First, currency started to become decentralized; now there are plans for internet to be given such honor.
Project’s name at this point is Bitcloud. The idea came from Bitcoin the only difference is that here instead of mining coins a user would pay for the internet with network output that he gives, so the problems of control, censorship and any other means of preventing the free flow of information would not be an issue.
The obligations of a single user will also include routing, storing and providing bandwidth.
What’s also interesting is the ambition of project’s founders – delocalizing the current internet is only the beginning as it is not their final goal. The central idea of the Bitcloud is to create Internet 2.0 with all the consequences of that.
The reward of the users contributing the bandwidth to network will probably be paid in Cloudcoin – another species of digital currency.
This idea of a new World Wide Web independent from internet providers, which can be easily shut down by the government officials is quite alluring in a way. Although, there will be some considerations and the ethics are not playing the last part in this.
Firstly, the absolute freedom of speech is a two-edged sword. The people in power are not able to shut the freedom fighters up, so on one hand a more democratic society could be built on this foundation, with government apparatus serving as helping hand not a choking one. One the other hand though, this data anarchy could lead to much grimier consequences. I am not even close to imagining how filthy this network could potentially become with people not answering for what they say or share.
Nevertheless, at this stage it’s too early to draw any future for the thing. And by this stage I mean “brainstorming searching-for-developers we-want-your-opinion” stage. So it doesn’t look like we will have an alternative to the dump we turned Internet into any time soon.
If you are interested in the making of new network, you could read the founder team’s statement and maybe one day we will watch videos on “wetube” and send messages over the “facecloud”.