BIP-110 seeks to curb non-financial data on Bitcoin through a consensus change, but it has attracted virtually no miner support. In contrast, a proposed DOG Mode client is pushing in the opposite direction—loosening restrictions without requiring any network-wide vote.
The idea emerged just days after reports showed that efforts to remove non-financial data were nearing their deadline with almost zero backing from miners. Instead of pursuing consensus, some developers are now exploring a route that bypasses it entirely.
Leonidas, co-founder of Runestone and a prominent figure in the Ordinals and Runes ecosystem, announced plans to launch an open-source Bitcoin client called DOG Mode.
The client would remove two key limits imposed by Bitcoin Core, the software run by most nodes. One restricts the size of transactions that can be relayed, while the other sets a minimum threshold for transaction outputs.
Consensus rules determine whether a block is valid—violating them would split a node from the network. Relay policy, however, is more flexible, governing which transactions nodes choose to pass along. Bitcoin Core currently blocks “non-standard” transactions from being relayed, even if they are valid under consensus rules.
Because most nodes run Core, these defaults effectively act as Bitcoin’s rules in practice. While miners can still include such transactions if they receive them directly, Core does not relay them, forcing users to submit them straight to miners. Services like MARA’s Slipstream exist to handle these larger or more complex transactions.
DOG Mode would raise the maximum standard transaction size from 400,000 weight units to 3.9 million. With a Bitcoin block capped at four million weight units, Core currently relays transactions that fill only about 10% of a block, while DOG Mode would allow transactions that nearly occupy the entire block.
It would also slash the dust limit—the minimum output value worth relaying—from roughly 294–546 satoshis to just one satoshi, the smallest unit of Bitcoin.
Protocols like Ordinals, which embed images and text into transactions, and Runes, which enable token issuance on Bitcoin, currently require extra bitcoin to meet this threshold. According to Leonidas, removing the dust limit could free up around $25 million tied up in such padding.
BIP-110, a user-activated soft fork, requires 55% miner support to pass. However, it has failed to gain traction, recording no support in the current period and never exceeding about 1% historically. This underscores the lack of momentum behind the proposal.
DOG Mode, by contrast, does not rely on consensus. It simply changes what individual nodes choose to relay. If enough nodes adopt it and at least one miner accepts the fees, those transactions can still be confirmed—without signaling thresholds or deadlines.
Support for BIP-110 remains minimal and is largely concentrated among users of Bitcoin Knots, an alternative client favored by advocates of stricter data limits. DOG Mode would represent the opposite approach—a Core-based fork designed to relax restrictions while remaining closer to the original software than Knots.
For now, DOG Mode is still theoretical. There is no codebase, repository, or release yet. Leonidas has called on developers to build it, miners to support it, and users to promote it, leaving the project in its earliest stage.
Leonidas, who helped popularize the Runes protocol and co-founded Runestone—the project behind the DOG token—is now proposing this client while relying on others to implement it. Notably, the proposed changes could release funds back into markets where his token is actively traded.
In short, BIP-110 aims to rewrite Bitcoin’s rulebook and requires broad approval it does not have. DOG Mode, meanwhile, only alters node behavior and would need just one miner willing to process the transactions. One depends on consensus; the other sidesteps it entirely.
DOG token prices were largely unchanged following the announcement, dipping about 1.2% over the past 24 hours.
