The security of any Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) depends on the safety of the network layer. Much effort has been put into understanding the consensus layer of DLTs. However, many network layer designs seem ad-hoc and lack a careful analysis of the influence of the design decisions on the whole DLT system. We propose a salt-based automated neighbor selection protocol that shows the inherent tradeoffs of certain design decisions and allows a quantitative treatment of some network topology requirements. This example may serve as a design framework and facilitate future research. We provide a selection of results from simulations to highlight some tradeoffs in the design decisions.