diff --git a/node/p2p/blossomsub.go b/node/p2p/blossomsub.go
index c32dc93..32d3f31 100644
--- a/node/p2p/blossomsub.go
+++ b/node/p2p/blossomsub.go
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ import (
 	rcmgr "github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p/p2p/host/resource-manager"
 	"github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p/p2p/net/connmgr"
 	"github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p/p2p/net/swarm"
+	"github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p/p2p/protocol/ping"
 	"github.com/mr-tron/base58"
 	ma "github.com/multiformats/go-multiaddr"
 	madns "github.com/multiformats/go-multiaddr-dns"
@@ -299,6 +300,8 @@ func NewBlossomSub(
 
 	discoverPeers(p2pConfig, ctx, logger, h, routingDiscovery, true)
 
+	go monitorPeers(ctx, logger, h)
+
 	// TODO: turn into an option flag for console logging, this is too noisy for
 	// default logging behavior
 	var tracer *blossomsub.JSONTracer
@@ -580,6 +583,79 @@ func (b *BlossomSub) GetRandomPeer(bitmask []byte) ([]byte, error) {
 	return []byte(peers[sel.Int64()]), nil
 }
 
+// monitorPeers periodically looks up the peers connected to the host and pings them
+// up to 3 times to ensure they are still reachable. If the peer is not reachable after
+// 3 attempts, the connections to the peer are closed.
+func monitorPeers(ctx context.Context, logger *zap.Logger, h host.Host) {
+	const timeout, period, attempts = time.Minute, time.Minute, 3
+	// Do not allow the pings to dial new connections. Adding new peers is a separate
+	// process and should not be done during the ping process.
+	ctx = network.WithNoDial(ctx, "monitor peers")
+	pingOnce := func(ctx context.Context, logger *zap.Logger, id peer.ID) bool {
+		pingCtx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, timeout)
+		defer cancel()
+		select {
+		case <-ctx.Done():
+		case <-pingCtx.Done():
+			logger.Debug("ping timeout")
+			return false
+		case res := <-ping.Ping(pingCtx, h, id):
+			if res.Error != nil {
+				logger.Debug("ping error", zap.Error(res.Error))
+				return false
+			}
+			logger.Debug("ping success", zap.Duration("rtt", res.RTT))
+		}
+		return true
+	}
+	ping := func(ctx context.Context, logger *zap.Logger, wg *sync.WaitGroup, id peer.ID) {
+		defer wg.Done()
+		var conns []network.Conn
+		for i := 0; i < attempts; i++ {
+			// There are no fine grained semantics in libp2p that would allow us to 'ping via
+			// a specific connection'. We can only ping a peer, which will attempt to open a stream via a connection.
+			// As such, we save a snapshot of the connections that were potentially in use before
+			// the ping, and close them if the ping fails. If new connections occur between the snapshot
+			// and the ping, they will not be closed, and will be pinged in the next iteration.
+			conns = h.Network().ConnsToPeer(id)
+			if pingOnce(ctx, logger, id) {
+				return
+			}
+		}
+		for _, conn := range conns {
+			_ = conn.Close()
+		}
+	}
+	for {
+		select {
+		case <-ctx.Done():
+			return
+		case <-time.After(period):
+			// This is once again a snapshot of the peers at the time of the ping. If new peers
+			// are added between the snapshot and the ping, they will be pinged in the next iteration.
+			peers := h.Network().Peers()
+			connected := make([]peer.ID, 0, len(peers))
+			for _, p := range peers {
+				// The connection status may change both before and after the check. Still, it is better
+				// to focus on pinging only connections which are potentially connected at the moment of the check.
+				switch h.Network().Connectedness(p) {
+				case network.Connected, network.Limited:
+					connected = append(connected, p)
+				}
+			}
+			logger.Debug("pinging connected peers", zap.Int("peer_count", len(connected)))
+			wg := &sync.WaitGroup{}
+			for _, id := range connected {
+				logger := logger.With(zap.String("peer_id", id.String()))
+				wg.Add(1)
+				go ping(ctx, logger, wg, id)
+			}
+			wg.Wait()
+			logger.Debug("pinged connected peers")
+		}
+	}
+}
+
 func initDHT(
 	ctx context.Context,
 	p2pConfig *config.P2PConfig,