If you start simplewallet with --daemon-host node.moneroworld.com , it will connect to a random node thats part of the Moneroworld Network.
Nice service.
Ignoring some privacy issues, using a random node (possibly broken or malicious) to send coins is basically 100% safe. The worst case is mostly that your transaction gets eaten (lost), after which you can rescan your wallet, recover your coins and try again (with a different node).
Where more caution is needed is using a random node to receive coins, since you could be spoofed (node gives you fake blockchain information, indicating you received coins when you really didn't). For example, if you are buying Monero OTC and send the Bitcoins after "receiving" Monero, only to find later that you didn't really receive the Monero, you could get scammed.
The risk is relatively small especially since you are connecting to a random node. The attacker would have be running a lot of nodes and hope you connect to one of those while at the same time arranging a trade with you. You can further mitigate the risk by double checking any txids you think you have received via a random node against an independent chain explorer to make sure they actually exist and were mined.
Of course to get the full benefits of privacy and security you should run your own node, but with some caution, a random remote node can be used relatively safely.
Thanks smooth!
Indeed, regarding the bolded, luckily this node network is centralized in the sense that I am responsible for adding records to the DNS entry and handing out keys for the dynamic update magic . So hopefully only trusted members of the monero community will message me and I'm not adding nodes that are run by malicious types.
