BIP-110 is designed to limit non-financial data on Bitcoin through a consensus-level change, but it has gained almost no support from miners. In contrast, a proposed DOG Mode client takes the opposite stance, aiming to loosen restrictions without requiring any formal vote.
Just days after reports highlighted that efforts to remove non-financial data from Bitcoin were nearing a deadline with virtually zero miner backing, some developers began exploring an alternative approach that avoids the need for consensus altogether.
Leonidas, co-founder of the Runestone project and a well-known figure in the Ordinals and Runes space, revealed plans to launch an open-source Bitcoin client called DOG Mode.
The proposed client would eliminate two key limits enforced by Bitcoin Core, the software used by most nodes. One limit restricts the size of transactions a node will relay, while the other sets a minimum value threshold for transaction outputs.
Consensus rules determine whether a block is valid, and breaking them would disconnect a node from the network. Relay policies, however, are more flexible and dictate what transactions nodes choose to share. Bitcoin Core currently filters out transactions it considers “non-standard,” even if they are technically valid under consensus rules.
Because the majority of nodes run Core, its default settings effectively shape how Bitcoin operates in practice. While miners can still include these filtered transactions if they receive them directly, Core does not relay them, meaning users must send them straight to miners. Services like MARA’s Slipstream help facilitate such transactions.
DOG Mode would significantly increase the maximum standard transaction size from 400,000 weight units to 3.9 million. Since a Bitcoin block can hold up to four million weight units, Core currently relays transactions that use only about 10% of a block, whereas DOG Mode would allow transactions that nearly fill an entire block.
It would also reduce the dust limit—the minimum output value considered worth relaying—from roughly 294–546 satoshis to just one satoshi. A satoshi represents the smallest unit of Bitcoin.
Projects like Ordinals, which embed data such as images and text into transactions, and Runes, which enable token creation on Bitcoin, currently need to add extra bitcoin to meet this threshold. Leonidas argues that removing the dust limit could unlock around $25 million currently tied up as padding in these systems.
BIP-110, which seeks to cap arbitrary data, is a user-activated soft fork requiring 55% miner support. However, it has failed to gain traction, recording no support in the current period and never exceeding around 1% historically. This suggests the network is unlikely to approve the change.
DOG Mode, by comparison, does not depend on broad agreement. It simply changes what individual nodes choose to relay. If enough nodes adopt it and at least one miner is willing to process the transactions for a fee, they can still be confirmed—without any signaling process or deadlines.
Support for BIP-110 remains minimal and is largely concentrated among users of Bitcoin Knots, an alternative client favored by those who want stricter data limits. DOG Mode would represent the opposite approach—a modified version of Core designed to relax restrictions while staying closer to its original framework than Knots does.
For now, DOG Mode exists only as a concept. There is no code, repository, or official release. Leonidas has called on developers to build it, miners to support it, and users to promote it, but the project is still in its early stages.
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 develop it. Notably, the proposed changes could free up funds that may flow back into markets where his token is active.
Ultimately, BIP-110 seeks to rewrite Bitcoin’s rules and requires broad miner approval, which it currently lacks. DOG Mode, on the other hand, only changes node behavior and would need just a single miner willing to include the transactions. One approach depends on consensus, while the other bypasses it entirely.
Following the announcement, DOG token prices remained largely stable, slipping by about 1.2% over the past day.
