> If mobile phones simply can't be full-fledged clients under the gossip model (and I don't know to what extent that is actually true)
The thought occured to me that maybe this idea that mobile phones can't handle lots of network connections came about due to firebase: google routes all apps through one channel to save battery. But this isn't because multiple connections devastate the battery... it is because multiple connections waking the phone up all the damn time when you are not using the phone devastates the battery. A client that makes many connections while you are using it doesn't seem to me that it would be a significant drain on the battery. The number of words processed is the same whether they all flow through one network connection or they flow through 100 network connections each 100th of the amount (neglecting the overhead which is probably quite significant, but probably a factor of less than 2). I could be completely wrong, but that thought just occured to me.