54% back the 180-day lock in Mechanic's poll, and rc5 ships it
Bitcoin Mechanic, author of the 180-day rolling lock (#468), asked XBT users on X to choose: his PR, a return to the normal 100-block coinbase maturity, or something else. With 187 votes in and about two days left, 54% picked #468 and 16% picked going back to 100 blocks. The same day, the latest Knots community test build, 29.4.3rc5, shipped with #468 in it.
The poll so far
| Option | Share |
|---|---|
| PR #468 (180-day rolling lock) | 54% |
| Return to 100-block maturity | 16% |
| Other / results | 30% |
Among people who picked a side, that's about 77% for #468 and 23% for going back to 100 blocks. The "Other / results" option mixes people who prefer a different PR with people who just wanted to see the numbers. The poll was posted on Oct 24 by @GrassFedBitcoin, had about 2,600 views at the time of writing, and is still open. Polls on X aren't a vote of node operators, and anyone can answer, so read it as a temperature check.
"IMO, PR #468 offers the best chance of shifting hashrate away from short-term mercenary hashers and toward honest miners with long-term..."
SpectrGen, replying to the poll
rc5 ships #468
The knots-dev community test builds have flipped between options all week. rc2 carried #468, rc3 swapped it for the one-year lock (#429), and rc4 switched back to #468. On Oct 24, rc5 moved #468 to its latest code (8a4ca1b223). In the release notes' words, "Consensus rules are unchanged from rc4 and rc2."
- What rc5 enforces: rewards from block 979,919 on wait about 180 days (25,920 blocks) to mature, each on its own clock, until RDTS expires. Rewards from 973,440 to 979,918 keep today's 45-day rule.
- Not official: it's "Not an official release. For test nodes only." Only a Knots release from the maintainer makes it the rule most nodes run.
- A competing build stood down. Kilombino had made an rc5 test build using the one-year lock (#476) instead, then pulled it: "we are going with the 180-day rule from #468 that is already in the rc, so I took the build down."
What else moved since Friday
- More Concept ACKs on #468, including sturms ("a good middle ground") and BTCAnvil ("i can wait, even more for the rewards, all for the greater good of the network").
- kwsantiago asked for the scheduled 180-day rule to show up in
getdeploymentinfoas its own entry before activation, so node runners can see what they'll enforce. - MarcanoFilms posted a long technical case for #476, the one-year lock with no cliff, measured on his own node. It's the only rolling proposal that also removes the 979,920 release.
- Luke Dashjr's Concept NACK on #468 still stands, and nothing is merged.
Where that leaves the unlock
About 1,060 blocks remain to block 979,920, roughly a week. Our tracker counts 16,950 XBT locked. Even if #468 ships, those coins still unlock on schedule. #468 only changes rewards mined from block 979,919 on. Every option, compared
Live Knots trackerUnlock countdown
Sources: @GrassFedBitcoin poll on X (Oct 24, 2026, in progress at 187 votes); knots-dev Bitcoin Knots 29.4.3rc2 to rc5 release notes; Knots PRs #468 and #476 review threads; xbt.live lock tracker at block 978,859. Quotes are verbatim and trimmed. Not financial advice.
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