Bitcoin network
The network is based on a peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol. Various nodes exchange transactions and blocks in this network. Every node in this Bitcoin network is treated equally. One advantage of this is that each node has the option of taking different roles, depending on each person's preference on how they want to participate in the Bitcoin network.
Types of nodes
Before we discuss the types of nodes, let's discuss some of the primary functionalities that the nodes perform:
- Wallet
- Mining
- Full blockchain
- Routing
Majorly, there are two types of nodes in the Bitcoin network. We'll now go into some brief details on each.
Full node
A full node is made up of the wallet, miner, complete blockchain, and the routing network. These nodes maintain a complete up-to-date record of the blockchain. The full nodes verify every transaction on the blockchain network.
Lightweight nodes
Lightweight nodes perform transactions on the blockchain. They do not contain the entire blockchain, instead just a subset...
