[riprowan]

> A peer is a node, which is a client that validates all transactions and blocks in the blockchain.

According to the white paper, Section 5, a peer is a miner. That has not changed, regardless of attempts to redefine the paper. To be a peer, you MUST contribute proof of work.

Running a non mining node gives you a copy of the blockchain data that you can trust is valid according to the rules you used to validate it. It does not make you a peer.

[statoshi]

False; peers validate and propagate information across the network. You don't have to be creating blocks in order to validate and propagate them.

[lawn]

He just said nodes validate the information. It just doesn't matter to anyone else other than the node operator and users of that node.

The only occassion the propagation is valid if you're transferring a transaction from another full node to a miner (or helping to do so). As long as there is any path to do so more nodes do not matter.

All miners are already connected together using high speed channels.