Key Highlights
- Michael Saylor warned that altering Bitcoin’s consensus rules could pose risks to the network’s security and neutrality.
- He criticized proposals like BIP-110, covenant mechanisms, and larger blocks for risking censorship and network instability.
- Saylor called for preserving Bitcoin’s secure, scarce base layer while encouraging innovation through optional higher-layer solutions.
Michael Saylor, founder of Strategy and a Bitcoin advocate, has warned against changes to Bitcoin’s core consensus rules, arguing that modifications at the base layer could affect the network’s security and neutrality.
In an X post on Tuesday, Saylor said that while Bitcoin has achieved significant adoption, its biggest risks now come from the community rather than external opponents.
He described these rules as Bitcoin’s “constitution,” which define fundamental aspects such as property rights, scarcity, settlement finality, and the distribution of power within the network.
Saylor argued that changing these rules to benefit any particular group would undermine the economic rights of all current and future participants. He added that even a single poorly considered modification could limit Bitcoin’s ability to serve as a long-term financial infrastructure layer.
Why Saylor is opposing changes to Bitcoin’s base layer
Saylor specifically referenced proposals including BIP-110, which he said would censor valid fee-paying transactions. He also criticized ideas involving covenant mechanisms and larger block sizes.
While these proposals differ in technical details, Saylor said they share a common problem: one group rewriting the rules and imposing additional costs and risks on the entire network. He highlighted several potential consequences, including transaction censorship, reduced block space scarcity, and higher operational requirements for network participants.
According to Saylor, the impact could extend beyond miners to exchanges, custodians, developers, investors, and holders. He warned that repeated disputes over consensus changes could create uncertainty around Bitcoin’s governance and long-term stability.
Saylor advocates conservative approach
Saylor concluded by supporting a cautious approach to Bitcoin’s base layer. He argued that the network should remain simple, neutral, scarce, and secure, while allowing innovation to occur at higher layers where participation remains voluntary. Any changes to the protocol, he suggested, should be infrequent, carefully considered, and driven strictly by necessity rather than ambition.
The comments reflect ongoing discussions within the Bitcoin community over how to balance preserving Bitcoin’s original design with adapting to new technical requirements and use cases.
Strategy expands cash reserves
Saylor’s comments come just a day after Strategy announced that it sold 5,429,160 shares of its Class A common stock through its at-the-market (ATM) offering. The transactions generated net proceeds of $544.5 million for the week of July 20–26. At the same time, the company initiated its first repurchase under a new preferred stock program, acquiring 288,930 shares of its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock (STRC) for $25 million.
These moves increased Strategy’s U.S. dollar reserves by $525 million, bringing the total to $3.75 billion as of July 26. The cash position now provides approximately 2.1 years of coverage for preferred dividends and interest payments. The company’s Bitcoin holdings remained unchanged at 843,775 BTC.
Strategy’s stock tokenized on Solana
Separately, Strategy’s publicly traded stock, $MSTR, is now available in tokenized form on the Solana blockchain. The tokenized version of $MSTR was issued by Backpack Securities and launched via the Sunrise on-chain asset platform.
The development brings Strategy’s stock on-chain, allowing users to access and utilize tokenized MSTR shares across Solana-based decentralized applications. The move adds another equity-linked asset to Solana’s tokenized real-world asset (RWA) ecosystem as blockchain platforms continue exploring ways to represent traditional financial assets on-chain.
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