Roam: Web3’s People-Powered Solution to WiFi Accessibility
Although WiFi has in recent years swept the globe as the most convenient channel for internet access, reliable connectivity, especially while outside of the home, has remained out of reach for many. This limitation greatly reduces the utility and accessibility of the internet as, for many, cellular data does not provide a good alternative due to its high costs.
Before discussing MetaBlox’s revolutionary solution to the problem of public WiFi accessibility/deployment, we’ll examine why the issue has persisted thus far.
What’s in the Way of Accessible + Widespread Public WiFi?
Gatekeeping by major ISPs has prevented the deployment of widespread and accessible public WiFi networks.
Since ISPs’ traditional business model inherently relies on competing WiFi infrastructures, different public networks remain non interoperable, limiting their scale and accessibility.
As a result, WiFi services as widespread and accessible as cellular calling and texting services remain out of reach. Users who wish to use the internet while outside of the home without paying for data must either find a network provided by their specific ISP, or find an open network provided by a business, which (latter option) entails its own challenges.
Even with a saturation of such open networks, users will still not be able to enjoy network interoperability since different providers that set up networks for different businesses typically leave them unintegrated. Even those open networks provided by the same ISPs are often non-interoperable, so users must log in manually every time they visit any new WiFi location.
These connectivity issues have restricted the benefits of WiFi, as well as who has access to it and where.
The Solutions: Web3 + WiFi OpenRoaming Technologies
A combination of wireless roaming-style network integration and Web3 technology is needed to overcome the barriers to public WiFi deployment mentioned above. We’ll examine either part of this solution separately before discussing how they work together to achieve a model for accessible, seamless, and global public WiFi.
Web3 Tech
The competitive, subscription-based business model of traditional ISPs assumes that customers are simply paying for a service, with a one-way exchange of that service for their money.
However, as Web3 has shown, internet users themselves create value, and thanks to tokenomics, this value can be earned and held by those users as digital assets, or tokens.
For instance, you can now earn tokens for making social media posts, playing online games, and using AI chatbots. This development has enabled a new type of WiFi deployment model that doesn’t rely on network gatekeeping and competition between ISPs. To explain how, we need to discuss how Web3 tokenomics can be used to deploy WiFi networks.
Tokenomics Explained
Users who participate in blockchain networks earn monetizable tokens for performing on-chain actions that help maintain the network or facilitate its particular features/functionality.
While blockchains are used to hold and mint cryptocurrencies, they can also be used for other data exchange and computing purposes such as file storage, cryptocurrency conversions/purchases, running machine learning programs, and building any given type of network or database that typically relies on a centralized server. This includes WiFi networks.
Token-Incentivized Wireless Networks
Node operators for blockchain-built wireless networks such as WiFi must run the hardware needed to allow wireless devices to communicate, and this hardware must also be linked to a foundational blockchain that processes the relevant data for the given wireless network.
In return, individuals who host the foundation blockchain miners or the wireless network hardware interacting with them collect tokens capturing the value of the wireless network. Since these tokens incentivize individuals to deploy the necessary network infrastructure themselves, these digital assets enable a decentralized, crowd-sourced network deployment model.
The industry map below shows some of the different types of wireless networks built upon blockchain networks:
People-Powered WiFi
The deployment method described above empowers individuals to build their own WiFi network while earning ongoing rewards in return. The nodes used to maintain the blockchain network on which this type of WiFi network would be built would function as its foundational infrastructure, while the routers providing access WiFi would function as secondary nodes constantly sending data for final verification to the foundational blockchain.
This architecture also creates a fully decentralized WiFi login process where users’ credentials are not stored on or verified by any central server, eliminating the need for a third-party authenticator provided by an ISP.
And since all node operators involved get more rewards the more traffic is on the underlying blockchain network, this model does not discourage the integration of networks, or encourage local WiFi networks/hosts to compete against each other by keeping their networks private. Instead, this model encourages network integration because the resulting service enhancement would likely result in more traffic, and thus more tokens for hosts.
WiFi OpenRoaming
While the token-incentivized deployment model outlined above addresses the issue of WiFi gatekeeping by competing ISPs, it does not fully resolve the more general technological problem of network interoperability.
Even those networks provided by the same ISP must often be logged into separately, so users driving a car or walking down the street still lose service because their devices can’t switch networks seamlessly.
What’s required to overcome this issue is the mass integration of all public WiFi networks under the OpenRoaming framework.
OpenRoaming technology provides a secure way to integrate local networks so that users need not enter login information each time they switch networks/locations. Instead, users only have to login (to OpenRoaming) once, and they subsequently switch locations automatically, regardless of how far apart the access network in question are.
Web3 OpenRoaming
MetaBlox’s suite of technologies enables the large-scale deployment of public, OpenRoaming WiFi that’s built on blockchain and deployed through token-incentivization.
Every router providing OpenRoaming WiFi access as part of MetaBlox’s global network earns ongoing rewards for its host: they issue mPoints that will become convertible to ROAM tokens after the project’s token listing in 2024. The more WiFi connections a MetaBlox router establishes, the more points it earns. While hosts can add their existing router/local network to MetaBlox, MetaBlox’s dedicated WiFi miners earn the most points while also providing OpenRoaming connections.
MetaBlox’s OpenRoaming network is, moreover, a part of the Wireless Broadband Alliance’s OpenRoaming federation, which includes over 3 million integrated local networks worldwide. That means MetaBlox users can roam seamlessly across millions of hotspots.
How to Access Global Decentralized OpenRoaming
To access OpenRoaming WiFi with MetaBlox, simply download the free MetaBlox app, which includes a helpful map that lets users find hotspots easily.
User-End Token Incentives
From the app, MetaBlox WiFi users can also earn mPoints: each time a user connects to a new network integrated with MetaBlox OpenRoaming, they will be able to ‘check-in’ to that network for mPoints at the push of a button. This action, while simple for the user, plays the crucial role of validating the network.
In Conclusion
While reliable public WiFi has remained inaccessible for far too long, Web3 and OpenRoaming technologies offer internet users a new vision for wireless networks that can finally overcome this problem; a vision based on decentralization and cooperation rather than centralization, competition, and network gatekeeping. With MetaBlox, low-cost, secure, and widespread WiFi roaming is on the horizon- Web3-style.
To find out more about its people-powered WiFi network, visit MetaBlox’s social media and communities channels!
