Bitcoin Knots: A Better Alternative to Bitcoin Core Nodes

Introduction: Privacy, Wealth, and Peace of Mind

Modern finance offers little in the way of discretion. Credit card companies record purchases, banks track balances, and mobile payment apps log every transfer between friends. Each interaction leaves a trail that can be analyzed, sold, or shared. For those who value independence, this lack of privacy is no small matter.

At the same time, many people are rethinking how they store and preserve wealth. Traditional investments in stocks, bonds, and real estate remain important, but alternative assets are increasingly seen as safeguards against inflation, geopolitical stress, and systemic risk. Bitcoin has entered this conversation as digital money that is scarce, portable, and verifiable by anyone with the right tools.

For newcomers, Bitcoin often begins as a speculative investment. A colleague mentions it, or a headline sparks curiosity. Accounts are opened at large exchanges, balances checked on a smartphone, and the asset is treated like a volatile stock. Yet the true strength of Bitcoin lies not in speculation but in sovereignty. Unlike other investments, it can be verified directly by the individual.

That verification happens through running a Bitcoin node. A node is software that connects to the Bitcoin network and checks every transaction independently. It does not rely on a third party to confirm balances or validate payments. Instead, it enforces the rules of Bitcoin directly. For someone approaching Bitcoin as a store of wealth, running a node is like maintaining the vault that guards their holdings.

Choosing which node software to run matters. Bitcoin Core, the most widely used implementation, has been the reference standard for years. But its development has moved in directions that raise questions for those concerned with privacy and security. Proposed changes in its upcoming Version 30 release have only amplified those concerns.

Bitcoin Knots offers an alternative. Built and maintained by Luke Dashjr, a developer deeply involved in Bitcoin’s history, Knots shares Core’s underlying consensus rules but enforces stricter policies. It retains conservative defaults, filters out unnecessary data, and gives operators more control. For individuals who value privacy, see Bitcoin as an alternative investment, and want peace of mind about safeguarding wealth, Knots provides a stronger foundation.

Pillar One: Privacy

Running a node is the first step toward privacy in Bitcoin. Without it, users rely on outside servers to check balances, send payments, and verify transactions. Each query to those servers reveals information: which addresses belong to the user, how much they control, and what activity they are monitoring. Over time, this data can be aggregated and tied back to a real identity.

A personal node severs that dependency. When wallets connect to your own node, no outside service learns what you own or what you are doing. Your computer checks the blockchain directly, and no one else is involved. The difference is significant. It is the digital equivalent of moving your financial records out of a bank’s filing cabinet and into a locked safe at home.

Bitcoin Knots extends this privacy by keeping conservative filters in place. One of the most debated features in Bitcoin development is the use of OP_RETURN, which allows users to embed arbitrary data into transactions. Some have used this to store messages, digital assets, or even questionable content on the blockchain. Technically, these transactions are valid. But for individuals running a node at home, relaying such data may feel intrusive, unnecessary, or even legally concerning.

Knots responds by limiting what passes through. By default, it enforces stricter size caps on OP_RETURN data, reducing the amount of non-financial information your node will handle. This does not isolate you from the network—Knots remains consensus-compatible—but it narrows the focus of your node to what matters most: money and financial settlement.

This choice reflects a broader philosophy. Where Bitcoin Core adjusts defaults in ways that may expand what nodes relay, Knots holds the line. Its purpose is not to carry every possible use of the blockchain but to preserve Bitcoin’s integrity as a monetary system. For users, this means a stronger assurance that their personal server will not become an unintentional distribution point for data they never asked to host.

The benefit is both practical and psychological. Practically, a Knots node handles fewer extraneous transactions, keeping bandwidth and storage requirements more manageable. Psychologically, it provides peace of mind. You know your node is working in service of your privacy, not someone else’s experiments.

Privacy in this context is not about hiding wrongdoing. It is about maintaining discretion in an era where financial activity is constantly scrutinized. People close the blinds on their homes not because they have something to conceal, but because they value personal space. Running Bitcoin Knots works the same way. It closes the blinds on your financial life, leaving control where it belongs: with you.

Footnotes

  1. “Luke Dashjr.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Dashjr. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
  2. “Bitcoin Knots and OP_RETURN Policy Debate.” Bitcoin Magazine, https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/op_return-limits-bitcoins-battle-over-arbitrary-data. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
  3. “Core vs Knots: the 83-byte row that split the bitcoin community.” Forklog, https://forklog.com/en/core-vs-knots-the-83-byte-row-that-split-the-bitcoin-community. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.

