What approach would you take to get up and running 21 million full nodes?
Bad approach. Important is not the number of full nodes. Important is why, how, where, who is using those full nodes. There are many use cases and also many types of nodes:
  • bitcoin only nodes, public ones
  • bitcoin only nodes, private ones, tor and/or clearnet
  • Full BTC and LN nodes, public and/or private
  • Neutrino BTC and LN node, mostly private
  • Desktop or mobile ones ....
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Additionally, just running a node isnt very helpful unless the node is ACTUALLY used:
  • to verify your wallet balances
  • to broadcast transactions
  • to explore the mempools
  • to enforce the protocol rules you prefer in the event of a hard/soft fork
Anytime you use bitcoin, you're using a node. Its either your node or someone else's.
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So Education goes along with running a full node yet isn't this inherent in running a full node?
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I saw many "node runners" that don't know what is UTXO... The learning process do not start by running a node, but by taking small steps, using regular wallets, reading a lot, testing the processes and after that when they have a basic knowledge is time to take the step to run a node.
Just running a node without basic knowledge is not enough.
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Education goes with owning a firearm, yet it isn't required to own one (in the USA, at least)
While a single negligent node runner can't cause much damage (unlike with a firearm), if the vast majority of nodes are run by clueless operators, it can cause problems with consensus if, for example, they are persuaded to update to a malicious client (a la. Segwit2x) without understanding the ramifications.
The ability to run a node is open to anyone, but it comes with some level of responsibility.
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Why bad approach? Is there a technological issue with 21,000,000 million people running their own bitcoin full nodes?
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no, nothing wrong with 21M users running their own nodes. Is a bad approach in the form you say it. Just running 21 M nodes for no other use than just running is totally useless. As @nullcount pointed out very well, if are not used properly, better just don't run them.
So I would change the question or challenge into: how to educate 21M nocoiners into running their own nodes and each one to careful selecting the way is running one.
As I said, not quantity but quality is important.
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Who runs a Bitcoin full node just to run a full node? Do people do that currently today? If we are operating on those assumptions why aren't there 21 million bitcoin full nodes or runners of full nodes? Or are there even 21 million Bitcoin full nodes? Are we making the assumption that there is no technical knowledge nor education that goes with running a full node and that people will just run full nodes just to run them? I totally get your perspective yet the original question was: How would you get 21 million people to run Bitcoin Full Nodes? The answer I am reading into so far is education on the benefits of running a full node and the different kind of nodes. Also I get the Quality vs Quantity yet are we making the assumption 21 million full nodes or runners of full nodes is a lot? What happens when we have Billions of people using Bitcoin and all it's consecutive layers does 21 million seem like a lot at that point? I don't think the approach was bad(always could be better) yet I will open another thread with the question refined. Please feel free to answer your own question here aswell.
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