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A new Bitcoin client proposal has emerged just days after BIP 110 failed to attract meaningful miner support for restricting non-financial data on the network. On Friday, Runestone co-founder Leonidas announced DOG Mode, an open-source Bitcoin client that would loosen Bitcoin Core's relay policies without requiring a consensus vote.
Unlike BIP 110, which seeks a consensus change through a user-activated soft fork, DOG Mode would simply alter how participating nodes relay transactions. The proposal introduces larger transaction relay limits and a lower dust threshold while leaving Bitcoin's consensus rules unchanged.
Leonidas said DOG Mode would remove two restrictions currently enforced by Bitcoin Core. One limits the maximum standard transaction size that nodes relay. The other defines the minimum Bitcoin value an output must contain before nodes forward it.
Bitcoin's consensus rules determine whether a block remains valid across the network. By contrast, relay policy only controls which transactions an individual node shares with neighboring nodes. Therefore, transactions rejected under relay policy can remain valid under Bitcoin's consensus rules.
Since most Bitcoin nodes run Bitcoin Core, its default relay settings effectively shape network behavior. Nevertheless, miners can still include non-standard transactions if they receive them directly. Services such as MARA's Slipstream already help users submit those transactions to miners.
DOG Mode would increase the maximum standard transaction size from 400,000 weight units to 3,900,000 weight units. Since a Bitcoin block holds four million weight units, the proposed limit would allow nodes to relay transactions occupying almost an entire block.
Meanwhile, the proposal would lower the dust limit from 294-546 satoshis to just one satoshi. As a result, smaller transaction outputs could move through participating nodes without meeting today's higher threshold.
Ordinals store images and text inside Bitcoin transactions. Likewise, Runes allows users to issue tradable tokens on the Bitcoin network. Both systems currently add extra Bitcoin to outputs so they satisfy Bitcoin Core's dust requirement.
Leonidas said removing the dust limit would free about $25 million currently locked as padding within those ecosystems. According to his statement, those funds could return to the related markets if the lower threshold gains adoption.
Even so, DOG Mode does not require approval from miners or a formal activation process. Instead, any node operator can choose to run the software. If enough nodes adopt it and a miner accepts the transactions, they can enter confirmed blocks.
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BIP 110 follows a different approach by seeking to restrict arbitrary data through a user-activated soft fork. The proposal requires support from 55% of miners before activation. Current tracking data shows BIP 110 has received no miner support during the ongoing signaling period. Furthermore, it has never exceeded roughly 1% support during previous periods, according to the BIP 110 monitor.
Support for BIP 110 mainly comes through Bitcoin Knots, an alternative Bitcoin client favored by developers who support stricter data controls. In contrast, Leonidas described DOG Mode as a Core fork that would diverge less from Bitcoin Core than Knots.
DOG Mode currently exists only as an announced initiative. Leonidas invited developers to build the first release, encouraged miners to support it, and asked users to promote the project. As of Friday, no public code repository, software version, or benchmark existed.
Runes creator Casey Rodarmor developed the protocol, while Leonidas helped promote it and co-founded Runestone, the project behind the DOG token. DOG traded little changed following Friday's announcement and fell 1.2% over the previous 24 hours.
DOG Mode proposes broader Bitcoin relay rules without requiring miner approval or a consensus vote, while BIP 110 continues to seek support for stricter data limits through a soft fork. The proposals present different approaches to Bitcoin transaction relay policies as developers and node operators monitor future adoption.