Bitcoin as an Alternative Investment and the Role of Knots in Safeguarding Wealth

Pillar Two: Alternative Investing

Bitcoin has become known as “digital gold” for good reason. Like precious metals, it is scarce. Only 21 million bitcoins will ever exist, and the schedule of issuance is fixed in code. Unlike gold, it is portable across borders, divisible into tiny fractions, and verifiable without specialized equipment. For investors seeking to diversify, these characteristics make Bitcoin a compelling addition to a portfolio.

Alternative investing often revolves around the idea of protection. Gold protects against inflation. Real estate offers insulation from market swings and can serve as collateral. Bitcoin offers a different kind of shield: protection from monetary debasement and centralized control. Where fiat currencies can be inflated at will, Bitcoin’s supply is predictable. Where traditional assets rely on intermediaries, Bitcoin can be verified directly by its owner.

For those who treat Bitcoin as a long-term store of value rather than a speculative trade, the way it is held matters. Purchasing through an exchange and leaving funds there introduces risk. Custodians can be hacked, accounts frozen, or balances seized. True protection comes from self-custody, and self-custody reaches its fullest form when combined with running a personal node.

This is where Bitcoin Knots plays a vital role. While all nodes enforce Bitcoin’s core rules, Knots does so with additional caution. It filters out non-financial data that could complicate the blockchain’s role as a settlement network. It maintains conservative defaults that resist creeping expansion of what the protocol relays. For an investor who views Bitcoin as a modern equivalent of a vault, this approach mirrors the logic of diversification itself: reduce exposure, keep things lean, and protect what matters most.

Running Knots reinforces the concept of Bitcoin as a stable long-term investment rather than a speculative playground. It keeps the focus on transactions that represent value transfer, not on experiments that embed unrelated data in the chain. Investors who already think in terms of hedging risk and protecting assets can recognize the parallel: just as a diversified portfolio avoids concentration risk, a cautious node avoids unnecessary exposure.

Pillar Three: Safeguarding

Beyond privacy and investment logic lies the everyday concern of safeguarding wealth. The financial world is full of third-party dependencies. Banks hold deposits. Brokerages manage securities. Even digital wallets, when not connected to a personal node, rely on external servers to confirm balances. Each intermediary represents a point of vulnerability.

Running a node with Bitcoin Knots closes many of those gaps. It ensures that the confirmation of your transactions does not depend on a custodian. It guarantees that your balances are verified by rules you can inspect, not by a corporate database. It reduces the possibility that your financial activity is exposed to surveillance. In effect, it transforms your relationship to Bitcoin from being a customer of a service to being a direct participant in the network.

Knots also addresses a subtler but equally important concern: the nature of what your computer relays. In recent years, non-financial content has been embedded in Bitcoin transactions. Some of it has been benign, such as messages or digital art, but some has been questionable or even potentially illegal. For individuals running a node at home, the prospect of relaying such data is unsettling.

Bitcoin Core’s direction has included proposals to loosen restrictions on data embedded in transactions. Supporters frame this as enabling innovation, but critics warn it risks filling the blockchain with material far beyond monetary use. If such changes are adopted, ordinary node operators could unknowingly become conduits for data they never intended to distribute.

Knots resists this trend by keeping stricter policies in place. It does not remove the ability for the network as a whole to validate such transactions, but it prevents your node from actively relaying them unless you choose otherwise. For many, this distinction is critical. It means your personal device remains focused on financial validation, not on becoming an archive for unwanted content.

The peace of mind this offers cannot be overstated. People adopt Bitcoin for many reasons — to diversify investments, to gain privacy, to hold an asset not tied to government policy. But underlying all those motivations is the desire for security. By running Bitcoin Knots, an operator ensures that their system serves only that goal.

Safeguarding wealth is about more than protecting numbers on a screen. It is about creating an environment where you can hold and verify assets without fear of interference, misuse, or liability. With Knots, Bitcoin can serve this role cleanly, preserving its identity as money and leaving behind the distractions that threaten to erode it.

Footnotes

  1. “Bitcoin as Digital Gold.” Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2024/04/17/bitcoin-as-digital-gold/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
  2. “Luke Dashjr on Transaction Filtering.” Bitcoin Magazine, https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/bitcoin-knots-opreturn-debate. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
  3. “Core vs Knots and the OP_RETURN Debate.” Forklog, https://forklog.com/en/core-vs-knots-the-83-byte-row-that-split-the-bitcoin-community. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.

