Fast propagation of recent transactions over a blockchain network

A network comprising a plurality of interconnected nodes used to implement a blockchain network, a subset of the interconnected nodes being specialized network nodes interconnected by an overlay, the specialized network nodes in the overlay network being arranged and configured to perform one or more dedicated blockchain functions or services and comprising:

• at least one processor;
• a network interface;
• a memory;
• and
• a blockchain specialized network node application containing processor-executable instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the one or more dedicated blockchain functions or services;
• and wherein the specialized network nodes in the overlay network are not full blockchain nodes.

A computer-implemented method to facilitate fast propagation of blockchain transactions over a network of interconnected nodes used to implement a blockchain, wherein a subset of the nodes are specialized network nodes interconnected by an overlay network, each specialized network node is not a full blockchain node and is configured to perform one or more dedicated functions or services, the method comprising:

• receiving, at a specialized network node, an unconfirmed blockchain transaction;
• validating the unconfirmed blockchain transaction;
• and
• broadcasting the validated blockchain transaction to at least one other specialized network node;
• wherein fast propagation is achieved as a result of using at least one of:
• (i) multicast to broadcast the unconfirmed blockchain transaction to the at least one other specialized network node and (ii) the specialized network node being permitted with a greater number of incoming and outgoing connections than are permitted for non-specialized network nodes.