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What purpose do Bitcoin home nodes serve?
In a tweet today, Ripple Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz rejected arguments by Jerry David Chan that Bitcoin home nodes do not matter to the Bitcoin network, saying “miners won’t mine blocks node operators won’t pay them for.”
“Nonsense. You can refuse to accept any tokens rewarded to miners in that block. Miners won’t mine blocks node operators won’t pay them for,” Schwartz tweeted.
Nonsense. You can refuse to accept any tokens rewarded to miners in that block. Miners won't mine blocks node operators won't pay them for. https://t.co/FNEY0dBksv
— 𝙳𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚍 𝚂𝚌𝚑𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚣 (@JoelKatz) September 3, 2022
Chan, on his part, retorts that Schwartz’s argument is only valid if all exchanges also reject the transactions.
Nobody cares about YOUR node rejecting anything. Really this argument only works if EVERY exchange also rejected the txn. And every legal exchange would go along with sanctions and AML laws
— Jerry David Chan (@digitsu) September 3, 2022
However, Schwartz responds by noting that it is irrelevant what exchanges do, as the true purpose of home nodes is for users to decide who they interact with on the network. Furthermore, he notes that with the home node, users can ensure that those who do not meet their criteria do not interact with them.
I only care about people trying to pay me. I don't care what exchanges do. Why should I? You want to buy and sell bitcoin cash, knock yourself out. But I won't take it as payment. I control everything that matters to me.
— 𝙳𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚍 𝚂𝚌𝚑𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚣 (@JoelKatz) September 3, 2022
Notably, the dispute started with a tweet from Kurt, the founder of GorillaPool.com, who asserted that communists had taken over the Bitcoin network. According to Kurt, the idea that mining nodes can not be trusted has pitted the mining class against the non-mining class. According to Kurt, the core Bitcoin ideology has been abandoned for economic policy decided by people that do not contribute to the network.
What would BTC look like if it was run by communists? pic.twitter.com/Qrz6FscqAK
— Kurt | GorillaPool.com 🍌🍌 (@kurtwuckertjr) September 1, 2022
The banter eventually devolved into an argument about the validity of transaction rejections by home nodes. At this point, Chan pointed out that home nodes do not secure or contribute to the Bitcoin network as they can not produce blocks. Chan noted that an opposite block had to be created to reject an invalid transaction.
And your arguments are malarkey. Shut down your node today. Literally NOBODY WILL CARE. You don’t make blocks and you aren’t an essential relay route for any transactions to anyone. You can’t reject any blocks unless you can build an opposing block to cancel it. You are nothing.
— Jerry David Chan (@digitsu) September 2, 2022
These support ideas by Craig Wright, who has openly claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin’s whitepaper. According to Wright, the lack of the ability of home nodes to create blocks or reject transactions meant they served no purpose in securing or distributing transactions on the network. Instead, Wright asserts that they are only important to the point that they allow users to monitor, receive and validate receipt of transactions faster.
It is worth noting that the relevance of home nodes has been hotly contested for years, and several authors have differing opinions on the matter.