Ya, wasn't really intending to insult his English. Just making random quotes.
Anyway, point being, don't jump on the "every pool is DDoS OMG" bandwagon until someone confirms something.
Or, even better, go solo!
Supa, can you please explain the link between bitcoin & nodes and nodes & economic stability
Did you want a dissertation or.... ?
In a simplistic nutshell package, more nodes mean you have more transports for the peer-to-peer traffic of bitcoin. It was intended that these nodes be rewarded for performing work to keep the chain and transactions verified and correct without a single point of authority (or multiple points of trusted authority).
More nodes means more data can be transported faster. More nodes actually performing verification (aka mining) translates to strength in the network.
Pools provide the opposite.
"Weekend warriors" can sweep into the bitcoin project with their insatiable requirement for instant gratification (that is, rewards from pool mining rather than long-term payoffs). These individuals can drastically alter price based on them having a bad day. For example, let's say 30 people that have a few hundred coins decide "eff bitcoin this is stupid I can't use deepbit DDoS Russian Chinese blaaaah!" and go piss away their coins on an exchange for nearly nothing. Deflation happens.
If a 51% exploit is
achieved believable... deflation will happen.
If people start losing transactions.... deflation will happen.
If downloading the block chain takes a year (current client requires the whole block chain) then no layman consumers will want to use it. Ditto for actually trying to find a node to submit a transaction to. Deflation will happen.
More miners and less nodes reduce the stability and trust in the network.
Now the opposite...
Nodes are available and fast around the world. Transactions are nearly instant and there are hundreds of thousands of machines maintaining and verifying transactions. Blocks are easily downloaded and nodes are abundant.
More nodes and less miners increase the stability and trust in the network (and by proxy - overall interest and willingness to use Bitcoin ~ stabilizing prices).
If the network is stable, fast and trustworthy at all times.... Inflation can happen. Or at least stability.