Bitcoin XT Node Count Plummets
Alternative implementation loses support rapidly after Mike Hearn's departure from Bitcoin.
By January 30, 2016, the number of nodes running Bitcoin XT had dropped dramatically following Mike Hearn's departure from the Bitcoin project and his public declaration that the experiment had failed. Bitcoin XT, which Hearn had co-developed with Gavin Andresen, had been proposed as an alternative implementation that would increase block sizes to 8MB and then double them every two years.
The node count had peaked at several hundred but fell to fewer than 100 active nodes by the end of January. The decline reflected both Hearn's influence on the project and the broader community's reaction to his pessimistic assessment of Bitcoin's future. Many node operators who had been running XT as a form of protest against Bitcoin Core's scaling approach reconsidered their position following Hearn's exit.
The plummeting node count effectively ended Bitcoin XT as a viable alternative implementation and reduced pressure on Bitcoin Core to implement larger block sizes.However, the episode demonstrated the challenges of achieving consensus in a decentralized system and highlighted the need for more collaborative approaches to technical governance.