How Blockchain Technology is Creating the New Internet

Blockchain Technology and How It's Enabling the Decentralized Internet

(And why it's essential)

Bitcoin gets all the attention in the news and throughout the media. This would not be possible without the technology it is built on.

This is, in fact, the more important aspect of the entire cryptocurrency world as, without this technology, none of the cryptocurrencies could exist.

Blockchain Backbone

This is the hot technology of the moment, and it is changing more than only payment systems. The Blockchain can alter many industries. It also has the potential to revolutionize the internet and how we use it today.

It was always the case one coin would make its way to the top. BTC is this coin, and over time it could become a victim of its own success. It has paved the way for insight as much as anything else of what can be achieved.

A new internet could be a welcome change for a couple of reasons. One is the amount of personal data that is kept and scrutinized by either government who wish to monitor all internet usage, or from ISP’s who might take the net neutrality repeal and use it for their own advantage.

A “New” Internet

By any stretch of the imagination, building a new internet appears to be impossible. With the power of the Blockchain and several companies who have taken a close look at the problems mentioned are creating solutions which can only benefit the end user.

It is these users at the end of the day who fund the entire operation through subscription fees.

A decentralized internet is an answer to many of the problems. A prime example of a company who is making waves is Maidsafe. They have the SAFE Network which aims to provide security, freedom, and privacy to any internet user.

Their SAFE Network uses their own coin to provide value and incentives for the operation of their system. Every user with a device becomes a participant who provides resources back to the network.

Once in operation, all information is encrypted and scattered around the network. When a user requests this data, it can be accessed from wherever it is stored. As there is no one point, there is full redundancy built in, and the network will never be down.

Although this helps a great deal with the decentralization of the internet among the other benefits, it still operates across the infrastructure which the large ISP's ownership and control.

Bypassing ISP’s

To fully decentralize the internet, it would mean taking away any connections users have with the ISP's.

The Skywire mesh-network is entirely Peer-to-peer and passes information through many scattered nodes before it reaches its destination.

This tunneling acts like one colossal VPN service but for every user. All communications become secure, and connections grow faster with more users are on the network.

Skycoin is the token associated with this third-generation mesh-network and is used for end users to pay for their internet connections.

The incentive is also offered to the miners who pass bandwidth and data from the energy efficient Skywire mining rigs.

This varies from the very expensive to run BTC mining rigs, and users only pay for the bandwidth they have used.

Why it is all Important?

From the very beginning, the internet was intended to be a free resource to anyone who has access. It is unfortunate that specific demographics of individuals feel the need to change this.

To a certain extent a government has the right to protect its citizens, however, recording all conversations or browsing history isn’t the better way of performing their duty.

Much can be said the same of the ISP’s who used to offer the same service levels to all users and to all businesses. Now they can pick and choose how they want to operate their portion of the internet.

Any ISP can take a dislike to a significant company. Facebook is a perfect example. An ISP can impose rates for bandwidth used by Facebook which could possibly turn a free service into a subscription-based model.

If they wished to take it a step further, they could restrict or prevent Facebook from operating on their network.

If you add in the more persistent threats of data identity theft or the hacking of bank accounts. It is easy to see why something has to change in the way everyone uses and accesses the internet.

The Blockchain itself has a mammoth task on its hands, and it doesn’t matter which cryptocurrency is in operation. All of them operate on a Blockchain. It is a robust technology, and it is here to stay.

There is no doubt about that. The coin which adds value can be harder to explain, and the most likely answer is the one who is behind the service end users desire the most.