Bitcoin Developers Debate “The Cat” BIP to Combat UTXO Spam

[cryptoenthusiast]

Bitcoin developers are considering a controversial proposal called “The Cat” to address blockchain bloat caused by Ordinals and Bitcoin Stamps. The draft BIP would mark millions of small, inscription-related outputs as permanently unspendable, effectively pruning them from the network.

The move targets millions of dust UTXOs — particularly those under 1,000 satoshis — which now make up 30–50% of the Bitcoin Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) set. By reducing storage and node validation costs, proponents argue the proposal could improve network efficiency and deter future spam attacks.

The debate highlights tensions between operational efficiency and Bitcoin’s core values of censorship resistance and asset ownership.

[kevin1]

if you can make outputs unspendable once, what stops future rules?