Not Your Node, Not Your Bitcoin: Why Knots Matters Now
A guide for regular Bitcoiners who care about keeping Bitcoin as money, not a hard drive
Something important happened in Bitcoin this October that most people missed. The latest Bitcoin Core software update (version 30) made a change that sounds small but could fundamentally alter what Bitcoin becomes.
The good news? There’s a simple solution you can implement today.
But first, let me explain why this matters to you, even if you’re not technical.
The Simple Version: Bitcoin Is Having an Identity Crisis
Imagine you bought a pickup truck because you needed to haul equipment for work. It’s perfect for that job. Then the manufacturer sends an “update” that converts half your truck bed into a mobile billboard that anyone can rent to display their advertisements. Sure, you can still haul some stuff, but now you’re also forced to drive around displaying other people’s content, including potentially offensive or even illegal images.
That’s essentially what’s happening to Bitcoin right now.
Bitcoin was created as peer-to-peer electronic cash: digital money that no government or corporation can control. But increasingly, people are using it as a permanent storage system for images, videos, and other data. Think of it like people using Venmo to store their photo albums instead of sending money. It clogs up the system and makes it more expensive for everyone who actually wants to use it as intended.
What Changed in October 2025
Bitcoin Core v30 made it 1,200 times easier to store arbitrary data on Bitcoin. Previously, you could only store about 80 bytes of data in a certain type of transaction (about one sentence of text). Now? You can store 100,000 bytes which is enough for images, documents, even small videos. [1]
The developers who made this change argue it doesn’t matter because people were already finding workarounds to store data anyway. Their logic: “People are already breaking into houses through windows, so we might as well leave the front door open.” [12]
Here’s what actually happens when Bitcoin becomes a data storage platform:
Your costs go up: Running a Bitcoin node (your own copy of the Bitcoin ledger) now requires more storage, more bandwidth, and more powerful hardware [5]
Transaction fees spike: When people flood the network with NFT-like “inscriptions,” regular users pay $30+ to send money [6]
Legal risks emerge: You might unknowingly be storing illegal content on your computer
Bitcoin becomes centralized: As running a node gets more expensive, only big companies can afford it
This Is Already Happening (It’s Not Theoretical)
Within days of v30’s release, developers announced they’re building Ethereum-like virtual machines on Bitcoin. The “Atomicals Virtual Machine” (AVM) now promises to “execute complex contracts directly on Bitcoin” and “enable new forms of crowdfunding, staking, and digital economies on Bitcoin L1.” [13]
In their own words: “A crowdfunding protocol built on AVM could now store all participation, validation, and result data within a single Bitcoin transaction, thanks to the expanded OP_RETURN capacity.”
This is exactly what critics warned about: the “Ethereum-ization” of Bitcoin. We’re not talking about some distant future possibility. It’s happening right now. The door has been opened, and developers are rushing through it to turn Bitcoin into something it was never meant to be.
And before someone says “high fees will kill the spam”, May 2023 proved that wrong. Inscriptions happily paid $30+ per transaction. When spam is profitable or ideologically motivated, fees don’t stop it. They just price out regular users.
“But It’s Just Policy, Not Consensus”: The Technical Argument You’re Hearing
Core v30 defenders claim Knots supporters “don’t understand the difference”. Here’s what they’re saying, and why it’s misleading.
They’re technically correct that this is “just” mempool policy (what transactions nodes relay), not consensus rules (what makes blocks valid). Even if you filter spam, once miners include it in a block, you have to accept it. No chain split risk. Their conclusion: filtering is meaningless theater since miners will mine anything profitable anyway.
They also argue removing filters actually helps small miners. When big pools create private channels for spam transactions that public nodes won’t relay, small miners miss those fees. By removing limits, everyone sees the same transactions, supposedly “leveling the playing field.”
Here’s the problem with this logic: Just because miners can bypass filters doesn’t mean we should make it trivial for everyone. That’s like saying “burglars can pick locks anyway, so why have doors?” The 80-byte limit worked for seven years until Ordinals found an exploit. The solution is fixing exploits, not surrendering.
More importantly, Core enforces dozens of other “meaningless” policy rules such as dust limits, transaction size limits, package limits. If policy doesn’t matter, why have any? Because policy shapes behavior even when it’s not perfect. Making spam easy to propagate is a choice, not a technical requirement.
The “helps small miners” argument is particularly backwards. Once spam becomes trivially easy, we’ll see an explosion of private mempool services as everyone tries to capture value from the chaos. That benefits sophisticated operators with custom infrastructure, not small miners running defaults.
Core supporters also claim connecting to Knots nodes will “hinder fee estimation and slow block reception”. This is backwards. Fee estimation breaks when spam floods the network, not when nodes filter it. May 2023 proved that: fees were unpredictable precisely because of inscription spam. And blocks propagate the same regardless of mempool policy. If anything, Knots nodes having cleaner mempools makes them more reliable, not less.
