Bitcoin Knots Says the Network Is Under Attack, Ripple’s Ex-CTO Calls it Nonsense

Bitcoin Knots told followers early on August 11 that the Bitcoin network faces an attack and that block production has slowed sharply. Public chain data contradicts that claim.

The warning drew instant pushback. David Schwartz, the former chief technology officer at Ripple, accused the project of misleading readers who lack the technical context to check it.

BTC Keeps Producing Blocks While the Knots Fork Sits Frozen

Bitcoin Knots is an alternative node client maintained by veteran developer Luke Dashjr. It filters out data its users treat as spam, and it runs on a small slice of the network.

Bitcoin blocks keep arriving on schedule. The main chain passed height 961,963 on August 11, with the last six blocks averaging under 10 minutes apart.

The frozen chain belongs to Knots itself. Its controversial BIP-110 soft fork, a rule change meant to squeeze non-monetary data out of Bitcoin blocks, stalled at block 961,633 after producing just two blocks. The main network has since pulled more than 300 blocks ahead.

Miners never backed the split. Support peaked near 2.53% even after organizers cut the activation threshold from 95% to 55%, then dropped to zero during mandatory signaling. The fork died within days.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) trades near $63,979, down 1.5% on the day. Traders have shrugged off the dispute entirely.

Experts Tell Bitcoin Node Operators to Ignore the Downgrade Advice

The account never named the alleged attackers. Instead, its supporters have recast the lopsided miner vote as sabotage by large pools.

Knots also urged users to stay on its software, warning that weaker consensus rules invite false confirmations. Developers outside the project reject that framing. Bitcoin Core nodes follow the chain that almost all hashpower secures, and that chain never stopped.

Schwartz put it bluntly:

Trust in the camp had already thinned. Mining pool OCEAN, co-founded by Knots maintainer Luke Dashjr, admitted routing miners onto the minority chain without clear consent. Its hashrate collapsed by 96% soon after.

Backers are not done, however. The group will pick a new proof-of-work algorithm on August 11 at 14:00 UTC through a deterministic draw in its Discord. Such a switch would strip today’s Bitcoin miners of any role on a breakaway chain, which supporters aim to launch by September 1.

Whether anyone follows them remains an open question. Adam Back has already dismissed the campaign as unserious. The next three weeks will show whether the September plan draws more hashpower than the last attempt did.

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