Mesh ISP aims to bridge the digital divide by building the tools for anyone to deploy an incentivized community wireless mesh network, where contributors can get paid for sharing their internet bandwidth and any user can join the network and pay for the amount of internet bandwidth they want to use. It is ultimately an easily deployable wireless internet sharing economy.
We use special smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain to move many of the functions of a traditional ISP (access and payments) into cryptographically secure code, and combine this with an encrypted mesh routing protocol that can be run on low-cost wireless hardware. This makes it possible for any entrepreneur or community organization to set up an internet network that serves the needs of its users, and helps them compete directly with existing centralized internet service providers. The low wireless infrastructure and management costs, along with open access for competitive uplink providers, will help ensure that the price of access is more affordable for users; network scalability is ensured because individuals or community organizations are incentivized to expand and provide access nodes in dynamic response to the needs of the consumers.
- Introduce Ethereum blockchain and its applications with respect to mesh networks
- Demonstrate ways in which Ethereum smart contracts automate certain functions of a traditional ISP
30 minutes
N/A
Maximum capacity of room
Name: Ethan Wilding
Email: ethan at wilding.io
Twitter: @ethanwilding
Ethan Wilding is a co-founder of Ledger Labs, the leading Canadian blockchain-focussed firm with prominent clients in the Canadian financial services industry and a strong cyber security practice. He has been working in the blockchain space since late 2012, and held a foundational role with the Ethereum project and worked within the Ethereum Foundation intensely during its formative first year.
Ethan is also the Chair of the Certified Bitcoin Professional exam, one of the first not-for-profit programs of its kind in the field of blockchain technologies to establish a standard body of knowledge across industries and applications.
In addition to Ledger Labs, Ethan is working with experts on international affairs and humanitarian organizations to build a blockchain-based incentivized task management and campaign creation system that connects people with ways to support important causes that are practical and have demonstrable impact. The current beta is a pilot project to help offer additional tangible assistance to several dozen Syrian refugee families in Canada who have fled inconceivable violence in their homeland.
In 2010, Ethan earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy and taught philosophy at the Balsille School of International Affairs before leaving academia to focus his full-time efforts on blockchain startups.