Overview
In UCS every wallet is also a node. Nodes keep the network secure by verifying the tangle and all related data. They check if data in the tangle is compliant and matching the protocol rules. There are 2 different main types of nodes: full and light. Both type of nodes use the same version of the wallet, but with different configurational settings in control/config.conf resulting in different behaviour in view of the data being consumed.
Full Nodes
Full nodes do a full validation of the tangle. Full nodes check if data in the tangle is compliant and matching the protocol rules and process all transactions and confirm them.
Dedicated control/config.conf settings for Full Nodes:
only_process_depend=0
delete_trx_not_indexed=1
Full Archival Nodes
Full archival nodes also check if data in the tangle is compliant and matching the protocol rules but they don’t delete any of the downloaded transactions (blocks) if they aren’t indexed by the sender thus resembling a archival node.
Dedicated control/config.conf settings for Full Archival Nodes:
only_process_depend=0
delete_trx_not_indexed=0
Light Nodes
Light nodes do a full check if data in the tangle is compliant and matching the protocol rules, but will only confirm transactions from users and to users on whom they depend.
Dedicated control/config.conf settings for Light Nodes:
only_process_depend=1
delete_trx_not_indexed=1
Light Archival Nodes (default installation type)
Light Archival Nodes also do a full check if data in the tangle is compliant and matching the protocol rules, but will only confirm transactions from users and to users on whom they depend. They don’t delete any of the downloaded transactions (blocks) if they aren’t indexed by the sender
Dedicated control/config.conf settings for Light Archival Nodes:
only_process_depend=1
delete_trx_not_indexed=0
Light Archival Node is the default set up when you install ucs_client.sh. Please modify control/config.conf accordingly if you want to run a different type of node other than Light Archival.