The Internet has succeeded in swallowing all other existing media – books, periodicals, audio and video calls, data share, money transfer and other less common applications. During the initial bloom and wide distribution, the global network was able to outplay other competitors due to unlimited features and options, the biggest set of advantages and, generally, because of the ability to share any kind of information without control, censorship and the risk of punishment. On the one hand this kind of freedom is the desired level of democracy, but on the other - a source of crime, violations, abuse that transfer into real world as sufferings, pain and tragedies. The good intentions from governments and authorities to establish control are determinately working towards destroying of a fragile balance valuable for the Internet users.
A group of developers are aiming to revolutionize the existing situation in the same manner as Satoshi Nakamoto was able to change the financial and economic world. The idea is to form an even more independent network of machines to spread information excluding all possible barriers and hurdles. The name of the invention is BitCloud and sometimes it is also called a decentralized Internet. As of the cryptocurrency, the basic principle “proof-of-work” has been kept, but slightly transformed to fit as “proof-of-bandwidth”.
The operation seems very easy to understand – the nodes of the network are computers of users, who are willing to participate and to transfer particular data and amounts. It means that every individual on this alternative network performs tasks of his peers located elsewhere - routing, storage, lookups or computation. The stimuli of the activity are small payments for a completed deed or its part. The payment is done in CloudCoin, which are not mined, but extracted in the operation routine describes before. The reward is computed by an algorithm taking in account the activity, amounts of data and other parameters crucial for continuous operation.
Although the basic rules are already announced, it does not mean that they are not going to undergo reviewing and optimization. Collected experience will definitely determine possible faults and offer natural solutions that will be integrated in the protocol. Of course, it is hard to oversee that aforesaid has been created on the basics of the Bitcoin protocol. The open-source character does not prohibit the entrance of active developers and enthusiasts, the current group even announced acceptance of any kind of help, advice or meaning.
The pioneers, who describe the system as an experiment, see two advantages of the new network. The fact that it is unmoderated seems to be double-faced, as any instrument offered to the sinful nature of the human. Still, there will be no way to trace back the source and the nodes participating in transfer of a block of information. The press release says:
“In addition to the option to have publishers pick what can be stored on their servers, nodes will also be able to choose to host unmoderated content… The data will be sent through a variety of different nodes in a manner similar to Tor.”
The second attraction of new users is payments. Both aspects have to provide the opportunity to create new analogue, but higher-developed social networks, video host platforms and other modern forms of media.
Finally, in the official statement the developers add:
“There are definitely many other applications for Bitcloud that we haven't thought about yet. If you have any ideas, don't hesitate to contact us.”
Dear readers do not hesitate to contact us at Cointelegraph, too. We would appreciate to see interesting comments and opinions, also alternative users of BitCloud after this article.