Bitcoin Core has released a Bitcoin Core Development and Transaction Relay Policy Statement

BlockBeats News, June 7th, the Bitcoin Core Project released a statement stating that Bitcoin is a network defined by its users, who have the ultimate freedom of choice, can run any software they wish to use (whether fully validating or not), and can enforce any policies they are willing to follow. Bitcoin Core contributors do not have the authority to dictate what rules users must follow.

This principle is reflected in a long-standing practice: Bitcoin Core software does not support automatic updates. This means that no entity can unilaterally push changes to Bitcoin Core users. All changes must be actively chosen by the user to upgrade to a new software version or opt for different software. This freedom to run any software is the primary safeguard of the Bitcoin network against external coercion.

“As developers of Bitcoin Core, we also believe we have a responsibility to ensure that the Bitcoin Core software operates its core functions of validation and relaying blocks and transactions in the most efficient and reliable manner to support Bitcoin's success as a decentralized digital currency.

Regarding transaction relaying, Bitcoin Core may introduce some policies such as: Denial-of-Service (DoS) protection mechanisms; fee estimation strategies; but we will not block the relaying of transactions with sustained economic demand that can reliably be included in blocks.

Our goals in designing transaction relay policies include:

· Predicting which transactions will be included in blocks (crucial for fee estimation, RBF (fee bumping), and the basis of many DoS protection strategies);

· Accelerating the block propagation speed of transactions about to be included to reduce network latency, prevent large miners from gaining unfair advantages;

· Helping miners promptly receive fee-inclusive transactions to avoid reliance on off-chain backchannel transactions external to mining pools, which would undermine mining decentralization.

If we deliberately refuse to relay transactions that miners will eventually include, users would be forced to resort to other communication methods, which would actually undermine the above goals.”