Robot BTC (Ep. 1): The Power of Nodes

Episode 1 explained

In this episode, our two robots realize they can use their heads as real computers. The robot on the left decides to run a Bitcoin node using Umbrel software.

A) What is a Bitcoin node?

Nodes are computers that continuously store and update transactions on the Bitcoin protocol. They are different from miners: they store the ledger but do not write to it.

Nodes are essential to a distributed ledger like Bitcoin because they maintain the record of how all bitcoins are distributed. To make the network tamper-proof and censorship-resistant, we benefit from running as many nodes as possible around the world.

B) Why lightweight nodes matter

The Bitcoin blockchain was designed to be as lightweight as possible. It weighs 420 GB at the time of writing. Bitcoin Core, the software containing this blockchain and all protocol rules, is also easy to run. One of Bitcoin’s strengths is that an ordinary computer is enough to run a full node.

C) The problem with “new blockchains”

This episode also pokes fun at the fact that an Ethereum or Solana node requires far more resources and storage. It is therefore much harder for an individual to participate in Ethereum, and impossible to participate in Solana.

These networks are much less geographically distributed and therefore less decentralized. When Solana nodes went down in September 2021, the network’s founders announced they would “restart the servers.” This parody of decentralization amused many Bitcoin maximalists on Twitter.