Bitcoin’s Civil War: Core vs. Knots | Samson Mow

Show Notes

Samson Mow is the CEO of JAN3 and former CSO at Blockstream. In this episode, we get into the growing rift between Bitcoin Core and Knots, why mistrust in Core development is at an all-time high, and what it means for the future of the network. We discuss the battle over spam and data storage on-chain, whether Bitcoin should ossify or adapt, and how governance really works in Bitcoin. Samson breaks down why the UTXO set could become a systemic risk, how mempool fragmentation is reshaping the network, and why multiple implementations of Bitcoin may be both a blessing and a curse. In this episode: - The origins of the Core vs. Knots debate - Spam, filters, and the slippery slope of arbitrary data on Bitcoin - UTXO bloat, miner incentives, and decentralization risks - How nation-state adoption may trigger the suddenly moment for Bitcoin THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS: IREN: https://www.iren.com/ RIVER: https://river.com/wbd ANCHORWATCH: https://www.anchorwatch.com/ BLOCKWARE: https://mining.blockwaresolutions.com/wbd LEDN: https://learn.ledn.io/wbd BITKEY: https://bitkey.world/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST: FOUNTAIN: https://fountain.fm/show/gpascDml6iI0sM8aTOCT SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/18Pixm6jNMATYXSO6cUnTH APPLE PODCASTS: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/defiance/id1482455669 WEBSITE: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/ FOLLOW: Danny Knowles: https://x.com/_DannyKnowles or https://primal.net/danny Samson Mow: https://x.com/excellion TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 – Introduction 01:01 – Why The Core vs. Knots Debate Matters 10:01 – A Third Bitcoin Client? 16:05 – What Is Spam 22:45 – Do Filters Work 30:52 – Miner Incentives & Sub-1 Sat/vB Transactions 40:31 – Should You Run Knots? 45:15 – Should Bitcoin Ossify Or Evolve? 50:07 – Taproot, Covenants & Proving Use Cases 55:52 – UTXO Bloat And Decentralization Risk 01:03:03 – Nation-State Adoption Progress 01:08:37 – Paper Bitcoin & The Omega Thesis What Bitcoin Did with Danny Knowles #Bitcoin #Finance #Money #Economics