- The alternative client Knots saw its node count double after the renewed proposal to lift OP_RETURN’s 80-byte cap.
- Key debate centers on whether increasing data limits serves users or corporate interests, with a decision expected soon at a major developer conference.
A dispute over proposed changes to Bitcoin’s network rules has driven a surge in the number of operators running an alternative version of its full node software. The conflict arose after Bitcoin Core developers moved to increase the data storage capacity of the OP_RETURN script code, a key feature for embedding data in Bitcoin transactions.
According to Coin.dance, the number of online Bitcoin nodes using the Knots client—which rejects the increased limit—has recently doubled, now making up 6.5% of reachable nodes. Bitcoin Core remains dominant with 19,662 reachable nodes, while Knots comes second with 1,464.
On April 17, Antoine Poinsot of Chaincode Labs reintroduced pull request 28130, initially proposed by Peter Todd, which seeks to remove the roughly 80-byte restriction on OP_RETURN outputs. As developer support for the proposal grew, downloads of Knots increased rapidly. The chain of events led Todd to publish a formal request, PR 32359. Despite many reviewers voting “NACK” (negative acknowledgement), Core contributor Greg Sanders indicated that implementation of PR 32359 was imminent on social media platform X.
The debate splits node operators. Supporters of a larger data limit say change would align OP_RETURN’s storage with other transaction data methods, such as witness outputs, calling it a straightforward adjustment. Opponents, including many running Knots, argue that raising the data cap favors corporate or venture capital interests. They claim this could turn Bitcoin’s primary transaction space into a wide-reaching distributed database for images, music, or contracts—a move they see as threatening Bitcoin’s core use as an alternative to traditional currency.
Discussions around the proposal are active across several platforms, including the Bitcoin-Dev mailing list, GitHub, and StackerNews. The upcoming developer conference in Austin is expected to tackle this issue, with a resolution anticipated soon.
Bitcoin full node operators can freely select their preferred validation software. Besides Core and Knots, other clients like btcd, Bitcore, and UASF are in use. While only reachable nodes can be measured precisely by trackers like Coin.dance, Bitnodes, and Clark Moody, the actual number of full nodes globally remains unknown since nodes can connect or disconnect at any time.
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