Bitcoin Forum

Could somebody explain for a newbie like me what actually are the nodes my wallets are connecting? Are all other wallets also nodes or are there some special servers somewhere or how does this actually work?

Traditionally, each bitcoin user would run a node (bitcoin-qt has both node and wallet functionality).
Newer wallets (Armory, Electrum etc.) work without storing a full copy of the blockchain, and thus are not nodes of the bitcoin network.

Onkel Paul

What about these other coins like litecoin. When I am running litecoin-qt am I also a "node"? What are nodes you have to put to your config files? Some other wallets?

Can somebody else help me?

If your wallet is downloading whole blockchain then yes you are.

Ok, and the nodes which you have to put in your config files? What are those?

they are used to make you syncing faster

Ok, are those also some kind of wallets, or some other servers?

Well this answer is kind of simplified but have you ever downloaded an torrent? If yes so then these nodes are something like seeders of the blockchain.

they are like you, other pc connected to create a decentralized network, p2p

nodes are other people running the wallet who also have the complete blockchain..  they broadcast and process it, if you need to download a chain they are the ones providing it.  if you have the whole chain you are sending out your blocks to catch up other people and speaking to the other nodes to confirm you are on the same block :)  (sorry low tech post)

I'm still a bit confused by nodes myself

here's the relevant snippet from wiki -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Node_(networking), pretty much sums it up i suppose:

Distributed system nodes
If the network in question is a distributed system, the nodes are clients, servers or peers. A peer may sometimes serve as client, sometimes server. In a peer-to-peer or overlay network, nodes that actively route data for the other networked devices as well as themselves are called supernodes.

Distributed systems may sometimes use virtual nodes so that the system is not oblivious to the heterogeneity of the nodes. This issue is addressed with special algorithms, like consistent hashing, as it is the case in Amazon's.

Thanks, that makes it much clearer

Ok, and are the nodes in the config-files wallets, which are open all the time?

Most likely they are bitcoind instances on servers that hold no wallets themselves but maintain the blockchain. Some might be there just to support the network, others are maybe being used through their RPC service by people who use them to interface to the bitcoin network (online wallet services, gambling or other bitcoin-processing sites etc.).

Onkel Paul

Ok, so there are also other nodes than wallets. Thanks!

I didnt know some of that info myself.


Thanks for the ...more informed responses!

g

Wallet node is only a help wallet update module.

If your wallet can update properly, don't have to add the purse node

Thanks for all who have helped me so far! But I still have some more questions :)

Why some wallets need a huge amount of nodes to be listed and for some wallets you don't even need a config file?

Can anybody tell?

Pretty much any machine running the wallet can act as a node and will relay P2P data back to the network.

The nodes that the wallet is connecting to are usually servers that are acting as designated nodes because the IP address of these are made public. This means that anybody who needs to open a wallet/daemon to download the blockchain are then able to mine, transfer funds etc using up to date transactions if they connect through these IPs.

Many currencies rely on end users having to create a .conf file which contains IP addresses of public nodes. However, a lot of currencies lately are switching away from this in favor of using DNS seeds to resolve IP addresses. Basically, DNS seeders get around the need to enter IP addresses of nodes in .conf files as these are detected and connected to automatically.

If I would like to help some coin and setup a designated node, what should I do?