Today, October 14, 2025, the Bitcoin Core developers have released a new version 30.0 of their software for the first cryptocurrency's blockchain. This time, as many expected, significant changes have been implemented, apparently deliberately introduced for the milestone 30th version of the Bitcoin software.
There are quite a few changes in Bitcoin Core 30.0, but we will only highlight those that will directly impact the further development of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency towards BTCFI, i.e., towards the development of smart contracts on the Bitcoin blockchain.
- Reduction of the minimum block fee to 0.001 Satoshi (-blockmintxfee)
- Reduction of the minimum relay fee to 0.1 Satoshi per vB (-minrelaytxfee)
- Increase of OP_RETURN from 83 bytes to 100,000 bytes
- Discontinuation of support for legacy BDB wallet formats; now only descriptor wallets are supported.
Since all current smart contract formats on Bitcoin are currently programmed via OP_RETURN, the request to increase this data format has been long overdue. We have already written that there are even special services for recording blocks with an increased OP_RETURN: How Bitcoin miners increase their income
The direction of Bitcoin's development towards BTCFi is also indicated by the complete abandonment of old wallet versions that do not support smart contracts. Only descriptor wallets are now available: What is a Descriptor Wallet in Bitcoin Core
The reduction of minimum fees is also aimed at popularizing BTCFI and reducing transaction costs when working with smart contracts on the BTC network.
Read more about all changes in Bitcoin Core
Conclusion: In the near future, we can expect intensive development of BTCFI on the Bitcoin network, the emergence of new second-layer networks with even greater automation, and the convergence of the Bitcoin blockchain's functionality with today's smart contract leader – the Ethereum cryptocurrency. This will primarily intensify the use of Bitcoin itself in various areas of economic activity, not just for value transfer.
