Question: do only miners perform transactions on the network besides mining blocks or can a node also perform transactions (and reveive gas for it) without mining?
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Question: do only miners perform transactions on the network besides mining blocks or can a node also perform transactions (and reveive gas for it) without mining?
You're missing what "performing transactions" actually means. The blocks are the transactions. Nothing is valid if it's not included in a block that is part of the canonical blockchain. Miners are the ones who assemble blocks from several transactions, and link them to the blockchain.
Things like side-channels are performed off-chain, but are still settled and only valid on-chain. Since they are side-chain, there is no gas or transaction fees (unless that's part of the specific transaction), and mining isn't required until settlement, which is on-chain.