Running Bitcoin Knots on Raspberry Pi with Umbrel: A Practical Guide to Privacy and Security

Umbrel Overview

For many people, the idea of running a Bitcoin node can feel intimidating. It sounds like something reserved for programmers or cybersecurity experts. Umbrel changes that perception. It is a simple operating system designed to run on small, affordable devices such as the Raspberry Pi. With an intuitive interface and a growing library of applications, Umbrel makes hosting a Bitcoin node accessible to anyone.

Umbrel provides a dashboard that can be accessed through a web browser on your home network. From there, users can monitor the blockchain, manage their Bitcoin node, and install additional tools such as Lightning Network apps or self-hosted services. By design, it lowers the barrier to entry without sacrificing control.

When paired with Bitcoin Knots, Umbrel becomes a complete package. Knots enforces the cautious rules, while Umbrel provides the user-friendly environment. Together, they allow someone with no technical background to participate fully in the Bitcoin network, with privacy and sovereignty intact.

Raspberry Pi Setup Guide

Hardware You’ll Need

  • Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 (4 GB or 8 GB RAM recommended)
  • External SSD (1 TB or more) for storing the blockchain
  • MicroSD card (32 GB or larger) to install Umbrel OS
  • USB-C power supply with sufficient amperage
  • Ethernet cable for reliable connectivity (preferred over Wi-Fi)
  • Case and cooling solution for stability

Step 1: Install Umbrel OS

  1. Download the latest Umbrel OS image from umbrel.com.
  2. Flash the image to your microSD card using a tool such as Balena Etcher.
  3. Insert the card into your Raspberry Pi, connect the SSD, and power it on.

Step 2: Access the Umbrel Dashboard

  1. Wait for the system to boot, then open a browser on your computer.
  2. Navigate to http://umbrel.local (or use the Pi’s local IP address).
  3. Create your Umbrel account and secure it with a strong password.

Step 3: Install Bitcoin Knots

Umbrel runs services in containers. To replace Bitcoin Core with Knots, open the terminal and run: 

sudo docker run -d \\
  -v /home/umbrel/umbrel/bitcoin:/data \\
  ghcr.io/retropex/umbrel-bitcoin-knots:1.0.3-knots.v29.1 \\
  bitcoind -datadir=/data

This pulls the Bitcoin Knots container and links it to Umbrel’s existing blockchain data folder.

Check the sync progress with: 

bitcoin-cli getblockchaininfo

Your node will begin downloading and verifying the blockchain. This can take several days, depending on your hardware and internet connection.

Security Hardening

Running a node is about more than just turning it on. To make it a true safeguard, take steps to secure it.

  • Use Tor: Umbrel includes Tor support, which hides your IP address and strengthens privacy.
  • SSH Keys: Disable password login and use SSH keys for remote access to your Pi.
  • Network Segmentation: If possible, place your Pi on its own VLAN or subnet.
  • Wallet Connections: Connect your wallet (e.g., Sparrow) directly to your Knots node. This ensures all transactions are verified independently and no outside server sees your activity.
  • Regular Backups: While your node can always resync the blockchain, back up your Umbrel configuration and wallet files.

These measures transform your Raspberry Pi into a fortress of financial independence.

Closing Thoughts

Running Bitcoin Knots on Umbrel with a Raspberry Pi is more than a technical project. It is a commitment to privacy, an embrace of Bitcoin as an alternative investment, and a safeguard for personal wealth.

Knots enforces conservative defaults, ensuring your node handles money, not unwanted data. Umbrel makes the process approachable for non-technical users. The Raspberry Pi provides affordable, low-power hardware that can run quietly in any home.

Keep in mind that loading the entire blockchain takes somewhere north of 700GB as of this writing in October 2025, and it will take the Pi a minimum of four days in perfect conditions (it took me eight days) to download.

Together, these tools bring Bitcoin’s original promise into the hands of everyday people. For anyone seeking privacy, diversification, and peace of mind, running a node is the natural step beyond simply holding Bitcoin. And choosing Knots ensures that step is taken with caution, security, and sovereignty.

Footnotes

  1. “Umbrel OS: The Easiest Way to Run a Bitcoin Node.” Umbrel Documentation, https://umbrel.com/#docs. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
  2. “Docker Image for Bitcoin Knots on Umbrel.” GitHub Packages, https://github.com/retropex/umbrel-bitcoin-knots. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.
  3. “Bitcoin Node Security Best Practices.” Bitcoin Magazine, https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/securing-bitcoin-nodes. Accessed 2 Oct. 2025.