Latest / Simply Bitcoin / Why Bitcoin Developers Are at War! (Core vs. Knots Explained) | Beyond Bitcoin

Transcript

Why Bitcoin Developers Are at War! (Core vs. Knots Explained) | Beyond Bitcoin · Simply Bitcoin

• 0:00
  There's a battle raging in Bitcoin right now.
• 0:02
  If you're listening to this, you may be caught in the middle of
• 0:05
  it and not even know it. I'm curious what your thoughts
• 0:07
  are on core versus knots. Ordinarily I would agree that
• 0:11
  you can't really spam Bitcoin if as long as you're paying a fee
• 0:16
  then it's a transaction. But it gets more complicated
• 0:20
  because Bitcoin Core has seemingly started removing
• 0:23
  roadblocks to spam. You may have heard about Bitcoin
• 0:26
  core versus knots, a debate that's been gaining traction in
• 0:29
  the last few months, and this battle has many Bitcoin holders
• 0:33
  worried about the future of what Bitcoin may be today.
• 0:35
  I want to break down what that debate is from a completely
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  non-technical standpoint. I'm not very good at technical
• 0:42
  stuff. And I also want to share some
• 0:43
  information with you that was just revealed that may change
• 0:47
  the way people use Bitcoin forever.
• 0:48
  Emotions. This is beyond Bitcoin.
• 0:50
  You're not going to want to miss this one.
• 0:57
  I don't think people appreciate how much they've harmed their
• 1:00
  own cause on the core side by talking to everybody else to by
• 1:05
  talking down to everybody else. You know, and I'm not gonna use
• 1:07
  the language that's used on the, on the those spaces in, in those
• 1:12
  discussions. But it doesn't.
• 1:14
  No it it isn't advancing the cause of the creating consensus
• 1:18
  or winning over supporters. First off, for those of you who
• 1:21
  are not familiar, what the heck is the knots versus Bitcoin core
• 1:25
  debate? Currently, there are two schools
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  of thought when it comes to Bitcoin.
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  The first being Bitcoin as an unsensible medium of information
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  exchange and 2nd, Bitcoin is money.
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  Period. Now, sure, while we all agree
• 1:36
  that Bitcoin should probably be both of these things, this
• 1:38
  category, the unsensible medium of information exchange, comes
• 1:42
  with the big monkey on its back. You see the monkey on the back?
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  I sort of put a little JPEG there, you know, to illustrate
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  the point. Think about it.
• 1:50
  Since SegWit and Taproot updates to Bitcoin, other subjects that
• 1:54
  go way above my head, users have been able to tie additional data
• 1:57
  to transactions. This means that users suddenly
• 2:00
  had the ability to attach a JPG or a note or a GIF.
• 2:03
  Anyway, you can attach a number of different types of data to
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  the blockchain. Isn't that like an ordinal or
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  something? Yes, it is an ordinary ordinal.
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  O. This sarked an entire community
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  that was able to create NFTS that were tied to a single set
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  on the blockchain. Each ordinal is inscribed into a
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  single satoshi on the Bitcoin network.
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  That's actually a bit of a misnomer because each satoshi
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  already has an ordinal that describes its place in the
• 2:29
  blockchain. Now this means that each ordinal
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  has a date and a unique identifier and the data, whether
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  it be an image, a message or just gibberish, can be inscribed
• 2:40
  into the data area of the satoshi.
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  Now, let me clarify that these GIFs, Jpegs, or notes don't
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  exist on the blockchain. It's not like minors are
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  stuffing memes into their transactions and broadcasting
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  them. Rather, it allows an opportunity
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  for a user to attach additional data to the blockchain, and that
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  additional data is then tied to one of these NFTS or Jpegs
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  inscriptions on some kind of Ordinal Explorer.
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  So you'd have to go to an additional website or third
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  party app to be able to actually see what is inscribed on these
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  sats. It's like putting a little tag
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  on a SAT. So why am I explaining all this?
• 3:20
  Well, this is what sums up the current state of Bitcoin court.
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  Whether you like it or not, the sats you save on a daily basis
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  could have graffiti attached to them on some kind of third party
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  app. As you can imagine, this SAT
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  scratch doesn't sit well with everyone.
