Mesh Network — Web 3.0?

The repeal of Obama-era net neutrality laws has folks looking for ways to connect to the internet other than relying on the nation’s powerful service providers.

What is Net Neutrality?

Net neutrality is a term used to describe a set of regulations that ensure all information flowing over the internet is treated equally. It means companies cannot block websites or offer certain companies faster loading speeds for money. For example, internet services providers like Verizon and Comcast are currently prohibited from charging you more money to visit sites such as Netflix and Youtube.

Without net neutrality protections, big telecom companies can choose to slow down or block certain sites. If you want to watch Netflix, for example, Comcast could decide to charge you more to access it. A community-run “mesh” network, by contrast, takes back control from corporations: Everyone on the network can agree to keep all content open. When a system is fully running, the people who use it can cancel their contract with a traditional internet service provider and stop paying any monthly bills.

The Debate:

ISPs (Internet Service Provider) are mostly worried about sites generating lots of traffic. All of cryptocurrency does not represent much traffic or data on the internet.

For this reason, given how the technology is structured, the repeal of net neutrality is unlikely to inhibit or change the face of cryptocurrency. But what the net neutrality repeal could do is open up the possibility of new business models that use cryptocurrencies to pay for traffic, such as having a blockchain layer built into how Internet traffic gets routed.

To an ISP , blockchain traffic looks like a random computer connected to another random computer sending encrypted data. There is no direct way to distinguish cryptocurrency traffic from any other encrypted, peer-to-peer traffic across the internet, such as the traffic coming through BitTorrent.

In contrast, most traffic on the internet travels on client-server architecture to known servers, which makes it possible for ISPs to identify what it is — and slow it down. For instance, ISPs can see traffic coming out of Netflix, and the companies that own the internet’s backbones can see if it is coming over the Netflix servers. If they choose, they can throttle that traffic or build a business model around it, for example, charging a higher rate for that particular traffic.

It is possible for ISPs to set a price point for all peer-to-peer traffic that would change the cost of a user’s internet connection. But it would be prohibitively difficult for ISPs to stop users from participating in peer-to-peer traffic without shutting down all of it, which would cripple the internet. Much of peer-to-peer traffic is not registered servers. Anyone who uses computers outside of a standard client-server architecture, such as most developers, wouldn’t be able to do their work.

Mesh Network

In Manhattan, NYC Mesh put a large antenna on top of a building connected directly to the internet through fiber optic cable. This “supernode,” supported by a network of point-to-point routers that volunteers install on rooftops and windows in the area, provides a fast connection for users in most of downtown. A second supernode is in place in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick, and two more are planned.

Unlike big telecom companies, which rely solely on a small number of these expensive relay points, a mesh network can route internet from house to house. Having a dense network of participants can keep the bandwidth high and makes the network resilient. But building a comprehensive network is also difficult.

To start, those who want to be a part of People’s Open Network can buy a cheap, off-the-shelf dual-band router that the group has programmed with open-source mesh software. Once plugged in, it works as both a wireless hotspot and a router. If it’s in range of another router on the mesh network, it automatically connects. But until the network is big enough, people are using the routers differently–continuing to pay a traditional internet service provider, and sharing a little of their bandwidth with others in range. If a volunteer wants to take the next step, they can install an “extender” node on their roof or in a window, pointed at another node in the network.

If it can succeed in the U.S., mesh networks could help avoid the problems that come with traditional internet service providers; participants can sign agreements to uphold net neutrality. People’s Open Network others are working on a network commons license that the group plans to adopt next year.

The mesh could also eventually replace cell service providers, using hardware built to a new LTE standard that allows anyone to create their own cellular base stations.

Web 3.0:

If the idea of having to pay to run applications as one does on Ethereum seems concerning at first, consider the notion that using the internet today is largely already not “free.” Most of the applications we use are collecting and monetizing our data. Far from being free, value is flowing between software companies, advertisers and shareholders. Users are simply not participants in that money flow, neither paying to run applications nor being paid.

But that could change. On Ethereum-based applications, users will log in and browse with a self-sovereign identity provider (like ConsenSys is building with uPort). This means the user controls all the data connected to her identity, rather than a third party seeing, storing and selling it to advertisers. The user can choose to sell information, such as browsing history, to advertisers or other external parties. She can negotiate rates on her own behalf and decide granularly which pieces of information to exchange. Simply put, while people pay to use Ethereum-based applications, they could also get paid by them to use the internet. The value can flow both ways.

Concurrent with this conversation in the U.S. political arena, another conversation has emerged in the technology space. It’s about a user-centric, Ethereum-powered Web 3.0 — and it’s picking up speed.

Ethereum offers us a model for how a metered internet could work in a way that would be beneficial to users. That approach could be extended to Ethereum-powered applications on the public network. Under that scenario, a user would pay a generally small fee to run her applications, which would be automatically metered based on usage.