According to PANews, Luke Dashjr, who has been personally responsible for reviewing Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIP) since 2011, is facing criticism for refusing to assign a BIP number to a proposal by another Bitcoin core contributor, Casey Rodarmor. Dashjr, the only person who can assign BIP numbers, has been accused of becoming a gatekeeper who can single-handedly prevent changes to Bitcoin's code.
Dashjr's refusal to assign a BIP number to Rodarmor's proposal, which he dismissed as a 'junk protocol', has sparked intense opposition to his role as BIP administrator. Critics argue that his actions are hindering the decentralization of the Bitcoin network upgrade review process.
In response to the criticism, Dashjr has quietly submitted a pull request intended to effectively block Ordinals, which quickly became a hot topic. Critics of the pull request argue that it would deprive miners of their income source and is tantamount to censorship. Bitcoin core maintainer Ava Chow ultimately rejected Dashjr's request and did not adopt his code, stating, 'It's clear that this pull request is controversial and in its current state, there's no hope of reaching a conclusion that everyone can accept.'
Dashjr, who receives no payment for maintaining the BIP process, assigning numbers, or organizing the BIP GitHub, responded to recent criticism by stating that another BIP editor had stopped working in January. He emphasized that he works voluntarily for BIP without any remuneration. Given his hardline stance on Ordinals, Dashjr appears to be struggling to justify his role as the sole administrator of the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal. His refusal to assign BIP numbers to certain proposals has led many Bitcoin users to question why the review process for Bitcoin network upgrades is not more decentralized.