“Due to how censorship-resistant networks work, the tolerant minority sets the policy limits. And preferential peering amplifies this, so Knots nodes’ policies are actually almost completely ineffective — already, today, before Core 30 is released, and of course after.”
— Adam Back
This is an important admission.
What Adam is saying is that in a truly censorship-resistant network like Bitcoin, you don’t need the majority to agree on what’s allowed.
You only need a small group of nodes and miners willing to relay and confirm certain types of transactions — like inscriptions. That’s the tolerant minority.
Through preferential peering (nodes connecting mostly to like-minded nodes), these permissive actors form their own effective relay layer — and that’s enough to push data through the network.
Meanwhile, stricter nodes like Bitcoin Knots — which try to filter inscriptions and other non-financial use — become irrelevant. Their policies don’t stop anything. They just isolate themselves.
Bitcoin doesn’t grant power to those who restrict — it defaults to those who refuse to censor.
That’s how it was designed. That’s how it stays free.
