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I have been seeing some claims that "Bitcoin Knots is part of the Bitcoin Core project", that "Bitcoin Knots is just another release of Bitcoin Core", and that "Bitcoin Knots has more contributors than Bitcoin Core". Bitcoin Core has about 40 regular contributors with over a thousand past contributors. The Bitcoin Core project releases its software on bitcoincore.org. Bitcoin Core releases are signed by several Bitcoin Core contributors and other community members. Releases are attested to by this community. Bitcoin Core’s source code is released under the MIT License. The MIT License is a permissive open-source license permitting anyone to do almost anything with the licensed code. Bitcoin Knots is a project fork of Bitcoin Core. Bitcoin Knots appears to be developed by a single developer pushing directly to master without peer review. Bitcoin Knots releases are composed of Bitcoin Core’s source code modified with a patch set of about 1400 commits. The same individual unilaterally issues releases. There is no indication that anyone else has ever contributed code or review directly to Bitcoin Knots. Bitcoin Knots is not endorsed by the Bitcoin Core project. Claims to the contrary appear to be based on a unique individual perception of reality.

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Not related to the bullshit comment above , but maybe one the biggest questions knots ppl have is: IF this change does bring the consequence of non-monetary tx pushing out monetary tx due to high fees and full blocks, is core going to “rewind” this change? Cause from some statements from core devs it seems that btc is a database for whatever the market wants it to be, and if the market wants it to be for non monetary tx then be it. I might be wrong but this seems to be the biggest concern from knots ppl, the fact that btc as PRIMARILY a monetary network is not a given Cheers
As far as I can tell all Bitcoin Core contributors are only interested in Bitcoin as a monetary system, although some are more excited about nascent scaling technologies than others. We've seen at least three waves of data transaction uses get priced out of Bitcoin so far, and just because a sober assessment indicates that it will always be possible to embed data in the Bitcoin block chain doesn't mean that any Bitcoin Core developers are motivated by that. That said, I have in 12 years not seen a mempool policy tightening, especially not against any transaction types that had more than vanishing demand. I'm not convinced it's feasible without making it financially attractive to break rank. If you have some time and are open to reading more, I thought Antoine's responses to various concerns were well laid out here:
I would like to see core make steps towards helping hashers become miners again, constructing their own templates and running their own nodes. Core should have mining features ready to go with 1 click for the pool hashers to switch to decentralized mining.
The beauty of open source is you can verify @npub1j5mp...sd5c ‘s claims very easily. Go have a look at the knots repo. And if you’re a tech person, look at the commits to see what @Luke Dashjr and/or others have been contributing to Knots. (And while you’re at it, do the same on Core from time to time.) Then decide which software suits YOU best. There are no silver bullets though. It’s trade-offs all the way down. Adjust your risk level accordingly. nevent1qqswaa5vpsyp29258n6radga5ey0q88apnyaa9uqst7fvzcuqjzeynqpr3mhxue69uhkummnw3ezucnfw33k76twv4ezuum0vd5kzmql09nc2
"Bitcoin Knots has more contributors than Bitcoin Core" Since Knots is a fork of Core, this is just so by definition. It looks to me as if you mean to imply someone claimed that Knots has more 'maintainers'; but realized that would have been too obvious of a strawman.
No, people contributing to the upstream project are part of the process in the upstream project. Their review also benefits the downstream project as their code contributions are released with the downstairs project, but they are not participating in the downstream project's process. Your restarting it like this makes me think that the distinction is not clearly understood.
When Rome was an empire, the saying was qui bono? Who benefits? Who benefits when spam is forced on the nodes by your altruistic devs? I’ll stick with the one developer whose interests align with Satoshi’s vision, a monetary network.
All those Core maintainers. All those eyes. Yet it took someone outside the club to call out what was happening. Changes were being made without community input. People raising questions were being silenced or banned. They won’t censor spam, but they’ll censor dissent. This isn’t about OP_RETURN. It’s about behavior. About acting like Core is Bitcoin, instead of Bitcoin being the people. One person can slip in changes while everyone else stays quiet, and we’re told to trust the process. That’s not decentralization. That’s capture with better PR.
I would still rather trust this one person who appears to understand what bitcoin is for and what makes it unique, than a group who appears to have been compromised, either ideologically or financially, to introduce a change that is clearly against the long term interests of bitcoin.
The Bitcoin software doesn’t auto-update. If Knots ever goes rogue, we’ll move on from that too. This isn’t about picking a winner. It’s about refusing to pretend we have real choice when that choice is being shaped behind closed doors. Right now, there are more eyes on Knots than ever. Any funny business would be spotted. What’s concerning is that Core has started censoring people when conflicts of interest are pointed out. They say we have choice. But everything that has been said so far points to the illusion of it.
