Originally featured in Stackchain Magazine IPO 7
In the endless sea of noise, there’s a signal you’re trying to tune into. Everything else? Static.
When you tune a radio, you find the station you like and someone else chooses what plays. But Bitcoin’s not a radio. It’s permissionless and decentralized. There’s no station manager telling you, “This is Bitcoin.” No button marked “official.”
So the real question isn’t “What is Bitcoin?” It’s: “What is Bitcoin for you?”
Finding that answer takes proof of work. You run your own node. You choose your own software. You store and relay your own copy of the chain. That’s the technical layer.
But there’s another layer too: the social layer. Just as important as running your full archival node—if not more so—is firing up your culture node. That’s how other Bitcoiners know what you run and what you stand for. That’s how we build a social consensus for what Bitcoin is.
The Block Size Wars Taught Us This
Don’t forget the block size wars. Both sides had valid points. But the deciding factor wasn’t code—it was culture. Bitcoiners back then leaned conservative: keep blocks small, keep nodes easy to run, keep power decentralized. That attitude shaped developers and plebs alike—and we won that war.
Today, we’re at another crossroads. It’s not a chain fork—it’s a social fork. And it could be just as serious. There are two paths:
Keep the chain wide open for spam and exploits, or fix the bugs and protect Bitcoin’s core monetary promise. There are no airdrops this time—just consequences. So: run your node. Run Knots if you want bitcoin to be money. Then, take it one step further: run your culture node. Here’s how.
What Is a Culture Node?
A culture node is two things at once: technical and social.
Technically, your node is just a machine—storing Bitcoin’s full history, verifying transactions, and enforcing consensus rules. You pick the software. Bitcoin Knots? Bitcoin Core? That’s your choice. Knots, for example, is Bitcoin Core plus extra filters and options—good if you believe Bitcoin should remain a monetary network. Other implementations exist too. Pick what aligns with your values.
Socially, YOU are a node! It’s your proof of work outside the code. It’s your tweets, your podcasts, your meetups. It’s the conversations you have in meatspace. It’s the ideas you choose to amplify and the ones you choose to ignore. That’s your part in Bitcoin’s social consensus rules—the unwritten norms that shape how Bitcoin evolves:
- Do we resist centralized control?
- Do we fight bloat and spam?
- Do we prioritize nodes or miners?
Every node runner sets those norms—or they don’t exist. Bitcoin’s culture isn’t “owned” by devs, influencers, or podcasters. It’s owned by whoever bothers to broadcast the bitcoin signal.
Why Culture Nodes Matter: The Spam Wars
If you want to see why this matters, look at the Spam Wars. Ordinals, inscriptions, dust—all that trash raises fees, crowds out real transactions, and slows adoption for those who need Bitcoin most. Some say, “Let the devs sort it out.” No—that’s not how Bitcoin works. You sort it out by what code you run and what ideas you amplify.
In the block size wars, users chose small blocks and the decentralization of nodes. That was when node runners came up with the idea of a UASF, or user activated soft fork. Today’s fight is the same: Do you want a lean mean timechain that lasts 1,000 years? Or a data dump? Knots runners are today’s small blockers; they want less data. Core and spam apologists are the new big blockers; they want more data.
Core doesn’t decide what bitcoin is. Neither does Knots. The node runners do.
How to Run Your Culture Node
It’s simple—Be the signal.
1. Build something
Code a tool. Fix something broken. Be creative.
2. Invite others to come along
Talk to your barber. Your cousin. The stranger at the bar. Ask local businesses if they will accept bitcoin. Help them run a node. Help them become a node.
3. Go to Bitcoin events and conferences
Join a meetup or start one in your area. Every Bitcoin event is an opportunity to share the signal with others face to face.
4. Good nodes don’t just transmit—they receive
Amplify signals worth hearing. Filter out the noise.
5. Most importantly, broadcast your signal
Choose your software and run it. Start mining bitcoin and hashing your own block templates. Own your mempool and set your own policies. No one, not even Core, can force you to relay something that you don’t want to. Share your vision. Start a podcast. Start with a meme or write something. I’m making the Bitcoin Signal.
The Bitcoin Signal is my culture node. At the time of writing, it’s just an idea for a magazine. I’m still discovering what that looks like but since you can’t steer a parked car I’ll just keep moving forward. I can promise, regardless of what it looks like, it will be my honest opinion, and hopefully many others’ perspectives, on the current state of bitcoin’s culture, development, future, and current impact on the world.
For me it’s one way I’ve found that I can contribute to bitcoin. God willing, it will become a place that normal bitcoiners can count on to find out what is really going on in bitcoin—where you can find pure Bitcoin Signal by the plebs and for the plebs.
And don’t be afraid of the technical side. If you’re already running a node—run Knots. If you’re knot—fire it up. Then show the world what you think bitcoin culture is because the plebs decide what bitcoin culture is.
Bitcoin’s culture isn’t decided by decree from some central bank. It’s created by all of us. The more of us who run culture nodes, the clearer the signal. One day, that signal might outlive every empire we know today.
Drown out the noise. Broadcast your vision.
Run your culture node today.