Giacomo Zucco Questions Bitcoin Core's Role in the Future of the Bitcoin Protocol

At the Plan ₿ 2026 conference in Lugano, Giacomo Zucco, a historic figure of the Bitcoin community, reignited the debate over the governance of Bitcoin Core software, a pillar of the BTC protocol. His talk, though tinged with humor, highlights the persistent tensions between developers, maintainers, and users, without however announcing any imminent rupture. These discussions, though technical, question the network's ability to evolve without a central authority, a key issue for institutional investors. Context Bitcoin Core is the reference implementation of the Bitcoin protocol, used by nearly all nodes on the network. Its development relies on a decentralized model, where hundreds of volunteers and a few developers paid by companies such as Blockstream, Chaincode Labs, or Brink collaborate through Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs). In recent years, disagreements over topics such as block size (the Blocksize Wars) or the activation of Taproot have revealed deep divides within the community, without however threatening the stability of the network. Giacomo Zucco, co-founder of several Bitcoin-related initiatives and president of Plan ₿ Network, is an influential voice in this debate. His organization, based in Lugano, promotes Bitcoin education and organizes annual conferences bringing together developers, entrepreneurs, and regulators. The Plan ₿ 2026 conference, whose first day took place on October 24, takes place in a relatively stable market context: the price of BTC, at $80,942 according to CryptoScore Pro, shows a slight decline over seven days (-0.74%), while transaction fees remain low (1.194 sat/vB on average). The Facts During his talk in Lugano, Giacomo Zucco addressed the internal conflicts within Bitcoin Core from a provocative angle, with a deliberately catchy title: "Will Bitcoin Core kill Bitcoin?" . According to the article from bitcoin.fr , published on October 24, 2026, he recalled Betteridge's law – according to which the answer to a question posed in a headline is generally "no" – before refocusing the debate on the governance of the protocol. Several key points were discussed, without precise figures or technical announcements: The current disagreements concern the mempool , this "waiting room" where nodes store unconfirmed transactions. Zucco emphasizes that a policy change in Bitcoin Core, contested by some developers, could make it easier to inscribe arbitrary files on the blockchain, a sensitive subject due to legal and congestion risks. The tensions are not new. Zucco traced several past crises, such as the OP_RETURN Wars in 2014, where the refusal to expand a data field contributed to the creation of Ethereum, or the Blocksize Wars , which divided the community between 2015 and 2017. None of these disputes, however, led to the "death" of Bitcoin, as shown by the archives of bitcoindeaths.com . The key players in the debate include Luke Dashjr, a longtime developer and promoter of Bitcoin Knots, who believes Bitcoin Core endangers the network, and Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, who defends the opposite view. No formal proposal (BIP) or resolution timeline was mentioned during the talk. Market data, according to CryptoScore Pro as of October 24, 2026, shows no significant reaction: BTC is slightly down (-0.39% over 24 hours), with a market capitalization of 1,630 billion dollars and a daily trading volume of 912.62 million dollars. The Crypto Fear & Greed index remains neutral (50/100), reflecting the absence of immediate tension. Understanding Key Concepts Bitcoin Core and Alternative Implementations Bitcoin Core is the most widely used software for running a Bitcoin node, that is, a computer that validates transactions and maintains a copy of the blockchain. Although it is considered the reference, other implementations exist, such as Bitcoin Knots (developed by Luke Dashjr) or btcd. These alternatives aim to offer different features or to correct choices deemed problematic in Core. For example, Bitcoin Knots includes additional filters to block certain types of transactions, a controversial approach because it can fragment the network if too many nodes adopt it. BIPs (Bitcoin Improvement Proposals) A BIP is a formal document describing a proposed change to the Bitcoin protocol. It may concern technical aspects (such as the activation of Taproot in 2021, which improved transaction privacy and efficiency) or governance rules. BIPs are discussed publicly on forums such as GitHub before being integrated – or rejected – by the Bitcoin Core maintainers. For example, BIP 141 (SegWit), adopted in 2017, resolved a transaction malleability problem and increased network capacity, but its activation had divided the community. The mempool and node policies The mempool (short for "memory pool") is a temporary area where each node stores transactions awaiting confirmation by miners. Nodes apply their own rules to accept or reject these transactions, based on criteria such as the fees paid or the size of the data. For example, a node may refuse transactions including large files to avoid saturating its mempool. Current disagreements concern the standardization of these rules within Bitcoin Core, with some developers believing that an overly permissive policy could undermine decentralization. Forks: soft fork and hard fork A fork refers to a divergence in the rules of the Bitcoin protocol. A soft fork is a backward-compatible update: nodes that have not been upgraded can continue to operate, but do not benefit from the new features (example: Taproot). A hard fork , on the other hand, creates a break: nodes that do not adopt it end up on a separate chain (example: Bitcoin Cash in 2017, resulting from a disagreement over block size). Hard forks are rare on Bitcoin, as they fragment the community and dilute the value of the network. Analysis: what is at stake The debate raised by Giacomo Zucco around Bitcoin Core highlights economic and technical mechanisms that are often…