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I have already written about running your own BTC node in the post titled “How to be a good Bitcoiner”. But recent developments require an addendum. Run not just any node but rather download and run Bitcoin Knots. Bitcoin Knots filters out spam and limits transactions to only monetary exchanges. Problem is that the dominant software provider for Bitcoin nodes, the Bitcoin Core plans to allow spam to go through their software. Unfortunately this could mean that child porn could be passed around the Bitcoin network. This could lead to governments trying to discredit Bitcoin.

By running Knots, you are making the relaying of spam much more expensive and therefore less feasible for malicious actors. At this moment, the adoption of Knots is somewhere around 30%. So we all should run Knots to prevent nefarious plans of forces that would like to use the network for something else than monetary transactions.