Saylor: Bitcoin's Consensus Rules are the 'Constitution', Warns Against Protocol Changes

Internal Corruption is the Biggest Risk

Michael Saylor, chairman of MicroStrategy, stated on the 28th in a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter) that Bitcoin's consensus rules should be likened to a "constitution" and strongly criticized attempts to change these rules as an "attack on economic rights."

This post builds on the concerns he expressed in his essay "110 Reasons Why BIP-110 is a Bad Idea," which opposed the Bitcoin soft fork proposal he announced on the 18th, expanding it into a more comprehensive discussion on Bitcoin governance.

Saylor began by stating, "Bitcoin has achieved victory. But now we must survive beyond that victory." He argued that "the greatest threat is not external enemies, but internal corruption." He noted, "Certain factions create excuses, rewrite the rules, and strip away economic rights, turning freedom into a privilege and law into a tool for plunder."

Just as civilizations decline internally due to a "coup of law" by specific factions, Bitcoin too will similarly corrupt if certain factions seize consensus, he warned.

In this post, Saylor broadened the discussion beyond just BIP-110 to include covenants (a script feature that can restrict usage conditions) and proposals for increasing block size. Although these methods differ, they are fundamentally acts that violate Bitcoin's constitution, he positioned, criticizing that "certain factions are rewriting Bitcoin's rules, imposing their own objectives, costs, and risks on all network participants."

Importance of Miner Protection

Saylor also emphasized the significance of the fee market.

In Bitcoin, mining rewards are halved approximately every 210,000 blocks, meaning that transaction fees will become the primary source of revenue supporting network security in the long term.

He pointed out that excluding transactions that pay legitimate fees through consensus rules would lead to a reduction in future security budgets, stating, "That is not protection; it is disarmament."

Furthermore, he argued that such violations of economic rights extend beyond miners to exchanges, custodians, applications, investors, and holders. If a precedent is set where consensus rules are changed through political power even once, factions will begin to seek rule changes through political means rather than market competition, leading to a normalization of "disputes over protocols," Saylor warned.

If such a situation arises, capital will flow out, innovation will stagnate, and the security of the network will gradually deteriorate. As a result, Bitcoin will only be able to realize 1% of its original potential, according to Saylor's assessment.

The Ideal State of Bitcoin

Finally, Saylor reiterated his stance that "the base layer of Bitcoin should be simple and neutral, maintaining scarcity and security." Innovation should be pursued in "peripheral areas" where participation is voluntary, and the impacts of failure are localized, and protocol changes should be made based on true necessity rather than ambition, and should be extremely rare and cautious.

This perspective is consistent with his post "The Modern Digital Asset Stack" published on June 16.

Saylor envisions Bitcoin as "Digital Capital," with multiple layers built on it, including credit products backed by Bitcoin (Digital Credit), yield-bearing products with stable value in fiat currency (Digital Money), high-return products utilizing leverage and financial engineering (Digital Yield), and digital equities including MSTR-type common stocks (Digital Equity).

The key point is that "there is no need to change Bitcoin itself." The core of his vision is to advance innovation at higher layers while maintaining Bitcoin's neutrality without relying on staking, inflation, or significant protocol changes.

As for BIP-110, which Saylor criticized in this post, it currently lacks sufficient support. According to the signaling dashboard for BIP-110, miner support signals stand at only 2.64%, significantly below the 55% activation threshold.

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