• 3:33
  In fact, there's an entire community that wishes to prune
• 3:36
  their nodes, which is to only allow financial transactions on
• 3:40
  the Bitcoin blockchain. And this is what's referred to
• 3:43
  as the Knots Camp. A valid effort, terrible logo,
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  but this Knots Camp is not going to recognize your dirty NFTS.
• 3:50
  Spam is something you don't want, right?
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  Like if you make a comparison to e-mail, what is spam e-mail?
• 3:56
  It's like unsolicited e-mail that just comes to you that you
• 3:59
  probably don't want, right? And I don't think there's a
• 4:02
  direct one to one comparison for Bitcoin spam to anything else in
• 4:06
  the world because there's really nothing else like Bitcoin.
• 4:09
  So you can't really directly compare it to e-mail spam, mail
• 4:13
  spam, physical mail spam, maybe, but it's still like not
• 4:16
  perfectly one to one example. But I would say, yes, there is
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  spam. And this is a whole other
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  dimension to the whole debate, which is some core supporters
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  are saying there's no such thing as spam because the spammers
• 4:29
  paid a fee. But then going back to the
• 4:31
  imperfect example, the guy that's spamming your e-mail also
• 4:35
  paid for his Internet connection.
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  That doesn't necessarily mean that you want to get that right.
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  Their school of thought is let's keep the network clean and free
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  of any trashy data. And I do mean trashy.
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  So what's the deal? Why not just run a version of
• 4:48
  Bitcoin on your own personal node and let bygones be bygones?
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  And this is where another fracture exists.
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  Because coming in as early as this October, there will be a
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  new Bitcoin Core version release, version 30.
• 5:01
  It's coming for you this October.
• 5:04
  Bitcoin version 30. Scary.
• 5:09
  This apparently is a major upgrade to the network, where
• 5:12
  the most significant change is the removal of the 80 byte limit
• 5:15
  on off return transactions which embed data on the blockchain.
• 5:19
  OK, so you're removing the 80 byte limit again.
• 5:22
  What's the big deal? What the heck does that mean?
• 5:24
  Bitcoin Core version 30 is being released in about a month and in
• 5:28
  this video I'm going to explain why I'm not upgrading.
• 5:32
  The first reason is the deprecation of the data carrier
• 5:35
  size option. The argument for deprecation is
• 5:38
  premised on the idea that this particular filter has no effect.
• 5:42
  Though couched in technical terms, the argument is
• 5:44
  ultimately an economic claim that unseen effects do not
• 5:47
  exist. The second reason is that data
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  carrier size option now defaults to 100,000 bytes.
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  The argument for this is based on the idea that bumping it to
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  160 bytes would necessitate another pull request and if
• 6:02
  bumped to a number lower than 100,000, yet another pull
• 6:05
  request. In other words, the decision is
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  based on administrative or political reasons and not
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  technical reasons. I believe this opens the
• 6:13
  floodgates way too soon and is again premised on an unfounded
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  economic claim. The third reason is that the
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  minimum transaction fee has been changed from 0.1 sets per V
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  byte, down from one set per V byte.
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  This is a transaction filter that demonstrably prevented
• 6:29
  Maripool, among others, from adding more spam to the
• 6:31
  blockchain due to orphan risk. I believe this to be a
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  completely unnecessary thing for both the miner and user.
• 6:38
  The decision to remove the OP return size limit has drawn
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  criticism from purists who worry that it may encourage non
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  financial data or spam to be stored on the blockchain,
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  potentially compromising Bitcoins identity as a system of
• 6:51
  peer-to-peer electronic cash. Now this movement is being
• 6:55
  steered by Ocean Miner CTO Luke Dasher, and he's been adamant
• 6:59
  about rejecting the new core update and having users switch
• 7:03
  to knots. So if you're not an X, this is
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  the real upset right now. Do we want Bitcoin to be an
• 7:08
  unsensible medium of information exchange, or do we want to limit
• 7:12
  the network to financial transactions only?
• 7:15
  I am interested in this. I actually would like to know
• 7:17
  what you think of the comments below.
