Found a nicely written article about the necessity for nodes in a p2p network. It's mainly a discussion stressing that if there is no incentive to run a node, then they become more and more sparse. I think privatized solutions like CryptoNote and Darkcoin have at least begun to address these issues. Specifically, by having more nodes operational (wallets on and running), you increase your privacy base. Does anyone want to discuss their thoughts? I've heard that transaction fees need to be eliminated in a network, and that they need to be eliminated and replaced by a small yearly inflation. But this article seems to imply that removing them centralizes your nodes.
http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-nodes-need/
Bitcoin core developer Jeff Garzik believes that community attention to the lack of nodes supporting the network is what the industry needs in order to boost numbers:
“I agree we need more full nodes. I’ve long been a proponent of such calls for more nodes.”
However, such calls for voluntary support might not be enough motivation for people to do so, though, so, one logical idea that has been floated is to give nodes some sort of incentive.
However, that’s probably not feasible right now: over the past six months, miners have been averaging a daily reward of 15.98 BTC per day, according to Blockchain.
Recent bitcoin prices would peg that value at around $7,040 per day for the entire network – and the growth in transaction fees has been incredibly flat over the past six months. As a result, miners would likely be reluctant to concede any revenue to bitcoin nodes, which don’t require pricey ASIC hardware to run.
Members of the bitcoin community seem to be losing interest in hosting full nodes. And it’s something to pay attention to, because over time it might mean that the major companies in the industry may have to pick up the slack.
If larger players are taking up the role of supporting the network as full nodes, though, it continues to lessen the amount of decentralization the network has at an infrastructure level.
This is all down to circumstances surrounding bitcoin sentiment – the rise of ASICs, the selloffs in China and complete collapse of Mt. Gox – plus little in the way of incentives for someone to run a node.
