Everything you need to know about Bitcoin network nodes

0

Welcome to Hard Fork Basics, a collection of tips, tricks, guides, and advice to keep you up to date in the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain.

The Bitcoin network is often touted as one of the most revolutionary forms of decentralized technology the world has ever seen. But for it to be decentralized, it needs a globally distributed network of connected computers or nodes.

It sounds simple enough, but there isn’t just one type of node, and each type has a different role to play in helping the blockchain network run smoothly. In this article, we’ll break down the different types of nodes and what they do.

Know your knots

In general, a node is a piece of computer equipment attached to a network. In the context of the internet and your home, your phone is a node, your laptop is a node, your router is a node, and that wireless IP camera, yes, it’s a node too.

Knots can come in many shapes, sizes, and forms. Each plays a different – ​​but vital – role in the running of your household.

In the case of the Bitcoin blockchain, there are four main types of nodes: full nodes, supernodes, light nodes, and mining nodes. Full, super, and light nodes serve similar functions, while mining nodes serve an entirely different function.

Before we dive into what these nodes are and what they do, it’s best to think of the blockchain as fundamentally a ledger or list of transactions – for this case at least. All types of nodes contribute in some way to building or maintaining this list.

Mining nodes

There is a lot written about what mining is and how it works, but for the purposes of this article, think of mining nodes simply as the nodes that produce the blocks for the blockchain.

It is the mining nodes that confirm which blocks should be placed on this “list”, in a process known as “mining”. When people talk about the Bitcoin network, especially in terms of its power consumption, they often refer to the network of miners and ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Devices) machines.

Mining nodes are not actually responsible for maintaining the blockchain, they are only responsible for creating blocks to add. Once these blocks are created, they are sent over the network to full nodes which validate them and add them to the blockchain.

Full and super knots

As their name suggests, full nodes are responsible for maintaining and distributing copies of the entire blockchain ledger. As such, they play a vital role in the network as they are the point of reference for validating the history of the blockchain.

The full node is capable of validating transactions up to the genesis block, at the time of publication the entire blockchain reaches a size of 200 GB. Some estimate that there are over 10,000 full nodes operational on the bitcoin network.

These nodes then propagate the blockchain to all other nodes in the network to ensure that the most reliable blockchain is maintained. The more nodes, the more decentralized the network and the harder it is to hack.

Depending on the number of incoming and outgoing connections of a full node, it can also be called super node or listener nodes.

Supernodes typically run around the clock to help connect other full nodes to each other and spread the blockchain across the entire network. They serve as a relay of information or redistribution to ensure that everyone has the correct copy of the blockchain.

light knots

Light nodes – or thin nodes – perform a similar function to full nodes, but rather than containing an entire copy of the blockchain, they only contain part of it.

Lightweight nodes only download the block header of previous transactions, to confirm the validity of the blockchain and to pass this information to other nodes. The block header is a summary of a given block, it includes information about the previous block it is hashed to, the time it was mined, and a unique identification number, called a nonce.

Generally speaking, lightweight nodes connect to a parent node, usually a full node; which keeps a complete copy of the blockchain. Since lightweight nodes do less blockchain work and don’t help spread large amounts of data across the network, they don’t need to be as powerful and are much cheaper to own and maintain than full nodes. or great.

That said, if a full node is hacked and contains an incorrect copy of the blockchain, light nodes can serve to reject that blockchain as fake and confirm to the full node the correct blockchain it should maintain. Think of a group of light knots as a group of friends who support you and help keep a full knot on the straight and narrow.

Using lightweight nodes helps further decentralize the blockchain network and extend the real ledger over a greater distance for a lower cost compared to full nodes.

Validation is not consensus

Nodes validate the blockchain by following a number of rules. When the entire network follows these rules, all nodes should contribute to producing the same blockchain. It should be noted that validation actually occurs before a block is mined; validation is not the same as consensus. Consensus is achieved when mining nodes agree on the order of transactions, not which transactions are valid.

Imagine I have 1 BTC and I transfer 0.25 BTC to my colleague Yessi. She currently has 0.25 BTC in her wallet. To confirm this is valid, the Bitcoin network will “ask” full nodes to confirm that I have enough coins and how much Yessi will have after the transaction. Once valid, the transaction will be picked up by miners to be added to a block and verified by Proof-of-Work – in the case of Bitcoin at least. But how that happens is another story altogether – and worth reading.

This is, of course, a very simplified overview of nodes; the network structure can become much more complicated. But now that you’ve mastered the basics of the nodes that make up the Bitcoin blockchain network, why not learn about how proof-of-work or mining pools work?

Share.

Comments are closed.