This might sound familiar for those who have heard about Skype Wi-Fi. BitMesh is a platform that allows people to monetize their internet connection or bandwidth. They can share their internet connection in exchange for bitcoin with the users of shared connection.
The working prototype developed by the company uses raspberry pi for BitMesh server. In order to start using the BitMesh service, users have to setup the server and connect clients to it. Clients can pay for bandwidth with bitcoin over BitMesh’s bitcoin micropayment channel.
BitMesh’s bitcoin payment technology enables clients to pay for the bandwidth in advance. Once connected to the BitMesh server, the server keeps track of bandwidth usage and connects with the micropayment technology to provide information about the remaining and consumed bandwidth so far.
Being still in prototype stage, we can expect BitMesh to become user friendly for both ends of the spectrum — ones who want to share the internet and those who would like to use the shared internet.
Founded by Andrew Donley, Chris Smith and Chris Lunoe, the idea for BitMesh stemmed from the meshnet they had set up in their office on a weekend. The weekend activity tuned into a bigger project after they decided to have the whole downtown Santa Cruz on a meshnet and found bitcoin based incentive system to be ideal for the purpose.
BitMesh service provides an attractive options to those who pay a lot for their internet connection without being able to resell it. By contributing their internet over BitWise, they can save some money and make lives easier for other people out there to stay connected with the world.
Once BitMesh is adopted widely, people without data connection on their phones can depend completely on BitMesh shared Wi-Fi service for flawless connection.