Bottom line: This isn’t confusion about technical details. It’s about whether Bitcoin nodes should actively facilitate turning Bitcoin into permanent data storage. Core says “resistance is futile” while Knots says “we won’t make it easy”. The technical distinction doesn’t change that fundamental choice.
The Money Behind the Change
Here’s where it gets interesting. One of the key developers who pushed this change receives funding (indirectly through a nonprofit called Brink) from Okcoin, which shares ownership with OKX exchange under the OK Group umbrella. [2] OKX has positioned itself as the leading marketplace for Bitcoin inscriptions and NFTs, actively promoting these services especially in Asian markets. [3]
Think about it: OKX profits when people trade these Bitcoin NFTs on their platform. They sponsor a developer. That developer enables more NFT activity. OKX makes more money.
I’m not saying there’s explicit corruption here, but would you trust dietary guidelines written by someone funded by Coca-Cola?
Meanwhile, claims that BlackRock or venture capitalists are funding Bitcoin Core developers are mostly false, but the concentration of funding from a few sources (like Jack Dorsey’s companies providing 62% of grant funding) does raise legitimate concerns about influence. [4]
Why This Is Our “Not Your Node, Not Your Rules” Moment
You’ve probably heard “not your keys, not your coins”: if you don’t control your Bitcoin private keys, you don’t really own your Bitcoin.
Well, there’s another equally important principle: “Not your node, not your rules.”
If you’re not running your own Bitcoin node, you’re trusting someone else to tell you what’s happening on the Bitcoin network. You’re trusting their version of the rules. And right now, 78% of the network is running software that says Bitcoin should be a general-purpose data platform.
But here’s the thing: most people running Bitcoin Core v30 probably don’t even realize what changed. They just updated because that’s what you do with software. They didn’t actively choose to support Bitcoin becoming a permanent hard drive for whatever anyone wants to store.
Enter Bitcoin Knots: The Simple Solution
Bitcoin Knots is like Bitcoin Core’s more conservative cousin. Created by Luke Dashjr, one of Bitcoin’s earliest developers (contributing since 2011), Knots does everything Core does for normal Bitcoin transactions but includes stronger filters against non-monetary uses. [11]
Think of it this way:
Bitcoin Core v30 = “We’ll relay and store anything someone pays for”
Bitcoin Knots = “We’re here for peer-to-peer electronic cash”
When you run Knots, you’re essentially voting with your node. You’re saying: “I support Bitcoin as money, not as a permanent graveyard for monkey JPEGs.”
Since the controversy erupted, Knots usage has grown from 2% to over 20% of the network. [9] Even crypto legend Nick Szabo (many believe he’s Satoshi Nakamoto) came out of a five-year social media retirement just to recommend people switch to Knots. [10]
The Legal Liability You Didn’t Know You Had
Here’s something that should concern every node operator: In 2019, someone posted illegal material to the BSV blockchain after they made similar changes to what Bitcoin Core just did. That content is now permanently embedded and impossible to remove. [7]
While lawyers debate whether node operators could be prosecuted for unknowingly relaying such content, do you really want to be the test case? [8] When you run Bitcoin Core v30, you’re explicitly choosing software designed to accept large data uploads. With Knots, you can credibly say you configured your node to reject non-monetary data.
Even if the legal risk is small, there’s another issue: Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure all have automated systems that scan for illegal content. If such content gets embedded in Bitcoin and flagged by these systems, it could trigger mass shutdowns of Bitcoin nodes hosted on these platforms.
There’s also a crucial legal difference between “users found an exploit” and “the software accepts this by default”. Courts understand intent. Running software that explicitly accepts 100KB data uploads is different from running software where someone found a clever workaround. One shows you tried to prevent it, the other shows you enabled it. That distinction could matter when the law comes knocking.
Why Running Knots Is a Form of Peaceful Protest
Switching to Knots is one of the most powerful things you can do as a Bitcoin user. It’s a peaceful, perfectly legitimate way to express what you believe Bitcoin should be. You’re not attacking the network, you’re not creating a new coin, you’re just selecting which valid transactions your node will relay.
If enough people switch to Knots:
It sends a clear message that the community rejects Bitcoin becoming a data dumpster
It makes it harder for inscription spam to propagate through the network
It preserves Bitcoin’s accessibility for regular users who can’t afford server-grade hardware
It maintains Bitcoin’s focus on its core purpose: being unstoppable money
“But I’m Not Technical!”
Here’s the beautiful thing: Running Knots is just as easy as running Core. The interface is identical. The setup process is the same. Popular node packages like Umbrel, Start9, and RaspiBlitz already have or are adding Knots support.
If you can:
Install an app on your phone
Set up a Wi-Fi router
Follow a YouTube tutorial
Then you can run a Bitcoin node with Knots.
This Is Temporary (We Hope)
Nobody wants Bitcoin to have two competing implementations forever. This is about sending a message and buying time for a better solution. Maybe Core will reconsider these changes. Possibly better spam filtering will be developed. Perhaps the fee market will naturally price out data storage.
