1/
In May 2019 a prominent Bitcoin Core developer called Matt Corallo posted a Twitter thread calling for DEI recruitment into Bitcoin development.

The same month, John Newbery hired a new co-organiser for Chaincode Labs' developer residency. 2/
The man Newbery hired was Adam Jonas.

Jonas was not a protocol developer. He was a pro baseball player developer and scout before studying at the Flatiron School and then becoming their Director of Engineering.

He didn't just work at Flatiron. He was one of the first people the school trained, in its founding year, 2012.

1/
There's a narrative circulating that Citrea had nothing to do with the OP_RETURN uncap.

That Citrea didn't need it. Didn't ask for it. Was just caught in some drama it didn't start.

This thread explores what the people who pushed the change actually said.
🧵


2/
Starting with Peter Todd. He filed PR #32359. The OP_RETURN removal PR that started the public controversy.

On Stacker News he wrote:

"This pull-req wasn't my idea. I was asked to open it by an active Core dev because entities like Citrea are using unprunable outputs."

1/
In 2025 Bitcoin Core removed a decade-old mempool policy default — a configurable limit on how much non-financial data nodes would relay. OP_RETURN was effectively uncapped.

Not a consensus rule. A default setting. But defaults govern what most of the network does. Which governs what miners see. Which governs what gets mined.

The justification: it wasn’t working anyway, data was getting in through a loophole.

What wasn’t disclosed: that loophole had been deliberately kept open.

Here’s the documented sequence. 🧵 2/
2014: Luke Dashjr creates the -datacarriersize configuration option.

Its description: "Maximum size of data in data carrier transactions we relay and mine."

Broad by design. Covers all transaction components. That's the operative text for ~10 years.

Day 8 of COPA vs IT security guy

This will be Craig's last day in the witness box until an extra day towards the end of the trial.

Craig looks grumpy and is immediately confronted with more testimony he has given during this trial that conflicts with documents in evidence. Craig denies the content of the documents. Straight into denying a document with his signature was signed by him. Strong start.

Day 3 of COPA vs Wright

I'm present in court to watch, and will probably report a little here and there between the mouthfuls of popcorn.

Craig looks rough. Craig starts the day off ranting about the incompetency of the digital forensic experts that found his evidence to be forgeries, including his own expert.