diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 194b57a..0f4be4c 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -2236,6 +2236,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "futures-core",
  "pin-project-lite",
  "tokio",
+ "tokio-util",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 53bdb21..f202878 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ rand = "0.8.5"
 salvo = { version = "0.70.0", features = ["affix"] }
 tabled = "0.16.0"
 tokio = { version = "1.39.2", features = ["macros"] }
-tokio-stream = { version = "0.1.15" }
+tokio-stream = { version = "0.1.15", features = ["sync"] }
 tonic = "0.12.1"
 
 [build-dependencies]
diff --git a/src/datastore.rs b/src/datastore.rs
index 5d4e7c6..6b5acbb 100644
--- a/src/datastore.rs
+++ b/src/datastore.rs
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ impl Store {
         }
     }
 
-    // returns old pubkey if node got updated
+    /// returns old pubkey if node got updated
     async fn update_node(&self, ip: String, info: NodeInfo) -> Option<VerifyingKey> {
         let mut nodes = self.nodes.lock().await;
         match nodes.insert(ip, info.clone()) {
@@ -230,4 +230,27 @@ impl Store {
             })
             .collect()
     }
+
+    /// you can specify the online argument to get only nodes that are online
+    pub async fn get_random_nodes(&self, online: bool) -> Vec<String> {
+        use rand::rngs::OsRng;
+        use rand::RngCore;
+        let nodes = self.nodes.lock().await;
+        let len = nodes.len();
+        let skip = OsRng.next_u64().try_into().unwrap_or(0) % len;
+        let mut iter = nodes.iter().cycle().skip(skip);
+        let mut random_nodes = vec![];
+        let mut count = 0;
+        let mut iterations = 0;
+        while count < 3 && iterations < len {
+            if let Some((ip, info)) = iter.next() {
+                if online || info.online {
+                    random_nodes.push(ip.clone());
+                    count -= 1;
+                }
+                iterations += 1;
+            }
+        }
+        random_nodes
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/grpc/client.rs b/src/grpc/client.rs
index e69de29..15fc38c 100644
--- a/src/grpc/client.rs
+++ b/src/grpc/client.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+#![allow(dead_code)]
+use super::challenge::NodeUpdate;
+use crate::datastore::Store;
+use crate::grpc::challenge::update_client::UpdateClient;
+use std::sync::Arc;
+use std::thread::JoinHandle;
+use tokio::sync::broadcast::Sender;
+use tokio::task::JoinSet;
+use tokio_stream::wrappers::BroadcastStream;
+use tokio_stream::StreamExt;
+
+struct Connection {
+    ds: Arc<Store>,
+    tx: Sender<NodeUpdate>,
+}
+
+#[derive(Clone)]
+struct ConnManager {
+    ds: Arc<Store>,
+    tx: Sender<NodeUpdate>,
+}
+
+impl ConnManager {
+    fn init(ds: Arc<Store>, tx: Sender<NodeUpdate>) -> Self {
+        Self { ds, tx }
+    }
+
+    async fn connect(self, node_ip: String) {
+        let mut client = UpdateClient::connect(format!("http://{node_ip}:50051"))
+            .await
+            .unwrap();
+
+        let rx = self.tx.subscribe();
+        let rx_stream = BroadcastStream::new(rx).filter_map(|n| n.ok());
+        let response = client.get_updates(rx_stream).await.unwrap();
+        let mut resp_stream = response.into_inner();
+
+        while let Some(update) = resp_stream.message().await.unwrap() {
+            if self.ds.process_grpc_update(update.clone()).await {
+                if let Err(_) = self.tx.send(update.clone()) {
+                    println!("tokio broadcast receivers had an issue consuming the channel");
+                }
+            };
+        }
+
+    }
+}
+
+fn init_connections(ds: Arc<Store>, tx: Sender<NodeUpdate>) -> JoinHandle<()> {
+    std::thread::spawn(move || {
+        tokio::runtime::Runtime::new().unwrap().block_on(async {
+            let mut only_online_nodes = true;
+            loop {
+                let mut set = JoinSet::new();
+                let nodes = ds.get_random_nodes(only_online_nodes).await;
+                for node in nodes {
+                    let conn = ConnManager::init(ds.clone(), tx.clone());
+                    set.spawn(conn.connect(node));
+                }
+                while let Some(_) = set.join_next().await {}
+                only_online_nodes = !only_online_nodes;
+            }
+        });
+    })
+}