After purchasing a sizeable amount of bitcoins for himself and his company, Michael Saylor said that the firm he operates, MicroStrategy, has been running a full node of Bitcoin’s latest core version for over a month.
Bitcoin nodes are an essential part of the Bitcoin blockchain peer-to-peer network. Running a full node means validating transactions and blocks. Almost all nodes also help the network by accepting transactions and blocks from other nodes to validate and relay them.
There’re certain requirements necessary to run a full node, such as robust hardware, reliable and fast internet connection, and the ability to leave the device running for hours without interrupting the connection.
The decentralized nature of the Bitcoin network requires as many volunteers as possible. Otherwise, the consequences could lead to slow transactions, inability to connect through the P2P network, and relying on centralized services.
Anyone fitting the requirements can join the network and become a Bitcoin Core node. According to Michael Saylor, the company he founded over three decades ago has done precisely that.
In a recent tweet, he said that MicroStrategy is “thrilled to do our part to support the growth of the Bitcoin network,” after running a full node for over a month of Bitcoin Core’s latest version – 0.20.1.
The Nasdaq-listed company announced buying its first batch of bitcoins in August, followed by another massive purchase just a month later. In total, the firm acquired 38,250 bitcoins for about $425 million at the time. This represents about 0.18% of all bitcoins ever to exist.
MicroStrategy doubled-down on its belief in Bitcoin recently by instituting a new treasury reserve policy. It reads that “Bitcoin will be the primary treasury reserve asset.” Additionally, the firm said it will purchase even more BTC with the excess cash it generates.
The company’s CEO has been particularly supportive of the asset in the past several months. Earlier this week, Saylor disclosed that he’s a Bitcoin HODLer as well. His personal portfolio consists of 17,731 bitcoins (worth about $235 million).