Bitcoin Knots includes a limit of 42 bytes for op_return, although it is not mandatory.
In June, Bitcoin had about 3 million non -monetary operations.
40% of current transactions in Bitcoin are non -monetary and during June this network processed Around 3 million metaprocol transactionsa term that encompasses activities such as the creation of non -fungible tokens (NFT) through protocols such as ordinals or the issuance of assets such as runes and alkanes.
Daily, according to data Shared by an analyst on June 30, about 350,000 transactions in Bitcoin are recorded.
Of that figure, Approximately 150,000 are of a non -monetary nature (registration)covering runes, BRC-20 standard tokens, ordinals and alkanes, as seen in the following image referring to those operations on June 29:
Those data, They represent 40% of the daily volumehighlight a use of the chain that goes beyond its original function as a payment system.
Metaprocol operate when taking advantage of op_return or data in the witness segment (Witness) of transactions, which has generated controversy among those who see these operations such as «spam»They congest the network.
Knots predetermined policies limit op_return transactions to 42 bytes, but allow most non -monetary activity when complying with this limit or use alternative methods.
However, although nodes with Knots reject these transactions, the other nodes may include them in another block. So that nodes that Knots use can only delay a bit that these transactions are included in accounting.
In contrast, Bitcoin Core, the reference client with almost 86% of the active nodes, currently allows up to 83 bytes and will extend the limit to 100,000 bytes in its version that will be launched in October 2025 (v.30).
A contradiction in Knots nodes?
Bitcoin Knots has positioned itself as a tool to mitigate this phenomenon. However, The analyst revealed an irony: Despite its focus on filtering unwanted transactions, most of those non -monetary operations (especially Runes and Alkanes, which total about 120,000 of the 350,000 daily transactions) could be allowed by default by the Knots nodes.
This occurs because policy predetermined of Knots restricts OP_RETURN OPERATIONS 40 useful data bytesadded to two bytes for the OPCODEa technical instruction that delimits the beginning and end of that information.
Many transactions, by adjusting to this limit or resorting to alternative methods such as the use of the witness field (where inscriptions, common in protocols such as ordinals, store data instead of op_return), elude the filter.
This situation It could go unnoticed by Knots userswho, according to the analyst, value nodal sovereignty (individual control over their node) above a strict filtration, which would require the nodes to analyze and reject transactions directly from the Mempool to be effective.
“I am convinced that most Knots users do not know what really happens in Bitcoin, and this could be a novelty for them,” he said.
The functioning of Knots and its implications
The operation of Knots allows operators to adjust how much space they dedicate to op_return, offering flexibility.
By default, the 40 bytes plus the two bytes of OPCODE They establish a basic limit, but those who wish to include up to 80 real data byes must configure the function Datacarriersize a Datacarriersize = 83. Here, Datacarriersize It is an option that defines the maximum data size that the node will acceptadapting to user needs.
However, filters, including the limit of 40 bytes, They apply by default, but they are not mandatory; Operators can modify them as preferred, allowing transactions that respect the established limits.
This design seeks to reduce what some call «spam«, As registrations of ordinals or non -financial data, acting as a configurable filter.
With 14% of the nodes executing Knots, it could be expected to filter transactions, but the default policy does not block 40% of non -monetary operations, since many comply with the rules or are overlooked.
Effectiveness, then, would depend on users to take the Initiative to harden configurationsa step that many would seem not to be giving, which directly connects the flexibility of Knots with its apparent inability to fulfill its declared purpose.
