[Bitcoin-development] The Bitcoin Node Market

["Raystonn ." <raystonn@hotmail.com>]

I have been toying with an idea and figured I'd run it by everyone here 
before investing further time in it.  The goal here is to make it 
sustainable, and perhaps profitable, to run full nodes on the Bitcoin 
Network in the long term.

- Nodes can participate in a market wherein they are paid by nodes, wallets, 
and other services to supply Bitcoin Network data.  Payment should be based 
on the cost imposed on the Node to do the work and send the data, but can be 
set in any way the node operator desires.  It's a free market.
- Nodes that are mostly leeching data from the Bitcoin Network, such as 
those that do not receive inbound connections to port 8333, will send 
payments to the nodes they connect to, but will likely receive no payments 
from other nodes, wallets, and other services.
- Nodes that are providing balanced full service to the Bitcoin Network will 
tend to have a balance of payments coming in and going out with regards to 
other balanced full service nodes, leaving them revenue neutral there.  But 
they will receive payments from leech nodes, wallets, and other services.

The net effect here is that the cost to run nodes will be shared by those 
who are using the Bitcoin network but not contributing by running a full 
node.  A market will develop for fees to connect to the Bitcoin Network 
which should help cover the cost of running the Network.  It's still 
possible to continue offering access to your node for free as there is 
nothing forcing you to charge a fee.  But this isn't very sustainable 
long-run.  Market efficiencies should eventually mean nodes take in only 
what is required to keep the Network operational.

Raystonn