Survey Says Most Institutional Bitcoin Investors Unconcerned About Core vs Knots Debate

The Bitcoin Core versus Bitcoin Knots topic has been the talk of the town for the developer community in recent months. The heated dispute appears to be barely registering among institutional investors, according to Galaxy Digital head of research Alex Thorn.

The debate centers on whether Bitcoin should process only financial transactions or allow a broader set of data to be permanently stored on-chain. Controversy restarted after the release of Bitcoin Core v30. Critics argue that the update could allow a surge of non-financial activity, which many in the community call “spam,” to clog the network.

Most Institutions Not Paying Attention

Supporters of the Knots implementation believe this content should be filtered to prevent illegal or unethical material from being embedded into the blockchain. But, core developers argue that such restrictions would fragment the network and confuse users. 

They are also concerned about the effect such a limitation could have on Bitcoin’s principle of openness and permissionless.

In an X post on Monday, Thorn revealed that he surveyed 25 institutional investors Galaxy works with. Nearly half said they had no idea the debate was even happening. Another 36% said they were either unsure or indifferent. Only 18% sided with Bitcoin Core.

“Real capital, real investors, service providers, even government officials see no problem at all or are unaware there’s even a debate,” Thorn wrote. He added that many concerns by Knots advocates, including fears around illegal content, were debated and settled years ago.

Small Sample, Broad Insight

Some users questioned the reliability of such a small sample size. Thorn called it “a fair question,” but said it suggests what he has been hearing privately.

“The results line up exactly with my conversations with other whales, investors, leaders at miners and service providers, and government officials over the last several months,” he wrote. Thorn further added that even major Bitcoin miners appear uninterested.

Anyways, developer forums continue to clash over protocol purity. But, the latest findings hint that large capital allocators mostly view the debate as irrelevant to Bitcoin’s long-term growth trajectory.