MeshDapp: Blockchain-enabled sustainable business models for networks

Abstract

The digital world demands a network infrastructure to supply connectivity to any participant anywhere. Sustainable networks require balanced value flows. Value is connectivity delivered at a material and service cost to compensate, involving diverse participants, ranging from consumers to providers, such as last mile access, regional transport, Internet carriers, or content providers. We focus on the case of wireless mesh networks that deliver connectivity through access points and a mesh network that routes traffic to Internet gateways, provisioned by several device owners and service operators [1, 2, 3]. The presented work is motivated by the need for balance and automation among services delivered, costs and incentives for participation in these decentralised networks. This balance is key for achieving extensible network infrastructures that can deliver widespread availability of Internet connectivity with minimal barriers of entry.