PANews reported on September 28th that, according to CoinDesk, on September 25th, The Rage published an article claiming that Bitcoin Knots maintainer Luke Dashjr supported a hard fork, proposing the establishment of a trusted multi-signature committee with the power to retroactively modify the blockchain, review transactions, and delete illegal content. The article also cited allegedly leaked text messages in which Dashjr stated, "Either Bitcoin dies or we trust someone." The report, which garnered hundreds of thousands of views on the X platform, exacerbated the debate over whether Bitcoin should maintain a neutral settlement layer or developers should filter legitimate uses of the network. Knots flatly denied the allegations, while Dashjr called them slander by bad actors, undermining their efforts to save Bitcoin. The Rage responded with memes, demanding the identity of the leaker. Over the following 24 hours, Dashjr repeatedly reiterated that no one was calling for a hard fork.

The controversy highlights a long-standing disagreement between Knots and Bitcoin Core. Knots implements stricter rules that prevent non-monetary data like ordinals and runes, while Bitcoin Core takes a more relaxed approach. Udi Wertheimer, co-founder of the Ordinals project Taproot Wizards, called the report a "malicious attack" and defended Dashjr against its misrepresentation.