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Is BIP444 An Attack on Bitcoin? | Rob Hamilton episode artwork

Nov 14, 2025 1 hr 23 min

Is BIP444 An Attack on Bitcoin? | Rob Hamilton

from What Bitcoin Did

Rob Hamilton is the co-founder and CEO of Anchor Watch, a Bitcoin custody and insurance provider. In this episode, Rob breaks down BIP-444, the proposed soft fork aimed at stopping spam. He explains why it represents the most contentious governance moment since the block-size wars, what the proposal actually changes, how it could trigger chain splits and reorgs, and why he believes the effort has almost no chance of success. We discuss the economics, incentives, and psychology behind the new fork movement, why filters failed, how miners really behave under fee pressure, and why futures markets can ultimately determine whether a fork has any economic weight. THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS: IREN RIVER ANCHORWATCH BLOCKWARE LEDN BITKEY FOLLOW: Danny Knowles: https://x.com/\_DannyKnowles or https://primal.net/danny Rob Hamilton: https://x.com/Rob1Ham

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Is BIP444 An Attack on Bitcoin? | Rob Hamilton

0:00 1:23:14

Chapters

  1. 0:00 Moral Caveats to Bitcoin
  2. 0:39 Bitcoin Civil War Heats Up
  3. 3:30 Dathan Ohm's Soft Fork Proposal
  4. 4:51 Do Filters Actually Work?
  5. 7:50 Core 30 Is the Number One Client
  6. 12:15 BIP444 and Luke's Involvement
  7. 13:51 Emergency Soft Fork Inclusion
  8. 16:52 Technical Implications of the Soft Fork
  9. 20:02 Funds Frozen and Soft Forks
  10. 24:43 February 1st Activation and Node Rejection
  11. 29:39 URSF and Permanently Splitting the Network
  12. 31:16 UASF and SegWit2x
  13. 38:05 Importance of the Futures Market
  14. 44:55 Proportion of Hash Rate and Bitcoin Cash

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This episode was published on November 14, 2025.

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