According to Patrick McCorry, the current Bitcoin OP_RETURN governance dispute has turned toxic despite not involving a consensus rule change, highlighting that the issue is about policy-level standardness rather than base consensus. Source: Patrick McCorry on X. In Bitcoin Core, OP_RETURN handling is governed by standardness policy and not consensus, allowing nodes and miners to independently choose relay and inclusion behavior, which can alter transaction propagation and block composition. Source: Bitcoin Core documentation. Relay and inclusion policies directly affect mempool backlog and fee rates that traders monitor when assessing BTC liquidity and intraday volatility, making mempool size, feerate bands, and miner inclusion patterns key signals around this debate. Source: Bitcoin Core documentation on mempool and fee estimation.