The Bitcoin network is caught up in a heated debate, and it’s all about software.
The former gaze replacement for the Bitcoin core, known as Bitcoin Knot, suddenly took about 25% of all active Bitcoin nodes. What appears to be a technological change is becoming a political and ideological battle for the future of Bitcoin.
Just a few days ago, Coindance showed Bitcoin Knots at 19% of the nodes. And now it’s over 24% and over a quarter of the network.
This is a big jump compared to a small increase in Bitcoin Core. Between September 9 and September 14, Core rose 1.54%, while knots rose 47.6% over the same period.
Bitref.com reports similar numbers on another website that analyzes Bitcoin nodes around the world.
Bitcoin knots are nothing new. It is based on this Bitcoin core, developed by longtime Bitconner Luke Dashul, but has more stringent rules for what is considered a spam transaction.
Supporters say they will remove unnecessary transfer packages and help Bitcoin concentrate on sound money rather than a platform for experimental data.
The timing of the knot surge is no coincidence. The Bitcoin Core developer is working on version 30 and removes the 80-byte limit for OP_Return data.
Op_return is a special feature of Bitcoin transactions that allows users to incorporate any data directly on the blockchain, from digital art to document recording.
Bitcoin Knot takes this more seriously and limits the size of OP_RETURN data to 42 bytes.
Core developers say this drives innovation. Critics fear it will flood the blockchain with junk data. Supporters of Bitcoin Knots claim they will slow down networks, increase fees, inflate blockchains with useless data, weaken Bitcoin’s role as a financial system and open up attacks.
Luke Daschle himself warned, “What do you think will happen because the core opens the floodgates and opens spam and essentially supports it?”
He added, “Unless the community takes a clear stand and refuses to change, the chances of Bitcoin becoming successful are out the window.”
The battle over op_return is not technical, it’s an ideological one.
The philosophy of Bitcoin Core is that if a transaction follows the rules and pays a fee, it should include it regardless of whether it moves money or embeds the artwork.
Core advocate Jameson Ropp said it frankly. “I really hate politics. So there’s little patience to those who try to impose a traditional governance model on Bitcoin. If you hate disorder, you’re free to leave.”
Knot backers, on the other hand, want more control to keep the blockchain lean and efficient. They believe that they could give up core orientations of neutrality and turn Bitcoin into a garbage dump for non-financial activities.
They believe that in the long run, such loose policies will have a strong impact on the decentralization of Bitcoin.
In 2017, a block-sized war split the Bitcoin community and created Bitcoin Cash. Some call this the Spam War, with the same atmosphere as the 2017 debate.
As before, the community is arguing how Bitcoin should expand, who will set the rules, and whether it threatens whether the software is too diverse.
For now, both the core and knots follow the same basic Bitcoin rules, so they are compatible. But the worry is that if the V30 rolls out and there is no knot, it could potentially be rejected or even a transaction.
This will create a chain split that will allow two different versions of Bitcoin to work in parallel, essentially creating another hard fork.
As more people switch to the knot, it’s not just a sign of frustration for the core, it’s also a desire for alternatives. Some view this as decentralization. Others see it as fragmentation.
The clock will be engraved in October, when the Bitcoin Core V30 is released. Until then, the tension between innovation and stability is only built between openness and inhibition.