📝 What are nodes? What are they for? 🧠 A Bitcoin node is a device that runs the open source protocol software and participates in the network. Nodes are key components in the functioning of the system, as they - verify and propagate transactions and blocks - Maintain an up-to-date copy of the time chain, the public and distributed record of all Bitcoin transactions; - enforce the rules of the protocol, ensuring that only valid transactions and blocks are accepted into the network. 🧩 There are several types of Bitcoin nodes: 1. Full nodes 2. Light node or SPV node 3. Mining Node 4. Archive Node 5. Lightning Node 🛡 Nodes are the backbone of the Bitcoin network. They not only enable the technical functioning of the protocol, but also: 1. guarantee decentralization, as each node is independent and sovereign; 2. they prevent unilateral changes to the protocol (resistance to non-shared changes); 3. they validate consensus rules, such as - 21 million BTC maximum; - Validity of cryptographic signatures; - Adherence to maximum block sizes; - validity of bitcoin scripts. 🌍 By 2025, an estimated 20,000 full nodes will be publicly reachable, although the total number could be higher if nodes behind firewalls (non-public) and temporary nodes (connecting only occasionally) are taken into account. ❓️What exactly do the various Bitcoin nodes do? 📶 Stay tuned. #node #full #lighting #mining #spv #bitcoin #world

If you don't have Bitcoin, you're already in the minority.