- Why non-mining validators aren’t redundant - They shape…

- Why non-mining validators aren’t redundant
- They shape miner incentives. It’s “irrational” to mine invalid blocks precisely because economic full nodes won’t accept the outputs. Remove them (SPV-only world), and a coordinated miner set can redefine “valid” via the longest-chain rule.
- They’re the transaction ingress. Most wallets and services connect to public full nodes, not directly to every miner. Those nodes relay transactions to many miners, making censorship harder and inclusion more likely.
- They’re independent verifiers for the economy. Exchanges, custodians, merchants, and power users use their own full nodes to verify incoming payments and monetary rules. That’s concrete utility, not symbolism.
- They provide alternate propagation and monitoring. If a miner/pool misconfigures (e.g., mines on headers before full validation), broad validating relay helps isolate and correct it. If private relays fail or censor, public paths remain.