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I have read in Wikipedia that "Messages are broadcast on a best effort basis, and nodes can leave and rejoin the network at will " in bitcoin network. what does it mean that a node can leave the network-what will happend to its transactions? Can he get back to the same address and claim his transactions again (its bitcoin)?

thank you

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Transactions are not directly sent to the node that holds the private keys for the addresses involving it. Rather transactions are broadcast to all nodes on the network and then recorded on the blockchain. When a node rejoins the network, it downloads and verifies the blockchain from its peers. When it does that, it scans the blockchain for transactions that pertain to it.

The process of receiving is completely passive; there is no direct sending to the receiver (the sender does not have that information) nor is there a claiming process.

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  • will the node which rejoined the network return to its previous private key and public key/address?
    – adi
    Commented Apr 15, 2018 at 3:21
  • If by "return to" you mean that a node will have the same private keys and addresses, then yes. Private keys and their associated addresses are not assigned by anyone; instead a wallet generates locally the private keys that it uses. Furthermore private keys and addresses do not need to be registered anywhere in order to be used. So when a node goes offline, it holds onto its private keys because it generated them and stores them locally.
    – Ava Chow ♦
    Commented Apr 15, 2018 at 4:33

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