Bitcoin: Medium of payment, value reserve … and storage system?

According to Mempool Research information, «during the past year there were more data storage transactions (op_return and registrations) in bitcoin than other transactions.» The measurement in question comprises the 365 days prior to May 18, 2025.

That said implies that, currently, Bitcoin is perceived in a non -exclusive way as a value reserve and as a virtual data storage system. According to Bitbo data, the «Sleeping Coins» on the network only increase. It is considered that a BTC is «sleeping» when it has not moved from one direction for more than a year. Logically, bitcoins that do not move indicate that their holders are using them as a value reserve.

The tendency to use BTC as payment currency does seem to stagnate, even when the network still houses the capacities to perform this function. Orangesurfbtc, a Mempool researcher, shared an image with a graphic representation of the transaction count according to the type of use of the Bitcoin network.

The image determines that, in the last 365 days, 53% of transactions have the purpose of storing data in Bitcoineither through op_return transactions or by registrations (alkanes, runes, BRC_20, etc). Specifically, of the aforementioned percentage, 40.8% are OP_RETURN transactions and 12.2% inscriptions.

According to the Bitcoin technical education website called Learn me a Bitcoin, «Op_return refers to a standard blocking script that can be used to store data within transactions.»

As Cryptonotics reported on May 1, new network trends indicate that it is being used for non -financial purposes; In this case, for data storage in the Bitcoin block chain, which is desirable for this use thanks to its decentralization and limits to censorship; Thus, Bitcoin can house practically immutable files, not subject to ad hoc reinterpretations of the past. In a certain way, Bitcoin as a storage system seems to materialize the dream of illustrated encyclopedists to create a censorship resistant universal archive.

Cryptonotics has monitored the debate around the limit of 83 bytes for OP_RETURN OPERATIONS, which is crucial for the social functionality that users will attribute to Bitcoin in the future.

Some people consider that this network should serve only as a monetary system, while others believe that Bitcoin can synthesize opposites and be, in addition to money, file.

The truth is that this debate is open, and that now each side with confronted positions has its own client to run Bitcoin nodes, each with some variance in its rules. Bitcoin Core is more permissive with the registration of arbitrary data, while Knots, a solution created by Luke Dashjr, is more restrictive and allows the use of filters to eliminate the «spam» (Non -monetary transactions are, for Knots runners) On the network.

Registration, with a 12.2%participation share, were popularized by the Ordinals protocol in 2023, and allow to store larger data (such as images or files). Although the use of these inscriptions has decreased considerably over time, they continue to generate controversy. Some see them as «spam» that congests the network, while others defend it as a natural evolution of the decentralized system that is bitcoin.

The perspective that considers that these non -monetary data in Bitcoin are spam usually refer to the fact that data storage generates «bloat«, Increasing the size of the data that the nodes must store and process. This can do That the Bitcoin network is slower and expensive to operate. In the context of Bitcoin, bloat It refers to the continuous increase in storage requirements as more data is added.

On the other hand, defenders do not consider that non -monetary transactions are spam, and believe that these alternative use cases modernize the network and adapt it to natural needs arising within the Bitcoin and cryptoactive community.

In any case, regardless of the posture adopted, the confrontation between Bitcoin Core and Knots is helping the Bitcoin network. With the departure and promotion of Knots, the network now has at your disposal A contender that is generating real traction in the present. Consequently, Knots is causing a migration from Bitcoin Core to this client reducing the hegemony of the second.

Bitcoin Core had hegemony being the only relevant client for several years, creating a unique failure point. In fact, according to some analysts, Bitcoin Core is, or was, the most dangerous centralization point in the network.

But as regularly in Bitcoin, the crisis generally precedes a movement towards more decentralization. That is the opinion of the cryptootic editorial on the subject: where there was one, now there are two clients that serve the same function. Therefore, it is easier to control damage, since the effects of the hypothetical failure of one will be attenuated by the presence and stability of the other. That is decentralization.