By today, at the very hour you're reading this, some internet service consumers all around the globe have come to the realization that they will not be able to "consume" their available bandwidth before being retracted by their Internet Service Provider (ISP) and some other internet consumers somewhere, at this same hour, are either charged to their necks for this same services or don't have access to it at all.
These are some of the pitfalls of the internet we have today; a centralized one. The few major ISPs in our regions completely dominates the gates to the internet handling each one of us with the fierce sword of monoply and only dealing lightly with the big shots and well-to-do's. Not only have they chosen profits of their businesses over giving power or full control of bandwidths to users, they have also left network chasm between geographic locations unbridged leaving the highly expensive roaming as the only option if the user does not find a free WiFi or does not desire subscribing to a local plan.
However, we should not be quick to blame existing ISPs though, as this is the way the centralization of the internet has caused it to be, in addition to the fact that ISPs needs to generate enough funds to meet Operational Expenditures (OpEx). Decentralization of the internet on the other hand, can put an end to majority of these problems.
But how would a decentralized internet be any different?, How will it improve user experience and solve the above cited problems... you may ask.
A decentralized internet would mean that everyone could be an ISP. This implies that every user with internet acess can provide internet services too. By this, you can imagine the user talked about whose bandwidth is almost being retracted, trading or renting what's left at an affordable price to the other user who is heavily charged by his own ISP. Also, with a lot internet users being able to provide high class services, the market monopoly will be eliminated and bridge the chasm of network access between regions. It is guaranteed that all these services will be at an affordable cost because the OpEx split among a large amount of ISPs will be grossly reduced.
This style of internet is not years away neither is it months away, It is here already. This style of internet goes by the name BandZ.
BandZ is a blockchain powered internet which decentralizes internet access and control of services by creating a secure and transparent global extranet. Based on this security and transparency that the blockchain technology offers, BandZ creates a marketplace where bandwith can easily be converted to currency - BandZ token. In fact, the name BandZ was derived from bandwith. Most importantly, BandZ helps today's internet eliminate all the problems associated with centralization, making connectivity affordable and accessible.
In addition to IP and bandwidth, BandZ allows users to monetize their digital assets too by integrating their existing apps with the BandZ Software Development Kit (SDK) and this makes the ISP industry a market for the BandZ protocol. The crypto-community will also be a market because the BandZ token is a utility token and it is completely free from SEC regulations and hence will be an opportunity for viral circulation of coins and tokens.
BandZ aims to treat every user as an intranet who has full control over their own private network and can grant permission to for others to asses this network hence behaving like an extranet while keeping all confidential applications safe and secure. Anyone can participate on the BandZ network either as a provider or a consumer by simply running BandZ nodes which can forward both TCP traffic and UDP on their device (windows, mac, linux, ios, android or arm devices). Consumers also have the choice of joining a BandZ pool. Connection to the BandZ node may be done via basic proxy protocols Sock5 or HTTP.
BandZ is a change of style of the internet which enhances the functions of the centralized one and adds more functionalities. Some of these functionalities include, but not limited to; new P2P file transfer systems, mesh networks, rotating proxies, P2P bandwidth marketplace.
BandZ makes everyone the provider of everyone's internet mainly through the provision of bandwidths. BandZ enables a marketplace to easily monetize this consumable commodity. In recognition of the susceptibility of bad performances due to demand and supply misalignments, BandZ puts in place a helper algorithm that notifies providers to make available these excess resources. By cutting off intermediaries in all the processes, BandZ will grossly reduce the cost of bandwidth acquisition and consumption.
With participating users running BandZ nodes on their devices, BandZ creates a direct and non-hierarchical connection between devices allowing for cooperation to route data to and from clients. This eliminates reliance on one node which will require a high maintenance cost. These networks created by BandZ also self-configures and redistributes load in cases of failure, making it dynamic and fault tolerant too.
Image Source : BandZ Whitepaper
Benefits of networks like these include low maintenance costs for the providers, a service-failure-tolerant network, reduced operational costs arising from the eliminated intermediaries, redistribution of wealth as services rendered are not from big enterprises alone but small enterprises enabled by BandZ. The collaboration of ISPs BandZ enables through networks like these bridges the network chasm earlier mentioned and also helps improve user experience.
Rotating proxies contrary to VPNs, rotates the user identity evenly over a list of IP addresses. VPNs just provide users with an alternate address. BandZ uses rotating proxies because there is less chance of any of the addresses getting recognized and banned by web-servers. You just may see rotating proxies as a form of decentralized VPN.
Image Source : BandZ Whitepaper
The BandZ token powers the BandZ network with its utility ranging from purchasing bandwidths to payment to providers for gateways. It is based tentatively on the Aeternity protocol built on Ethereum and It is a utility token because it does not store value and can only be used within the network. There's no HODLing it for value appreciation.
The token private sale will commence 22nd June, 2018.
To show that the company has nothing to hide and is committed to really solving these problems of the internet transparently, they make available information about the location of their head office which is Toronto, Ontario. They are also registered under the laws of canada and are governed by Canadian regulations to ensure accountability.
Checking my bandwith today, I realise that there is no way I can consume it before the expiry date. Remembering BandZ, I visit the P2P bandwith marketplace and trade part of it. I am paid in BandZ token which I can use to buy from another user on the marketplace.
Image Source : BandZ Whitepaper
BandZ was designed on the blockchain technology. Inheriting all the advantages of decentralization, scalability and interoperability, it aims to treat everyone as an intranet and scale it to a global extranet eliminating problems of accessibility and affordability that was associated with centralized ISPs and incentivizing rapid user adoption.
This is an official entry for the Originalworks.
bandz2018.
