Elementary

P2P Network

Elementary Track 07
🌐

The Internet Without Servers

How does a transaction you send reach thousands of nodes? The P2P network propagates data on its own, without a central server.

What You'll Learn

  • How gossip protocol propagates transactions across the entire P2P network
  • The roles and differences of full nodes, light nodes, and validator nodes
  • How transactions are selected from the mempool based on gas price
🕸️
P2P Architecture

All nodes are equal. Connected without a central server.

📡
Gossip Protocol

A transaction is relayed to neighboring nodes, who relay it further.

🧠
Mempool

Queue for unconfirmed transactions. Miners select by fee priority.

💡 Bitcoin initially shared node addresses via IRC chat rooms. Today it uses DNS seed servers and a built-in node list.