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What definition would you use?



Some that doesn't make a Bittorrent client or a Bitcoin node a server.


But both of those are servers?


No, both of these are peer to peer applications


.. which have client and server parts of the protocol, that can be separately disabled. The fact that same piece of software can run on in client mode and in server mode is irrelevant.

In bittorrent example, the seeders are pure servers, and those cheating aps which only connect to seeds are pure clients. Yes, many trackers actively try to detect and discourage pure clients, but this is not enforced by the protocol itself.




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