would:
- Cap OP_RETURN at 83 bytes
- Limit individual data pushes to 256 bytes
- Restrict other scripting features commonly used for large data inscription
The proposal was introduced after Bitcoin Core v30 effectively removed OP_RETURN size limits in 2025.
Broader Context
The demonstration arrives amid heated debate over inscriptions, Ordinals, and “spam” filtering. Habovštiak positioned the work as opposition to both spam and misleading technical claims, stating:
“There’s something I hate much more than spam: Untruths.”
Neither Habovštiak nor Dashjr responded to requests for additional comment.
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