Bitcoin dev wants to ban 3,000 Knots nodes amid OP_RETURN clash
Throughout 2025, developers have been intensely debating the use of Bitcoin’s tens of thousands of nodes for queueing up data unrelated to the movement of BTC. As their fight over Bitcoin Core’s software — specifically, its default mempool policies for OP_RETURN datacarrier outputs — continues, the rift between Core and its opposition, Knots, has led to its most severe proposal yet: excommunication. In a highly controversial post, an anti-Knots developer has published code and resources for Bitcoin Core node operators to disconnect from and digitally excommunicate Knots nodes entirely . There are about 3,000 Knots node operators online at any moment which, unlike Core operators, oppose the use of Bitcoin’s mempool to relay large amounts of OP_RETURN data unrelated to the on-chain movement of BTC. Knots node operators control about 7% of the total 22,000 reachable nodes across the Bitcoin network. For months, they’ve lamented Core’s acquiescence to cor...