The artwork Immutable Node Symphony explores the verification and synchronization process of Bitcoin nodes. Nodes are computers connected to Bitcoin’s peer-to-peer network, while so-called full nodes host and synchronize a copy of the entire Bitcoin blockchain. Every 10 minutes, a new transaction block is created. Once a consensus is reached about the validity of a new transaction block, all the nodes will add the block to the public ledger, called the blockchain.
A growing global network, currently over 100,000 nodes, has maintained the entire transaction history since its inception in 2008, ensuring the blockchain’s information is immutable. Each additional node increases this distributed network’s security and reliability against local outages or potential prohibitive legislation in individual countries.
My animation uses cloud collages to visualize the idea of Bitcoin as a network of hope. It’s hope for opportunity, equality or wealth that motivates people to run Bitcoin nodes. However, if people lose their hope in Bitcoin and disconnect their nodes, the Bitcoin network consequently dissolves like a cloud of vapour.