diff --git a/internal/p2p/channel.go b/internal/p2p/channel.go
index 2e6e3e070..e0a69a3b2 100644
--- a/internal/p2p/channel.go
+++ b/internal/p2p/channel.go
@@ -1,16 +1,21 @@
 package p2p
 
 import (
+	"bufio"
 	"context"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
+	"io"
 	"sync"
 
 	"github.com/gogo/protobuf/proto"
 	"github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p-core/host"
+	"github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p-core/network"
 	"github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p-core/peer"
+	"github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p-core/protocol"
 	pubsub "github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p-pubsub"
 
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/internal/libs/protoio"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/types"
 )
 
@@ -224,6 +229,7 @@ type libp2pChannelImpl struct {
 	pubsub  *pubsub.PubSub
 	host    host.Host
 	topic   *pubsub.Topic
+	recvCh  chan Envelope
 	chainID string
 	wrapper Wrapper
 }
@@ -233,7 +239,9 @@ func NewLibP2PChannel(chainID string, chDesc *ChannelDescriptor, ps *pubsub.PubS
 		chDesc:  chDesc,
 		pubsub:  ps,
 		host:    h,
-		chainID: chainID}
+		chainID: chainID,
+		recvCh:  make(chan Envelope, chDesc.RecvMessageCapacity),
+	}
 	topic, err := ps.Join(ch.canonicalizedTopicName())
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
@@ -244,9 +252,6 @@ func NewLibP2PChannel(chainID string, chDesc *ChannelDescriptor, ps *pubsub.PubS
 		ch.wrapper = w
 	}
 
-	// TODO(tychoish) register handlers for
-	// request/response patterns
-
 	return ch, nil
 }
 
@@ -259,17 +264,76 @@ func (ch *libp2pChannelImpl) canonicalizedTopicName() string {
 }
 
 func (ch *libp2pChannelImpl) Receive(ctx context.Context) *ChannelIterator {
+	// TODO: consider caching an iterator in the channel, or
+	// erroring if this gets called more than once.
+	//
+	// While it's safe to register a handler more than once, we
+	// could get into a dodgy situation where if you call receive
+	// more  than once, the subsequently messages won't be routed
+	// correctly.
 	iter := &ChannelIterator{
 		pipe: make(chan Envelope),
 	}
 
+	ch.host.SetStreamHandler(protocol.ID(ch.canonicalizedTopicName()), func(stream network.Stream) {
+		// TODO: properly capture the max message size here.
+		reader := protoio.NewDelimitedReader(bufio.NewReader(stream), ch.chDesc.RecvBufferCapacity*2)
+
+		remote := stream.Conn().RemotePeer()
+
+		ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(ctx)
+		defer cancel()
+		go func() { <-ctx.Done(); _ = stream.Close() }()
+
+		for {
+			payload := proto.Clone(ch.chDesc.MessageType)
+
+			if _, err := reader.ReadMsg(payload); err != nil {
+				if errors.Is(err, io.EOF) || errors.Is(err, context.Canceled) || errors.Is(err, context.DeadlineExceeded) {
+					return
+				}
+				// TODO: propagate or capture this error
+			}
+			select {
+			case <-ctx.Done():
+				return
+			case iter.pipe <- Envelope{
+				From:      types.NodeID(remote),
+				Message:   payload,
+				ChannelID: ch.chDesc.ID,
+			}:
+			}
+		}
+	})
+
 	sub, err := ch.topic.Subscribe()
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil
 	}
 
+	wg := &sync.WaitGroup{}
+
+	wg.Add(1)
 	go func() {
-		defer close(iter.pipe)
+		defer wg.Done()
+		for {
+			select {
+			case <-ctx.Done():
+				return
+			case e := <-ch.recvCh:
+				select {
+				case <-ctx.Done():
+					return
+				case iter.pipe <- e:
+					continue
+				}
+			}
+		}
+	}()
+
+	wg.Add(1)
+	go func() {
+		defer wg.Done()
 		for {
 			msg, err := sub.Next(ctx)
 			if err != nil {
@@ -303,7 +367,12 @@ func (ch *libp2pChannelImpl) Receive(ctx context.Context) *ChannelIterator {
 		}
 	}()
 
-	return nil
+	// TODO: this is probably wrong in it's current form: the
+	// handler for point-to-point messages could still end up
+	// trying to send into the pipe after things close.
+	go func() { wg.Wait(); defer close(iter.pipe) }()
+
+	return iter
 }
 
 func (ch *libp2pChannelImpl) Send(ctx context.Context, e Envelope) error {
@@ -326,27 +395,22 @@ func (ch *libp2pChannelImpl) Send(ctx context.Context, e Envelope) error {
 		return ch.topic.Publish(ctx, bz)
 	}
 
-	// TODO: remove this, likely. Checking to see if a topic has a
-	// peer is *probably* right, but maybe it's better to just try
-	// and connect to a peer directly (using whatever method) and
-	// go from there.
-	if !ch.topicHasPeer(peer.ID(e.To)) {
-		return fmt.Errorf("peer %q does not exist", e.To)
-	}
+	switch ch.host.Network().Connectedness(peer.ID(e.To)) {
+	case network.CannotConnect:
+		return fmt.Errorf("cannot connect to %q", e.To)
+	default:
+		// TODO: should we should attempt to reuse between peers?
+		stream, err := ch.host.NewStream(ctx, peer.ID(e.To), protocol.ID(ch.canonicalizedTopicName()))
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
 
-	// TODO: there's likely some tooling that exists for doing
-	// point-to-point messaging that we can leverage here, rather
-	// than implementing directly on-top of libp2p streams.
-	return errors.New("direct messages between peers not supported, yet")
-}
-
-func (ch *libp2pChannelImpl) topicHasPeer(id peer.ID) bool {
-	for _, peer := range ch.pubsub.ListPeers(ch.canonicalizedTopicName()) {
-		if peer == id {
-			return true
+		_, err = stream.Write(bz)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
 		}
 	}
-	return false
+	return nil
 }
 
 func (ch *libp2pChannelImpl) SendError(ctx context.Context, pe PeerError) error {
@@ -354,7 +418,8 @@ func (ch *libp2pChannelImpl) SendError(ctx context.Context, pe PeerError) error
 	// shouldn't be handled as a property of the channel, and
 	// rather as part of some peer-info/network-management
 	// interface, but we can do it here for now, to ensure compatibility.
-	ch.pubsub.BlacklistPeer(peer.ID(pe.NodeID))
-
-	return nil
+	//
+	// Closing the peer is the same behavior as the legacy system,
+	// and seems less drastic than blacklisting the peer forever.
+	return ch.host.Network().ClosePeer(peer.ID(pe.NodeID))
 }