INTRODUCTION
The decentralization fever has finally caught up with the data industry after it has been dodging this for so long, the blockchain obviously spares nobody!
Before this, internet access was an uphill task for some developing countries as their GDP could not afford such luxury. Take Nigeria for instance, Nigeria was said to be in the dark age of the internet until almost 2 decades ago when the internet could be accessed in remote cyber cafes. Today an average Nigerian can sit in the comfort of their homes and still have access to the same internet through a cell phone, a desktop or a laptop all connected to an internet service provider (ISP). This demand for data created the market for ISP, who monopolized the data industry by pegging a tariff to data allocated to the users. These ISP companies had much turned out as profits at the expense of the final consumers. But guess what? The story is about to change for the data consumers in Nigeria as they get to discover this lovely decentralized Data Company called Bandz.
WHAT IS BANDZ
Bandz is a project about to be launched on the blockchain with the aim of making internet access affordable, more accessible and cheaper with better data security and privacy. And guess what? You can even transfer/share your data with other interested users. Wow, this sounds so good to be true, doesn’t it?
According to the white paper, bandz is a global P2p extranet project which means that data from one peer node can be transferred to another peer node when the firewall of each internode is bypassed. These nodes will obviously need to be connected to a server/supernode which would happen to be Bandz.
There are a number of peer to peer services which function in this way e.g. Skype, BitTorrent, SMTP(server-server) etc. from this p2p model, some problems were discovered which included
• Discovery and registration
• Security
• Firewall
• Data Optimization
• Asymmetrical bandwidth
But with the bandz p2p extranet model, these problems would not be encountered; it will be a win-win for both the ISP and the final consumers.
THE REVOLUTION OF BANDZ TO INTERNET ACCESS
With bandz on board, ISP would not worry much about the high operation expenditure they usually incur in their budget, these monies could be channeled into the purchase of bandz token which could still be traded as usual to final consumer at a much-reduced tariff as compared to their erstwhile tariff. On the other hand, consumers of heavy data could also choose to buy directly from the bandz company and even trade unwanted data to others in need of data creating room for a constant supply of data. This is a good innovation as a change of location would not affect the availability of data to surf the internet.
THE DECENTRALIZED INTERNET.
Decentralization has come to stay on the blockchain creating room for so many opportunities when data is accessible, affordable and cheap to purchase, much more data would be generated on the internet. This will birth many more open source projects with a decentralized consensus which will make the internet a very useful tool to beckon on in the nearest future. A decentralized internet is less likely to be a single point of failure as it will also generate data for research purposes that would move the present state of mankind to the next level.
BENEFITS OF BANDWITH EXCHANGE.
The Bandz Idea also allows the exchange of bandwidth for a token, this, this is a promising prospect for young uprising entrepreneurs in locations with poor internet access who might want to start up a small internet service providers. This also has benefits to those users who purchase tons of data monthly without getting to exhaust it at the end of the month.
LOCATION IS NOT A BARRIER, NEITHER IS THE INFRASTRUCTURE A STUMBLING BLOCK
Bandz is a p2p extranet, its node was designed to run on windows, android, mac, Linux, ios, this means that once a user runs bandz node on his system, his system can serve as a server for another system to connect to. This is a great innovation because internet access might be restricted due to geographical locality and roaming fees may be expensive for people who do not have any other option, but with bandz, these issues would be long forgotten.
THE MESHWORK IDEA.
The internet coverage may be limited to certain zones of the world.
This schematic diagram shows a forecast of mobile phone users in the Middle East and Africa.
From the diagram, it is obvious that the countries in blue show a 60-100 % coverage of mobile phone users compared to the other countries that are highlighted in yellow, red and black respectively. Many ISP would be making a loss if they want to provide services to the population in these countries.
With the bandz idea, data can be routed through smart devices with bandz nodes providing internet access to these internet deprived territories.
USER CASE 1
I own a mi-fi, which I use to route data to my other devices, it can take up to 20 devices all connected at the same time. My MI-FI device was re-programmed to use any ISP I choose, meaning that I can install bandz on my Mi-fi after purchasing my required data via bandz token and can still choose to share my data with up to 20 interested users (of courses service charges would apply). I can even get to be a mini-ISP when I travel to my village.
USER CASE 2.
@antigenx gets lucky to be selected amongst the ‘team Nigeria’ super eagles supporters club for the Russia 2018 world cup, on getting to Nigeria, he finds out that he cannot access any data services because he cannot understand the Russian language, none of his friends seem to speak Russia, luck shines on him, he spots the bandz on a fellows phone seated in front of him, and he luckily for him, the fellow speaks English. This would be the greatest thing to happen to him because he can use the ‘friend’s phone’ to buy some bandz token and continue his life from where he stopped. Isn’t this amazing?
BANDZ TOKEN
The official currency for the purchase of bandwidth, VPN, and other Bandz related services is called Bandz token, this would be made available for public sale on the 22nd of June 2018.
You know what? Bandz also has some more goodies for you in the form of airdrops, you can check it here.
CONCLUSION.
The Internet paved way for the blockchain, now the blockchain will pave way for the internet.source: white paper
With the introduction of bandz on the blockchain, the internet would be more interesting to surf at a cheaper rate, more accessible and secured form with a greater coverage to less remote places.
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source
Everybody can be a potential ISP.
Bandz has a formidable team made up of erudite gentlemen, worthy of mention are tony Compton (the CFO), Beni Issembert (the CTO), Ivan Svirid (co-founder and CTO).
If you want to know more about this project, their website should be your first point of call
If interested in how fusion works and its technical details, you will find useful information in the Whitepaper
If you love to watch a video about bandz, this YoutubeVideo should come in handy for you.
And if you want to get into contact with them, feel free to visit their Telegram, Reddit , Twitter, Facebook ,and LinkedIn
Here is a video I made about fusion, I hope it answers gives you an insight.
- In case you still have a question about this project, feel free to drop a message and I will try to answer to the best of my knowledge
This is my entry for @originalworks writing contest
bandz2018
Wow it will be a nice development if successfully launched. Am really into the blockchain ish but this is the first time am hearing about this one.. Will do more research on it.. Thanks for sharing.
New things pop up every day, so many new projects on the blockchain, and it gets difficult keeping up with them all
The blockchain is taking over every sector of the world.. This is particularly good for Nigeria..
Nigerians would be a major benefactor
Yeeess ooo omo Naija no dey carry last.
Lol. Thanks for this awesome enlightening post sir
Lol, u are welcome
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