This is why #BIP110 matters more than ever:
BITCOIN IS BECOMING FIAT
There are real financial incentives to flood Bitcoin with non-monetary data including .jpegs, inscriptions, ordinals, and tokens.[1][4][5][6][7]
- At scale, VC capital is paying for Bitcoin to not be Bitcoin. My independent research across 169 companies found that 56% of "Bitcoin-companies" have drifted into non-Bitcoin products, including every single company with a raise above $50M.[2]
- STRC's Cantillon reconstruction on the protocol is another example of this.[3] It's the very "financial engineering" Bitcoin was designed to end.
- Many of the largest Bitcoin influencers, educators, and conference organisers are funded by the same fiat structures they claim to oppose.[8] Sponsorship, affiliate, and ad revenue create a feedback loop where the creator cannot scrutinise the company paying for their reach. At $480,000 for a single sponsorship deal, the financial incentive to stay silent is structural, not personal.[8]
Across the entire industry, from development to marketing, the money is on the side of making Bitcoin not Bitcoin.
BITCOIN IS MONEY
Bitcoin was created to be money: "A peer-to-peer electronic cash system." That is the title of the white paper and the entire point of the protocol.[9]
For 5,000 years, every civilisation that handed control of its money to a central authority followed the same sequence: Debasement, inflation, inequality, collapse, reset.[11] The flaw was centralized trust. Bitcoin is the first technology in history that removes it entirely, enforcing a fixed supply through mathematics and a decentralised network distributing trust.
That is one of Bitcoin's most important contributions and it only works if the network stays decentralised.
THE PROBLEM
When non-monetary data floods the chain, it triggers a sequence that leads to Bitcoin becoming a vehicle to perpetuate fiat.
The more non-monetary data, the faster the blockchain grows, which raises the cost of running a full node, which reduces the number of people who can participate, which weakens decentralisation, which compromises security, which means Bitcoin stops being the tool that ends the 5,000-year fiat extraction cycle.[11]
THE SOLUTION
BIP-110 is a temporary soft fork that restricts non-monetary data at the consensus level. Over 21% of reachable nodes have already migrated to Bitcoin Knots, and now over 13% are also running BIP-110 (aka RDTS).[10]
This combo is a measurable signal that a meaningful portion of the network still treats Bitcoin as money.
DON'T TRUST, VERIFY
The funding relationships are there to find, though sometimes undisclosed.[8] I didn't realise this until recently. Writing the series is what made me see how important "don't trust, verify" is, even for structures I thought were a given.
Before you take anyone's word on their funding models and BIP-110, including mine, check their incentives. One way to do so is to ask an Ai to run an integrity check on any Bitcoin influencer, developer, or company. I hadn't done this work so deeply until recently. What I found changed how I see the entire space.
WHY I'M WRITING THIS
The fiat system specialises in making its own logic feel like common sense: "Of course yield is necessary. Of course running a node is too complicated. Of course the ETF is safer." These are what rational actors do when the incentive structure is built around them.[13] That's the sophistication of what Bitcoin is up against, but the money behind what's being said online is findable.
I thought things were different in Bitcoin, that we were genuinely changing the world, not just talking about it. I've experienced a lot of disillusionment this year and the series covers it. But there is a silver lining.
The protocol is intact. 12,000 nodes are enforcing Bitcoin as money by signalling for BIP-110.[10] Everything is becoming more visible. Thousands of nodes holding the line is the signal that matters.
CONTEXT & SOURCES
I referenced my own work a lot here but each piece contains independent research and refers to the work of others:
[1] Liberati, D. (2026, June 12). Fiat incentives in Bitcoin: A department-by-department map.
BEYOND MONEY
Fiat Incentives in Bitcoin: A Department-by-Department Map
A six-part series mapping how fiat incentives captured Bitcoin's human infrastructure: sales, marketing, development, funding, and our own dai...
[2] Liberati, D. (2026). Why Bitcoin companies drift.
BEYOND MONEY
Funding: Why Bitcoin-Only Companies Drift
Independent research across 169 companies reveals a structural pattern: above $50 million in fiat capital, every company has introduced non-Bitcoin...
[3] Liberati, D. (2026, June 12). STRC explained: The Cantillon effect rebuilt on Bitcoin.
BEYOND MONEY
STRC Explained: The Cantillon Effect Rebuilt on Bitcoin
STRC pays 11.5% while Strategy keeps the Bitcoin. A sourced analysis of how the preferred stock rebuilds the Cantillon effect on the protocol built...
[4] Liberati, D. (2026, June 9). Bitcoin Core vs Bitcoin Knots + BIP 110: Which node should you run?
BEYOND MONEY
Bitcoin Core vs Knots + BIP 110: Which Node Should You Run?
Bitcoin Core removed the OP_RETURN limit. Bitcoin Knots kept it. Here is what that means, what BIP-110 is, and what your node choice says about wha...
[5] hodlonaut. (2026, March 27). The capture: The network. Citadel21.
Citadel21
The Network — Citadel21
[6] hodlonaut. (2026, April 29). The capture: The lever. Citadel21.
Citadel21
The Lever — Citadel21
[7] hodlonaut. (2026). The capture: The merge. Citadel21.
Citadel21
The Merge — Citadel21
[8] Liberati, D. (2026). How money shapes the signal.
BEYOND MONEY
Bitcoin Influencers: How Sponsor Money Shapes the Signal
Sponsorships, referral programs, and the compounding loop: how fiat money decides which Bitcoin voices get heard and which creators stay invisible.
[9] Nakamoto, S. (2008). Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system.
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
[10] Dashjr, L. (2026, June 22). Bitcoin network statistics. Luke Dashjr.
[11] Liberati, D. (2026). The 5,000-year economic karmic cycle that Bitcoin is ending [Video]. YouTube.
[12] Liberati, D. (2026, June 1). Nostr's retention problem: A structural diagnosis.
BEYOND MONEY
Nostr's Retention Problem: A Structural Diagnosis
Independent analysis suggests Nostr's 1-2% retention rate is structural due to engagement disparity explaining why users leave.
[13] Liberati, D. (2026, June 14). The comfortable trap: The fiat-to-Bitcoin transition.
BEYOND MONEY
The Comfortable Trap: The Fiat-to-Bitcoin Transition
Knowing fiat is broken and living like it are two different things. On the overlap between two economic realities and the daily choices that close ...
Additional reading:
Liberati, D. (2026, May 21). The 5,000-year economic karmic cycle that Bitcoin is ending.
BEYOND MONEY
The 5,000-Year Economic Karmic Cycle Bitcoin Is Ending
Every civilisation has debased its currency, triggering collapse and reset. Bitcoin ends the 5,000-year cycle by removing the structural flaw in mo...
Liberati, D. (2026, May 7). The prison door is open.
BEYOND MONEY
Leaving Fiat: The Prison Door is Open
At a practical preparedness event, many participants already owned Bitcoin, and most of them were angry. Their sentiment was that Bitcoin had been ...
