There are ~57k Bitcoin nodes, i.e. copies of the blockchain of #Bitcoin.
For comparison, there are ~5b copies of the Bible, ~1b copies of the Quran, ~8b copies of Quotations from Chairman Mao, ~500m copies of Harry Potter, etc.
#Bitcoin is far from being the most decentralized piece of information humanity has ever created.
#showerthoughts
yeah but the contents of the copies of the bible vary while the bitcoin nodes are all exactly the same
It’s seems not fair to compare a piece of technology to regular books. No one is interested to read the full content of the blockchain. The incentive to have a node is only for those who has achieved some degree of knowledge about BTC, the prerequisite for reading or have a copy of a book is less complex than that.
Fair point about Harry Potter, but I don’t think most people who buy a copy of the Bible want to read it from beginning to end.
It’s just a piece of information that many Christians are expected to have in their home, and protect, and use in special occasions.
I wish more Bitcoiners would have this culture of running their own node and protect a copy of the bockchain, even if they rarely use it and the action is mostly symbolic.
This could be possible in the future when the cost of the hardware required will be similar to a book and the installation/running simple as use an app in a mobile. But a huge step before that will be to have every bitcoiner using cold wallets and not leaving their coins on custodians. After that, the natural next step will be having a node.
