GlossaryBeginner
Peer-to-Peer Network
A network where participants connect and communicate directly with each other, rather than all relying on a central server.
A peer-to-peer (P2P) network is a network architecture where participants ("peers" or "nodes") connect and communicate directly with one another, rather than all routing through a central server — each peer can act as both a sender and receiver of information.
Public blockchains are built as peer-to-peer networks specifically because this architecture avoids a single point of control or failure, a foundational property behind blockchain's broader decentralization claims. See Kaavon's "What Is Blockchain?" guide for how this fits into blockchain's overall design.
Examples
- A blockchain's peer-to-peer network means no single company's server going offline can take the entire network down with it.
- Peer-to-peer networking is the structural foundation that makes a public blockchain's decentralization possible in the first place.