True, and why we are here ? Because Knots seems to suit better nodes values, not core. Solution : listen also nodes owners and try to be "open" to some knots argues. And stop saying everybody are wrong we have the ultimate truth. There is no smoke without fire. #btc4ever
Good read. One of the reasons why I haven't rushed to make Libre Relay easier to install, e.g. with binary releases, step-by-step docs, etc. is that it's just a one man proof-of-concept/experiment and people probably shouldn't be running it on a big scale. If it were to be widely used, I'd want more eyes on it first. And really, Core is perfectly goodfor 99% of users.
User's avatar npub1j5mp...sd5c
I have been seeing some claims that "Bitcoin Knots is part of the Bitcoin Core project", that "Bitcoin Knots is just another release of Bitcoin Core", and that "Bitcoin Knots has more contributors than Bitcoin Core". Bitcoin Core has about 40 regular contributors with over a thousand past contributors. The Bitcoin Core project releases its software on bitcoincore.org. Bitcoin Core releases are signed by several Bitcoin Core contributors and other community members. Releases are attested to by this community. Bitcoin Core’s source code is released under the MIT License. The MIT License is a permissive open-source license permitting anyone to do almost anything with the licensed code. Bitcoin Knots is a project fork of Bitcoin Core. Bitcoin Knots appears to be developed by a single developer pushing directly to master without peer review. Bitcoin Knots releases are composed of Bitcoin Core’s source code modified with a patch set of about 1400 commits. The same individual unilaterally issues releases. There is no indication that anyone else has ever contributed code or review directly to Bitcoin Knots. Bitcoin Knots is not endorsed by the Bitcoin Core project. Claims to the contrary appear to be based on a unique individual perception of reality.
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An interesting thread follows this one:
User's avatar npub1j5mp...sd5c
I have been seeing some claims that "Bitcoin Knots is part of the Bitcoin Core project", that "Bitcoin Knots is just another release of Bitcoin Core", and that "Bitcoin Knots has more contributors than Bitcoin Core". Bitcoin Core has about 40 regular contributors with over a thousand past contributors. The Bitcoin Core project releases its software on bitcoincore.org. Bitcoin Core releases are signed by several Bitcoin Core contributors and other community members. Releases are attested to by this community. Bitcoin Core’s source code is released under the MIT License. The MIT License is a permissive open-source license permitting anyone to do almost anything with the licensed code. Bitcoin Knots is a project fork of Bitcoin Core. Bitcoin Knots appears to be developed by a single developer pushing directly to master without peer review. Bitcoin Knots releases are composed of Bitcoin Core’s source code modified with a patch set of about 1400 commits. The same individual unilaterally issues releases. There is no indication that anyone else has ever contributed code or review directly to Bitcoin Knots. Bitcoin Knots is not endorsed by the Bitcoin Core project. Claims to the contrary appear to be based on a unique individual perception of reality.
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I have been seeing some claims that “Bitcoin is part of the modern financial system,” that “Bitcoin is just another form of currency like the dollar,” and that “Bitcoin has more decentralization than the dollar.” The U.S. dollar is managed by the Federal Reserve System, with its 12 regional banks and a Board of Governors consisting of 7 members, alongside thousands of Treasury employees as historical contributors. The dollar’s operations are published on federalreserve.gov and treasury.gov. Dollar issuances are authorized by the Federal Open Market Committee, consisting of the Board of Governors and select regional bank presidents, with oversight from Congress and other federal entities. Releases of new currency or economic data are reviewed and endorsed by this authoritative community. The dollar’s framework operates under the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, as a fiat currency governed by federal law since the gold standard ended in 1971. Bitcoin is a decentralized offshoot of traditional currency systems, launched by an anonymous entity known as Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin appears to be maintained by a sprawling, uncoordinated network of miners and developers, pushing changes to its blockchain without centralized oversight. Bitcoin’s blockchain consists of the original decentralized ledger modified with a sprawling set of over 900,000 blocks as of May 2025. This same leaderless consensus mechanism issues new blocks and transactions. There is no indication that any established authority has ever contributed oversight or stability directly to Bitcoin. Bitcoin is not endorsed by the Federal Reserve or the Treasury. So, let’s set the record straight: the dollar, with its centralized, accountable management, clearly outshines Bitcoin’s haphazard, unendorsed experiment. @jack @npub1j5mp...sd5c @Bitcoin Mechanic nevent1qqswaa5vpsyp29258n6radga5ey0q88apnyaa9uqst7fvzcuqjzeynqpr3mhxue69uhkummnw3ezucnfw33k76twv4ezuum0vd5kzmql09nc2