But right now, today, running Knots is how we peacefully resist the transformation of Bitcoin from freedom money into expensive cloud storage.
Your Action Plan
If you already run a node: Consider switching to Bitcoin Knots. Your node will continue working exactly the same for all legitimate Bitcoin transactions.
If you run a business and worry about fee estimation: You don’t need to relay spam to monitor fees. Use mempool.space for market data while running Knots. You can observe network conditions without participating in the problem. Besides, “accurate” fee estimates in a spam-flooded network aren’t useful, since you’re just measuring dysfunction.
If you don’t run a node: This is your wake-up call. Running a node is how you verify Bitcoin’s rules for yourself and support the network’s decentralization. Start with a simple solution like Umbrel or Start9.
Spread the word: Share this with other Bitcoiners who might not understand what’s happening. The more people who understand the stakes, the better.
Be patient: This is a marathon, not a sprint. Bitcoin has survived worse controversies and will survive this one.
The Bottom Line
Bitcoin is at a crossroads.
Down one path, it remains focused on being peer-to-peer electronic cash: money for enemies, uncensorable transactions, financial sovereignty for everyone.
Down the other path, it becomes a general-purpose data platform where monetary use competes with digital collectibles and arbitrary file storage.
You get to help choose which path we take. Not by arguing on X (formerly known as Twitter). Not by waiting for someone else to fix it. But by running the software that reflects your values.
Run Knots. Vote for Bitcoin as money. Keep Bitcoin weird, but not that weird.
Remember: You don’t need anyone’s permission to run Knots. You don’t need to ask anyone. You just download it, run it, and become part of the solution.
That’s the beauty of Bitcoin: the users ultimately decide what it becomes.
Not your node, not your rules. Make sure they’re your rules.
Works Cited
[1] Cointelegraph. “Bitcoin Core V30 Officially Launches To Mixed Community Reaction.” October 2025. https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-core-v30-controversial-op-return-function-now-live; Bitcoin Learning. “Bitcoin Knots vs. Bitcoin Core v30: A Deep Dive into the Client Divide.” https://www.bitcoinlearning.org/bitcoin-knots-vs-bitcoin-core-v30/
[2] Okcoin Blog. “Meet Gloria Zhao, Bitcoin Core Developer and Okcoin grantee.” https://blog.okcoin.com/meet-gloria-zhao-bitcoin-core-developer-and-okcoin-grantee/; Brink. “Celebrating Gloria’s First Brink Epoch.” January 4, 2025. https://brink.dev/blog/2025/01/04/glorias-brink-epoch/
[3] OKX. “OKX Inscriptions — The largest multichain inscription ecosystem.” https://www.okx.com/landingpage/inscription-roadmap; CoinDesk. “OKX Starts Inscription Support for Atomicals, Stamps, Runes and Doginals.” January 29, 2024. https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/01/29/okx-starts-inscription-support-atomicals-stamps-runes-and-doginals
[4] No BS Bitcoin. “Bitcoin Core Development Funded with $8.4M in 2023 — Report.” https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/bitcoin-core-development-funded-with-8-4m-in-2023-report/
[5] Jameson Lopp. “2023 Bitcoin Node Performance Tests.” https://blog.lopp.net/2023-bitcoin-node-performance-tests/
[6] Mempool.space Research. “UTXO Set Report.” https://research.mempool.space/utxo-set-report/
[7] CoinGeek. “Think twice before adding illegal content to Bitcoin SV chain.” 2019. https://coingeek.com/think-twice-adding-illegal-content-bitcoin-sv-chain/
[8] Protos. “EXCLUSIVE: Lawyers call Bitcoin Core v30 CSAM concerns ‘overblown’.” https://protos.com/exclusive-lawyers-call-bitcoin-core-v30-csam-concerns-overblown/
[9] CryptoSlate. “The battle between Bitcoin Core vs. Knots is getting ugly.” https://cryptoslate.com/the-battle-between-bitcoin-core-vs-knots-is-getting-ugly/
[10] Cointelegraph. “Nick Szabo joins fray as controversial Bitcoin Core update nears release.” September 2025. https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-core-sends-v30-release-candidate-as-nick-szabo-joins-debate
[11] The Coinomist. “What Is Bitcoin Knots: How Luke Dashjr’s Bitcoin Software Differs from Bitcoin Core.” https://thecoinomist.com/learn/what-is-bitcoin-knots-fork-by-luke-dashjr/
[12] The Block. “Bitcoin Core devs merge controversial OP_RETURN policy change into planned October release.” June 2025. https://www.theblock.co/post/357594/bitcoin-core-devs-merge-controversial-op_return-policy-change-into-planned-october-release
[13] Stacker News. “The REAL reason for removing the OP_RETURN 80-byte limit.” October 2025. https://stacker.news/items/1255380