Why node operators are not given free bitcoins for hosting blockchain ?

[ajaxtempest]

I know satoshi intended for miners to get the moolah for the hardwork but aren't we node operators part of the bitcoin operational community? As time goes by there will be less node operators due to blockchain size. Coundn't the software be updated to reward node operators for x amount of uptime will lead to x amount to free btc? We are also putting our electricity and hardware to use for the greater good.

I hope someone does a BIP for that

Also i did not want to make a new topic but can node operators vote in BIP? and how do miners vote in BIP?

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[BlackHatCoiner]

I know satoshi intended for miners to get the moolah for the handwork but aren't we node operators part of the bitcoin operational community?

We are all part of it. Miners, nodes, traders, SPV server runners, centralized exchanges' CEOs, Elon Musk, me, you. There's no specific requirement to be part of the bitcoin community, other than to use bitcoin.

As time goes by there will be less node operators due to blockchain size.

This is a false conclusion. The increasing chain size isn't the only factor that affects this. As a counter argument, I say that this will not be true, because as time goes on, more people will be obsessed by the idea of being financially autonomous and that hard drives will become cheaper.

Coundn't the software be updated to reward node operators for x amount of uptime will lead to x amount to free btc?

Despite the fact that there's no effective way to do this, you make it sound as there's no reward, but there is a very significant: You get the ability to verify everything yourself, you don't have to trust anyone's words of what's the correct ledger, you follow Proof-of-work that can't be faked. You gain financially sovereignty and the truth. Also, it's much more private.

[mk4]

Why tho? It's not like it takes a crap ton of energy to run your own node; in fact running your own node mostly benefits yourself.

As time goes by there will be less node operators due to blockchain size.

As far as I know computer memory gets cheaper and cheaper significantly faster than the increase in Bitcoin's blockchain size.

[Cookdata]

I know satoshi intended for miners to get the moolah for the handwork but aren't we node operators part of the bitcoin operational community? As time goes by there will be less node operators due to blockchain size. Coundn't the software be updated to reward node operators for x amount of uptime will lead to x amount to free btc? We are also putting our electricity and hardware to use for the greater good.

I hope someone does a BIP for that

Also i did not want to make a new topic but can node operators vote in BIP? and how do miners vote in BIP?

Being a Full Node comes with great merit for yourself, you have the full option of privacy protected literally while also protecting the bitcoin network as well. There is no form of reward attached been a node like the way miners do. Besides, Bitcoin is a proof of work which means a lot of work has to be done to include transactions into a block, nodes don't do that, they relay transactions and propagate them to other nodes until it reaches the final nodes where they wait for the miners to do the work and include the transactions into the block and accept the block of transactions into the blockchain ledger if valid.
Nodes are increasing day by day, check Bitnode^[1], there are currently about 15k nodes today and it is possible that some are offline, they come online when necessary, you should also know that some miners are also running Full nodes, so your assumption is invalid.


[1] https://bitnodes.io/

[BlackHatCoiner]

you have the full option of privacy protected literally

Well, you never get full privacy in this world, but you somewhat enhance it by running a full node.

there are currently about 15k nodes today

These are only the reachable nodes, which means those that accept incoming connections. Luke.dashjr.org must be showing all of them; they're ~49850 currently.

This is something interesting:

31981 /bitcoinj:0.16.1/Bitcoin Wallet:9.03/ Bitcoin Wallet for Android

Most of the full nodes run 0.16.1 with bitcoinj.

[DaveF]

If you want to make money running a node, try running a lightning node. You have to invest some of your own BTC to open channels and the money you make will be in the BTC0.00000001 a month rage.

Because that is how Proof of Work works. You have to WORK, not just sit there.

-Dave

[DooMAD]

To take a stab at the "why not" part, I'd offer the suggestion that a financial incentive would likely encourage farming.  One person with sufficient resources can spin up hundreds of new nodes with relative ease.  But it's unique nodes which offer the most benefit to the network.  People could effectively cheat it.

[hatshepsut93]

Because it's very easy to spawn large amounts of fake nodes, and there's no way to tell if a node is actually unique, or a part of a large cluster of fake nodes. And there's no good mechanism for rewarding uptime or storage in a decentralized way. Bitcoin mining is based on a proof-of-work, which was created before Bitcoin itself and has other practical application, but so far no one invented "proof-of-node", e.g. "proof-of-storing-and serving-blockchain".

[ajaxtempest]

Satoshi actually favored it!
https://hackernoon.com/the-great-bitcoin-scaling-debate-a-timeline-6108081dbada

[DooMAD]

Satoshi actually favored it!
https://hackernoon.com/the-great-bitcoin-scaling-debate-a-timeline-6108081dbada

The tricky part with that is where Bitcoin evolved rather quickly.  In ways that even someone as prophet-like as satoshi couldn't foresee.  What we now refer to as "non-mining nodes" didn't really exist when Bitcoin first launched.  Every participant was a miner.  But things suddenly escalated with the advent of GPU mining, followed by ASICs, along with mining pools.  None of this was part of the original design.  It just kinda happened.  So the network evolved with those changes.  In order to stop miners having too much influence over the network and attempt to maintain balance, there are now nodes where their purpose is to relay blocks and enforce consensus rules.  Because satoshi never knew this type of node would be required, there was no plan in place to financially reward them.  

[hd49728]

Nodes don't confirm your transactions. Miners make confirmation and share block rewards as well as transaction fee in each block.

Miners don't must run their Bitcoin nodes in order to mine Bitcoin by confirm transactions on the network. They can connect to mining pools that run their nodes already. If you are a pool owner, you must set up and run your Bitcoin full node but miners don't have to do it.

Running a prune node or full node requires hardware installation and some physical cost but this activity help the network become more decentralized. It will help to make more backups of the Bitcoin blockchain and confirm or reject transactions from other nodes.