Allegedly, 19% of the bitcoin network is now running knots
However, I think I have detected evidence of a sybil attack designed to inflate the number of Knots users
I have annoted part of the "historical nodes" chart available at http://coin.dance/nodes/all
Based on this, I suspect the *real* percentage of Knots usage (subtracting probably sybils) is about 12.3% of the total network -- ~2,710 nodes out of 21,950 nodes.
Still a big deal, but not as big as the current numbers seem to suggest
While I have long suspected this, as it's easy to fire up fake nodes, I don't see any such evidence here
It could be that this pseudo-war is causing people to start running Knots nodes that never previously ran any nodes
Unless I've missed something in your data or logic?
It *could* be, yes. But the attention this drama is getting, combined with my own anecdotal experience of a roughly 60/40 divide in favor of Core, suggests to me that if the spike in total node count was entirely organic, we would see an increase in both Core and Knots users.
But that's not what we see -- there is a very notable spike in node count since June 2025 and it is entirely due to new Knots users, or a sybil, or, more likely, both. So I do not assert that the growth is 100% due to a sybil, but even if only *some* of it is due to a sybil, then there *is* a sybil attack happening, which is precisely what my post is about.
I don't disagree, but just to be Devil's Advocate: 😊
When you say 60/40 in favour of Core, that's just measured among noisy people who are online too much (like me!)
And maybe the 60% were already running nodes, while the 40% weren't, explaining why we get new Knots nodes without any change in the number of Core nodes
(I'm a bit of an exception to the pattern I'm describing here, but this isn't about me 😊)
Yes, my personal social circle is basically a Core-supportive bubble
But that bubble has a huge impact on new users -- it's very evangelical about bitcoin
Knots people are like that too
