The majority of institutional Bitcoin investors don’t seem to know or care about the ongoing Bitcoin Core vs Knots debate, which has been intensifying over the past few months. This insight comes from Galaxy Digital’s head of research, Alex Thorn.
### The Core of the Debate
At the heart of the discussion are differing views on what Bitcoin (BTC) should be used for, particularly whether non-financial transactions should be excluded from the blockchain. The recent Bitcoin Core v30 update has sparked this debate, with some arguing that it opens the “floodgates” to spam transactions.
Supporters of Knots nodes believe this type of “spam” should be filtered out to prevent potential misuse. They warn that allowing unchecked transactions could enable bad actors to embed illegal or immoral content into the blockchain. On the other hand, Bitcoin Core advocates argue that imposing such restrictions could fragment the network, confuse users, and undermine one of the fundamental principles of Bitcoin’s technology: permissionless and decentralized operation.
### More Than Half Are Unaware or Unconcerned
In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), Alex Thorn shared findings from a poll conducted among 25 institutional Bitcoin investors that Galaxy Digital works with. The results reveal that:
– 46% of respondents were unaware of the Bitcoin Core vs Knots debate.
– 36% said they either didn’t know much about it or felt ambivalent.
– The remaining 18% indicated a clear preference for Bitcoin Core’s position.
Thorn commented on these results, saying, “Real capital, real investors, service providers, even government officials see no problem at all or are unaware there’s even a debate. At best, it’s a hypothetical problem, and their proposed solution does nothing to solve the (fake) problem they claim is real.”
He further added, “Even if it [the proposed solution] is adopted, all their legal theories are mumbo jumbo, and the fears about them are ones that everyone got comfortable with years ago during early debates over the legality of permissionless decentralized systems.”
### Addressing Concerns About the Poll Size
Some questioned the validity of the poll due to its small sample size. Thorn acknowledged this concern but assured that the poll’s results align closely with his broader interactions in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
He stated, “I won’t reveal their identities but I will say yes, and the results from that poll line up exactly with my conversations with other whales, investors, leaders at miners and service providers, and government officials over the last several months.”
Thorn also noted that while he did not poll miners directly, he is familiar with most of the major mining players and confirmed that “nobody cares or is following [the debate] at all.”
### Possible Outcomes
Last month, a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) proposing a soft fork stirred controversy on X. A particular section appeared to threaten legal consequences for those rejecting the fork, which many Bitcoiners criticized as “legal threats.”
Despite this, Thorn believes the debate will likely conclude in one of three ways:
1. **No one cares, and the debate fades into obscurity.**
2. **The proponents of the fork inadvertently create the very problem they fear by scaring everyone away from Bitcoin; however, their fork ideas ultimately fail.**
3. **Although highly unlikely, their proposed changes get adopted. Even then, Thorn argues that their solutions would fall short, and their actions would have already instilled fear around permissionless systems, causing irreparable harm to Bitcoin adoption.**
### Conclusion
The ongoing Bitcoin Core vs Knots debate highlights important philosophical differences in the Bitcoin community regarding network governance and usage. However, for most institutional investors and key players in the ecosystem, this debate remains largely theoretical or irrelevant to their focus on Bitcoin as a financial asset.
As the discussion unfolds, its ultimate impact on Bitcoin’s future adoption and network integrity remains to be seen. For now, many continue to prioritize Bitcoin’s core principles of permissionless access and decentralization.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-core-vs-knots-debate-institutional-investors-response