What is a Mesh Network?

Right now, your data is not the only thing that is being controlled by centralized companies. Your internet usage, including the speed at which you browse and stream ,is being closely controlled as well. Helping them along in this way is the fact that we no longer have “net neutrality.” In other words, the government seems to support big internet providers like Verizon and Comcast over the average consumer. In the most basic sense, one of the biggest movements to oppose this comes from mesh networks.

Overall, mesh networks are decentralized networks of devices that facilitate connections to the internet for their users through their connections with each other. In that way, an easy line of similarity can be drawn between them and the Blockchain. Both are a form of da ecentralized network. Both do not work without enough users to sustain ideal network performance levels.

In a more detailed way, a mesh network goes beyond something like a group of routers that work with each other to eliminate the need for an Internet Service Provider. The Mashable article below explains this well when they place it on the same level as a group of satellites that work together to facilitate connections around the globe. Alone, they are much weaker.

Together, they create a connection that is stronger than anything else, simply due to how many of them there are and how far they reach around the world. The main difference between the example of satellites and mesh networks is that once again, a mesh network is not owned by an organization. On top of all of this, I can say that Mesh Networks already exist and they are not illegal. The internet that I am using right now is a mesh network in the Czech Republic.

In other words, I am a mesh network user and a mesh network provider.

It works because it has just enough users so that we can facilitate an adequate internet connection for each other. While I am not an expert on the subject, I can confidently say that it is fairly fast compared to the average internet speeds I have experienced through centralized providers. According to Mashable, such a network exists in New York as well. Through this example and my own, we can also see that an issue might then arise from community owned internet networks. How do companies get the bandwidth, i.e., the overall data that they need to operate?

In the end, for now, it appears to come from community representatives renting it from data centers that are not directly affiliated with Internet Service Providers. Therefore, running efficiently is really only a matter of having enough capital from community members to do so. In the case of the Czech network I use, everything, including what to pay monthly, is voted on by the community.

What might be more of a problem is how to make this type of network more widespread or just long distance. Doing so seems to involve a fair amount of creativity on the part of the community in terms of getting access to long range antennas that can be placed as high as possible to extend signals. On top of this, mesh networks still need access to data centers.

Still, truly scaling such a network is a possibility, if the community has the right amount of capital and the right knowledge of the technology to make it happen. In the end, this means that any success that a mesh network will have will depend on network effects, i.e., capitalizing on them in the best possible way. Helping all of this along are the strides being made in infrastructure related projects in these areas.

That is where the potential of projects like Skycoin come in, which we will mention in upcoming pieces, chiefly due to its potential implications for the future of the Artificial Intelligence industry.

Stay tuned.