I have a few questions about the specifics of Bitcoins peer-to-peer construction. Maybe the forum can enlighten me as to how the network goes about communicating between network nodes.
I'll do a play-by-play for questions as to make it clear what I am asking.
1. Sending New Transactions:
- When a new transaction is sent from my node to my nodes peers, what do my peers do with it?
- Do they send that new transaction to their peers as well?
- Or do they simply hold that new transaction as unprocessed?
- How does this new data spread through the network?
2. Downloading the Blockchain:
- When my client (node) requests pieces of the blockchain (from my node's peers), how does this play out?
3. Mining and New Blocks:
- For mining, from my understanding, miners gather all unprocessed transactions to form their latest block submission (is this wrong?).
- Are these transactions just floating around the network, not in a block yet, where miners can (via their node) pick these TX's up and use those TX's to form their next block submission?
4. Do Nodes Request More Peers from other Peers?
- So do nodes ask other peers for their peer list, to expand their own peer list?
- In other words, is it self expanding, or do I have to manually add more peers?
5. Is my Node Being Sent New Transactions (that are not processed)?
- So is my node being sent the thousands of new transactions that have not been processed yet (i.e. put into a block)?
- Or is there something else happening here?
6. Right Now, What Data is Being Sent to My Running Node?
- So what data right now is being sent to my node (I'm running the standard Bitcoin WIN Client/Node), I know there is new blockchain data, but what else?
7. Is there Any Know P2P Structures that Bitcoin is modeled after?
- What P2P structure is Bitcoin modeled after, is it like a gossip style model or something else entirely?
I know there is a tone of questions here, but if anyone can answer any, that would sure help me better understand the P2P layout of the Bitcoin protocol.
Cheers,
Nick.