In this interview, Stephan Livera chats with Charlie Spears from Blockspace about Bitcoin's ongoing debates on spam, protocol upgrades, and the future of Bitcoin development. They explore the nuances of on-chain data, the impact of ordinals, and the importance of ecosystem diversity.Takeaways:🔸The history and evolution of Bitcoin data debates, including the fork and filter strategies 🔸The real impact of spam and arbitrary data on Bitcoin's security and censorship resistance 🔸Analysis of proposed protocol changes like BIP 110 and their effectiveness in curbing spam 🔸The game theory behind spam vectors and how the ecosystem adapts to soft forks and filters 🔸The role of different Bitcoin clients and the importance of client diversity for network robustness🔸The future of ordinals, inscriptions, and their potential resurgence tied to Bitcoin's overall adoption and price cycles 🔸Insights into Bitcoin Layer projects and the importance of ecosystem tracking and transparency 🔸The significance of Bitcoin conferences like Opnext for fostering developer-institution collaboration and debate 🔸The overarching principle: increasing Bitcoin adoption as the best solution to data and spam concernsTimestamps:(00:00) - Intro(01:13) - The BIP110 fork and filter debate(03:59) - Consensus changes vs. policy solutions(08:36) - Understanding spam and data on the Bitcoin blockchain(11:29) - Diversity of Bitcoin clients(14:29) - What is considered spam?(17:55) - Will BIP110 stop or curb spam?(24:51) - Evolution of spam tactics in Bitcoin(29:18) - The future of Ordinals(32:16) - Does Ordinals & spam make Bitcoin a worse money?(37:04) - What is ‘Bitcoin Layers’? (43:02) - What is OPNEXT 2026?(52:49) - Closing thoughtsLinks: https://x.com/cbspears https://blockspace.media/ https://x.com/blockspace https://x.com/opnext2026 https://x.com/oklahomabtc Stephan Livera links:Follow me on X: @stephanliveraSubscribe to the podcastSubscribe to Substack