• 7:19
  Even though most of you are not spammers, aren't you spamming my
• 7:23
  comments with your Nazi stuff? This has caused somewhat of a
• 7:27
  bifurcation in the community, where accounts are slinging
• 7:29
  memes and slangs at each other, all of which are offering up
• 7:33
  their two sets and reasons why to stick to core or ditch it for
• 7:37
  knots. Don't you just love when someone
• 7:39
  who's completely unqualified to talk about a subject makes a
• 7:42
  video about it on YouTube? By the way, knots and core
• 7:46
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• 7:51
  affect more than just your bank account?
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  portable hotspots, power kits and Faraday bags that keep you
• 8:00
  online and communicating when everything else goes dark.
• 8:03
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• 8:09
  Keep your sovereignty and your signal in a time of crisis.
• 8:12
  thatssat123.com Now there's another account that you may not
• 8:16
  have heard of that is milking this debate for some great
• 8:18
  comedy, and that's the Bitcoin Bugle.
• 8:21
  The one piece of advice that I do have in this episode, you got
• 8:24
  to follow these guys. You got to follow the bugle.
• 8:27
  Richard Greaser and Rod Palmer have.
• 8:30
  Richard Greaser and Rod Palmer have their finger on the pulse
• 8:34
  of what's going on in the Bitcoin community.
• 8:36
  And the same time they are managed to troll it like nobody
• 8:40
  else can do. The Bugle offers insights and
• 8:43
  actually great technical perspectives on this whole
• 8:46
  debate, and they do it with satire.
• 8:48
  See if I can handle this guys. If you see this, I love what
• 8:51
  you're doing. Continue.
• 8:53
  Thank you very much. On a recent recording of the
• 8:55
  Bitcoin Bugle podcast, Rod Palmer walked a very thin line
• 8:58
  between trolling and truth, and he called out the entire
• 9:01
  situation. Listen here.
• 9:02
  Let's be clear. Can we, can we be adults?
• 9:06
  Can we cut the LARP? OK, many influencers are bad
• 9:11
  actors. Not all of them, but many.
• 9:15
  There are countless plaids and everyday Bitcoiners who are
• 9:19
  caught up in this because they're worried.
• 9:21
  And some are genuinely scared. They are scared for Bitcoin.
• 9:29
  They are scared for the security of their savings.
• 9:33
  They're scared of how the government, the state might
• 9:36
  react to policies pushed by core developers.
• 9:40
  And they are, some of them. And they don't listen to Bitcoin
• 9:44
  podcasts, clearly. But that fear because the trust
• 9:50
  has been shredded across society.
• 9:52
  People don't trust neighbors, Co workers or even their own family
• 9:57
  members. Republicans don't even trust
• 10:01
  anymore. Think about that for a second.
• 10:03
  Republicans, they don't even trust anymore.
• 10:07
  Don't take that for granted. It's not just a joke.
• 10:10
  This has serious ramifications. They don't trust the
• 10:13
  institutions that used to be the scaffolding of civil life.
• 10:18
  Credentials are the glue. Because we live in a low trust
• 10:21
  society and there's no going back.
• 10:23
  Shout out to Satoshi. Great foresight by the way.
• 10:27
  You know, don't trust verify. Used to be a meme on Twitter and
• 10:31
  a catch phrase on podcast. Still is for a lot of people.
• 10:35
  It was rhetorical candy. Cute, performative, harmless was
• 10:41
  not optional anymore. We cannot blindly trust anyone,
• 10:45
  not even Cordets. Now, I encourage you to check
• 10:48
  out the entire clip LinkedIn the description below.
• 10:51
  Very thoughtful words from an otherwise satirist account, but
• 10:54
  I can't sign off yet without covering a bit of new
• 10:56
  information that was released by Luke Dasher back in September
• 11:00
  25th. Remember, he's the CTO of Ocean
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  Mining and he's pushing people towards Knots.
• 11:05
  Apparently he had an exchange with a journalist who goes by
• 11:08
  the pseudonym Lola Leets where he explicitly says in that text
• 11:13
  thread that he intends to fork Bitcoin.
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  What do you mean fork Bitcoin? What the fork does that mean?
• 11:18
  Now, this leak has been met with some backlash in defense of
• 11:21
  Luke. Now let me reiterate.
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  Knots is about Bitcoin as money. Period.
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  The key aspect of the Knots movement centers around filters.
