According to data provided by Bitnodes.io, the number of Bitcoin nodes has just hit a new maximum.
In particular, the number of active BTC nodes is 11,558. However, according to Bitcoin statistics monitor coin.dance, this number rises to 11,613, above the previous high of 11,250 a year ago.
The version 0.21.0 of Bitcoin Core, the most used software by node operators, was released on January 14.
619 nodes reportedly use this version of the software, which represents 5.5% of all the nodes that use the software. However, almost 5,000 nodes are still using version 0.20.1, which is still the most popular among node operators.
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The new version includes several features aimed at increasing the privacy of Bitcoin transactions.
Another addition to the new version is its compatibility with the version 3 of Tor, since up to 25% of all available Bitcoin nodes use the browser. A large number of users choose to use Tor when running Bitcoin nodes because the browser adds an extra layer of privacy by obfuscating the IP address of the nodes.
In order for the Bitcoin network to remain decentralized, it is essential that a large number of independent nodes participate in the network.