1. In a peer-to-peer network comprising a plurality of nodes, a method of maintaining the peer-to-peer network comprising: instrumenting a set of the plurality of nodes; collecting performance statistics from the set of the plurality of nodes; aggregating the performance statistics to generate a health statistic; comparing the health statistic to a threshold level health statistic; registering at least one new node into the peer-to-peer network when the health statistic is below the threshold; and identifying a slow or failing node in the peer-to-peer network based on the health statistic, and wherein registering the at least one new node comprises registering the at least one new node in a vicinity of the slow or failing node.