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  Knots nodes have a special configuration to filter
• 11:32
  transactions, and again, Knots nodes do not relay transactions
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  with inscriptions or spam. But once they are mined and
• 11:39
  confirmed, Knots nodes still validate and confirm blocks.
• 11:43
  This is a policy change as opposed to a consensus change.
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  If the consensus was changed by knots, the blocks with spam
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  would be considered invalid and ultimately there would be a
• 11:53
  chain split hard fork. And this is what Luke is
• 11:56
  referring to in his text thread. To add to that, the core version
• 11:59
  30 controversy is about opera turn.
• 12:02
  But the reason this is so controversial is because any
• 12:05
  spam or graffiti in the opera turn cannot be pruned by nodes
• 12:08
  like ordinals. Inscriptions can.
• 12:10
  Ordinals are stored in the witness data part of a block,
• 12:14
  which is segregated from the actual transaction data.
• 12:17
  Segregated witness? Oh yeah, Segue, A prune node is
• 12:22
  one that only stores the transaction data and not the
• 12:24
  witness data since the witness data is not required to validate
• 12:28
  transactions back to the genesis block.
• 12:31
  So here's the real question. How does this all affect you?
• 12:34
  Well, I'm not here to advise on the what you should do.
• 12:37
  At the end of the day, this is simply Bitcoin and that would be
• 12:39
  simply irresponsible. But I will leave you with this.
• 12:44
  Here's another audio clip from Rod Palmer in that address that
• 12:47
  he makes to his audience that really hits home.
• 12:50
  Equine Core is not an exclusive cabal of C++ coders.
• 12:56
  Equine Core is not shinobi. It's not Gloria, it's not Greg
• 13:00
  Maxwell. It's not Peter Wheel.
• 13:02
  It's not Adam Back or Luke Junior standing alone at that
• 13:06
  altar. Equine Core is an institution.
• 13:09
  Like the education system, like the healthcare system, like the
• 13:13
  criminal justice system. It is a story, a mental model
• 13:18
  people use to reach consensus. It's a process for resolving
• 13:24
  autistic, pedantic technical conflicts.
• 13:29
  And like many institutions and institutions in terminal
• 13:33
  decline, Equine Core is taking a legitimacy hit as the bigger
• 13:39
  quote UN quote vibe shift plays out.
• 13:43
  You know it. We're in the fourth turning.
• 13:47
  Whatever you want to call it, at the end of the day, the story,
• 13:51
  the end of the story has not been written.
• 13:54
  It is uncertain, and uncertainty makes people fearful, and fear
• 13:58
  is a fertile ground. And the bad actors, mostly on
• 14:03
  the knot side, are harvesting that beer like it's crop season.
• 14:09
  And like, listen, those who have built their reputations inside
• 14:13
  it. Coin Core's institutional
• 14:15
  framework will fight tooth and nail to defend it.
• 14:19
  That is predictable, I get it. But the hallmark of a frightened
• 14:24
  Plaid is this fear of the state. They believe it.
• 14:31
  Coin Core can no longer shield them, can no longer be trusted
• 14:36
  to shepherd this project for them, so they are in search of a
• 14:42
  new priesthood to protect them. Here's the rub.
• 14:46
  Many influencers would rather pick fights with Bitcoiners than
• 14:51
  with the state because it's a hell of a lot easier.
• 14:55
  They'd rather cash in on your fear than confront the real
• 14:59
  threat. They want you scared because
• 15:03
  they're selling solutions. They're selling node hardware,
• 15:07
  mining software, premium newsletters, all kinds of
• 15:12
  content. And if they're not taking your
• 15:15
  money directly, they're still selling your attention.
• 15:18
  Attention is a currency. It costs your time, your sats,
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  SAS mining.com. Thank you so much for watching
• 15:56
  this episode. I hope I was able to convey some
• 15:58
  sort of information to you. If you like what you've seen,
• 16:01
  you want to see more, make sure you hit that like button below.
• 16:03
  Or you can subscribe to the simply Bitcoin channel for more
• 16:05
  content like this. We're coming out with it every
• 16:08
  single day. Also, do not forget to hit that
• 16:10
  notification bell. I'm oceans.
• 16:12
  This is beyond Bitcoin. Until next time.