Peer Network

I’ve been able to find little information regarding the Stacks peer network, though I do think it is a critical aspect of the Stacks design. It enables a standardized way for name resolution to occur that doesn’t require every name to be stored on chain, just the hashes of the files, which store the name resolution information. These zone files can store many id to user info mappings and can be constructed hierarchically and can be managed by hierarchically established Smart Contracts. It seems that the availability of the peer network is assumed and it is assumed that it will always be provided. I heard in the NEAR video that if the peer network were to be disbanded then all of the naming system information would be lost; therefore, I believe it is critical that this peer network be available but also fault tolerant.

Who are the actors that play a role in this peer network and why are they incentivized to perform name resolution to users? Are users going to have to pay for names to be resolved? How do I know this peer network won’t go down all of a sudden?

Hi, this post I found provides some insight into my original question. However I would appreciate more details regarding the incentives that full nodes have to participate in the peer network. Also, what information can be stored by the full nodes in the peer network? Is it just limited to the blockchain and zonefiles or can other smart contracts store state on the peer full node network?