"Run Knots" they say.
"Save Bitcoin" they say.
"Bitcoin is money" they say.
OK... so are those people saying "Bitcoin is Money" using it as such?
My guess is roughly 1/2 of the transactions of late are "monetary" as opposed to 'data carrying' or designed to primarily carry data...
So who is to blame?
"Bitcoin is Money" yes. And that means that all the world's monetary demand can and will outbid a random JPEG right?
Transactors in the US, Europe, Japan, South America etc are competing to get "on chain" right? To spend and use Bitcoin correct?
Well... after those capital gains are paid on every individual coffee, or Nostr Zap, all the merchants know how to "accept Bitcoin", governments agree that "it's money" it is being adopted...
People will then be tripping over themselves to "spend Bitcoin" right?
After all there are no onerous "capital gains" taxes to keep track of for every Cup of Coffee right?
Because the Knots/Core debate is addressing this... -> ???
OH but Core will BLOW OPEN THE SPAM FILTERS! Plebs (who are the "monetary maximalist" people!) will need to upgrade their Storage!!! Gigabytes and Gigabytes!
Except for the fact that op_return is 4x as expensive as Witness, and "more op_return" objectively means smaller blocks... which are easier and cheaper to store...
OK so maybe not.
But the SPAM will 'outbid the MONETARY transactions!!!'
Except for the fact that the going 'fee' is 1 sat/vbyte... and at historical lows.
So RUN KNOTS!!!!!!
Or at least limit the 'spam' in op_return to 40 bytes. THAT will keep the IBD (initial block download) easy and quick PLUS reduce UTXO set growth!!!
Those JPEGS are whats BLOWING UP the UTXO set!!
Except this isn't a JPEG it's 4 lines of json
{ "p": "brc-20", "op": "mint", "tick": "BTCBTC", "amt": "10000000" }
that takes up 58 bytes... that COULD FIT IN A STANDARD OP_RETURN???? (~80 bytes)
OK THEN we'll limit the acceptable minimum fee rate to 1 sat/vbyte! That will SHOW THOSE SPAMMERS blowing up the UTXO set!!!
Except when they (the spammers) consolidate their dust UTXOs at lower fee rates?? Maybe the low fee rates help the spammers consolidate??? 🤔
But that's an INSCRIPTION SPAM Transaction!!! The spammers never consolidate their op_return/memecoin/runecoin transactions!!!
Oh.
Well this is about Protecting the Chain!!! We can't have it be used for anything illegal!!!
OK well... at least anything illegal in one contiguous op_return!!!
The Jury will OBVIOUSLY understand that this:
("questionable" picture/file/thing that's an "inscription")
Isn't the same as THIS:
(short op_return)
or THIS:
(LONGER op_return!)
or THIS:
(bare multisig/fake public key!)
There's no reason to worry, the government is OUR FRIENDS!
And there's NO WAY these people will get it wrong!!!
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury my client only stored the pornography as discontiguous data disguised as program code!!! My client is innocent of the charges against him/her!!! The data was discontiguous my client is innocent!!!"
After all, since 2009 Bitcoiners have understood that the government is here to help!
They NEVER go after people using Bitcoin as money!!!!
In summary, Knots doesn't make any sense to me.
Arbitrary data stored in op_return will reduce the size of blocks, fees are already at historically record lows, the greatest threat to IBD (initial block download) is UTXO-set bloat, largely associated with memecoins which require way less than the 80 bytes already allowed in op_return and widely adopted/relayed...
Every cup of coffee, every 10 cent NOSTR zap that isn't reported for "capital gains taxes" is technically a crime and is illegal... for which the government could prosecute almost anyone should Bitcoin be used "as money."
And if you leave the whole thing up to a jury to differentiate between "arbitrary data" in Witness/Tapscript and "arbitrary data" in op_return simply for running a Bitcoin node...
You and your attorney in court are fucked you are done.
The government can apparently make up, change the rules, issue Executive Orders and target anyone they want at any time for basically anything.
But if Bitcoiners "play by the rules" (whatever those are) and apparently not use Bitcoin as money (most aren't?) then everything will be fine?
Running Knots isn't a solution sorry, it doesn't make any sense to me.