Some of the responses to the X announcement were brutal, but deserved. And count me in for never running unpatched Bitcoin Core ever again, as I’m running the BIP-110 patched version of Bitcoin Knots, itself a patched version of Bitcoin Core. And Bitcoin Knots will soon release with BIP-110 support built in. Also, there is a new client being setup called Production Ready, which will be based on Bitcoin Core but with a much more conservative take on keeping Bitcoin as money, video interview included below.
Personally, I like both of these guys, but Samson Mow is part of the industry around Bitcoin and Liquid Bitcoin running the Aqua Wallet project taken from Blockstream, behind Liquid Bitcoin. This makes Samson not publicly support BIP-110 or Bitcoin Knots, which are taking a firm stand against the megacorps in the Bitcoin space trying to hijack Bitcoin through captured Bitcoin Core. Even Jimmy Song keeps from going too far, and note they have nothing substantial to say about why BIP-110 isn’t good for Bitcoin. Though another client with a conservative view that can take even more share away from Bitcoin Core is good, and it will neuter that captured product’s ability to capture Bitcoin going forward. There are some other projects looking to rewrite the software from scratch as well, so perhaps with more clients getting significant market share and mining adoption, we’ll have a more protected Bitcoin network. And for the record, the CSAM argument isn’t fear mongering, because it can be stored whole in the blockchain with blown up OP_RETURN data space verses broken up into different parts of the transaction providing obscurity and node owner deniability for hosting the illegal content.