Is Luke Dashjr planning a Bitcoin hard fork?

Bitcoin Twitter went nuclear last night after a report from The Rage claimed Luke Dashjr is ideating on a Bitcoin “hard fork.” One of Bitcoin’s most prominent developers, The Rage claims Luke has been working on a solution to scrub illicit photos from Bitcoin’s blockchain while keeping the transaction trail intact using Zero Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) – link

OUR TAKE: The Sedevacantism developer rides out for his last crusade. (Luke Dashjr belongs to small grouping of Catholics known as the Sedevacantists).

For those who have been following Blockspace, you know that Luke Dashjr has been the leading proponent for censorship of Bitcoin transactions that include arbitrary data for Bitcoin NFTs (a.k.a. ordinals/inscriptions) and metaprotocol tokens. 

Luke Dashjr’s mining pool, OCEAN, and his alternative implementation to Bitcoin Core, Bitcoin Knots, have been Dashjr’s principal weapons in this fight, with both primarily weaponized by a clique of Bitcoin plebs who fall in line upon hearing flattering, feel-good marketing speak about decentralizing bitcoin. 

Neither OCEAN nor Knots offer filters effective enough for Luke, and the texts leaked to The Rage suggest he’s at least in the early stages of thinking about a nuclear option to, in his own words (allegedly), “save Bitcoin.”

It’s important to note that Luke hasn’t proposed anything formal, but in the text, he does lay out a scheme for a change to Bitcoin that would allow a council to retroactively remove CSAM transactions from the blockchain.

As far as I understand it, this is an update that would probably only affect Bitcoin Knots nodes (Luke was not explicit in the message about whether he referred to Bitcoin Core or Knots, but I think it’s safe to assume the latter).

So this would not create a hardfork or a chain-split for Bitcoin. Instead, every time there is a flagged transaction, it will be removed after a short (~1 hour or so) delay after it’s confirmed, and then all Knots nodes will resync with the updated chain.

This is “technically a hardfork,” as Dashjr says in the texts, but it would seemingly only affect Knots node runners.

That said, how exactly this would would work, who would sit on the multi-sig council to decide what to remove (and who would select them/how they would be selected), and how the ZK proof would work are all still very much a mystery.

There are still a plethora of unanswered questions and nuances to work through to flesh this embryonic, text-bred idea into a fully-toned proposal to change Bitcoin. What’s more, I doubt many people will go along with such a Rube Goldberg solution – how exactly, for e.g., will we manage the ZK proofs? – for a problem that no one is talking about. 

But one which, apparently, Luke Dashjr is trying to make everyone’s problem. Perhaps the most consequential part of Dashjr's Signal exchange comes at the end when he mentions a legal letter being drafted by third parties – so as to not be associated with OCEAN – to push for sanctioning illicit content like CSAM on Bitcoin. 

If this is true – and Blockstream CEO Adam Back mentioned that he has heard of OCEAN contacting rival pools to lobby this – then Dashjr’s proposal almost looks like selling insurance while you lay down kindling for the fire. 

Whether it is dogma, pride, ambition, or something else, there is no reason to bring eyeballs to a problem that hasn’t been one – especially when the solution sets a precedent for transaction censorship that could be all-too convenient for State actors in other circumstances.

-CMH

Tether Eyes $15–$20B Private Raise at ~$500B Valuation

Tether is reportedly exploring a private placement to raise between $15 and $20 billion for roughly 3% of equity, implying a valuation near $500 billion. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has said the company is evaluating a capital raise, though talks are early and “details could change.” The valuation would put Tether on par with OpenAI’s most recent valuation. - link

OUR TAKE: They say the first trillionaire will come from AI but I think it will be from stablecoins.

Tether is a profitability monster. They literally print money. 

And at $500 billion, Tether would join the ranks of OpenAI, SpaceX, and ByteDance in private company valuation.

That valuation doesn’t even tell the full story. It’s also about Tether’s profitability per headcount, because Tether has fewer than 200 employees.

For a company that did $13 billion in net profit last year that makes Tether one of, if not THE, most profitable company per employee in history.

-CBS

Hashrate Lookback Series: August 2025

From seasonal fee drops to shifting hashprice dynamics, our August video recap breaks down the key trends miners and market watchers need to know.

→ Read the lookback

FTX Trust sues bitcoin miner Genesis Digital, seeks $1.15 billion over 'reckless' Sam Bankman-Fried investment

The FTX Recovery Fund is suing one of the world’s largest private bitcoin miners, Genesis Digital Assets, in an effort to wrench back roughly $1.15 billion in investments that Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research made in GDA. The Recovery Fund says that the investment capital included commingled funds from Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange, calling it “one of Bankman-Fried’s most reckless investments with commingled and misappropriated funds.” - link

Cipher Mining signs $3 billion AI hosting deal with Fluidstack, Google to backstop $1.4 billion

Cipher Mining (CIFR) has signed a 10-year HPC colocation agreement with Fluidstack to deliver 168 MW of critical IT load at its Barber Lake site in Colorado City, Texas by September 2026. Cipher expects the deal to deliver $3 billion over the contract term, $1.4 billion of which Google is guaranteeing. - link 

MicroBT opens U.S. distribution hub with 10k/month capacity

MicroBT has opened up shop in Delaware for a U.S.-based distribution hub that will pump out 10,000 U.S.-made Whatsminers per month. MicroBT has opened a U.S. exclusive online shop where miners can opt to ship ASICs direct or pick them up at the Delaware warehouse. - link

Semler Scientific draws $20 million bitcoin-backed loan to pay DOJ

Semler Scientific (SMLR) revealed in an 8-K that it has borrowed $20 million in cash on September 25 under its April 15 master loan agreement with Coinbase Credit, pledging bitcoin as collateral. Semler intends to use the funds, alongside operating cash, to satisfy its $29.75 million False Claims Act settlement with the U.S. government - link