Why You Should Run a Full Node. Bitcoin Tech Talk #251

Bitcoiners like to say “verify, don’t trust.” This is not just lip service, as thousands of users all over the world run full nodes. Unfortunately, the full node narrative has been maligned to death by many people, especially altcoiners who say such verification is unimportant. Even among a lot of Bitcoiners, the reasons for running a full node are not entirely clear.

Some say it’s so that you can relay transactions on the network. Others say that it decentralizes the Bitcoin network and still others say it’s a way to keep miners honest. These are all true to a degree, but ultimately, running a full node is at the heart of what makes Bitcoin trustless.

One of the remarkable properties of Bitcoin is that every transaction is recorded on its ledger, which we call the blockchain. Unfortunately, that term, too, has been corrupted to mean some magical naturally decentralized database, when it’s really nothing of the kind. The reason why we run full nodes is so that we don’t have to trust anyone.