Bandz: Making the Internet connectivity affordable and tradeable
Brandz= Bandwidth
Bandwidth is a measure of data.
Why do we need data?
The amount of data we have decides how much internet we can use.
So what does internet mean to you?
Without the internet I am like a person without eyes and ears. I am unable to see and hear.
This is just the feeling I got on a recent trip to London.
Internet is my way of getting access to knowledge and navigation. As I discovered that without the internet I could not the read the maps on my mobile phone.
I had all the technology like a navigation app sitting idle on my mobile phone yet without connectivity to the internet it was of little use.
Internet is also the lifeline through which I connect back to my office by logging in to the office extranet.
That also lets me check my mails remain connected via WhatsApp and make VOIP calls saving money as compared to expensive long distance calls.
To summarize internet is like an extension of my senses without which the normal functionality is hampered. It is practically impossible to survive without the internet.
The world is a Jungle out there and internet help me navigate it to find my way and find food entertainment and everything which is happening around me or in another part of the world.
So what was the cost of this survival?
I was paying 10 pounds for 2 GB of data. A lot of money I must say yet it was the only way to survive.
The irony of the situation was that back home I had a couple of different internet connections most of them give me unlimited data access for a fixed monthly fee. So all data went waste as I had already paid for it as a monthly fee yet there was no way I could put it to use.
When I left London I still had about 1.5 GB of unused data which got wasted as I flew out of U.K into another geographical location.
Yes it was the best option for me price wise as
The roaming charges are exorbitant
The free data Hotspots are not to be found everywhere and relying on them results in a sketchy connectivity.
So what is a possible solution
The solution is Bandz
This is a model where the blockchain powers the internet and creates a Peer to peer extranet (P2P) to make the availability of internet to be
i)cheaper and
ii)readily available in areas where there is no or scanty coverage
iii) A user is able to sell his spare internet bandwidth and make some money in return
iv) A user also saves money while on roaming
The Idea is to use the Bandz tokens to buy and sell cheap, reliable, easily available and a good quality internet connection anywhere and everywhere.
This would happen by giving each consumer the ability to sell their spare internet bandwidth and buy it when needed.
To create a viable exchange mechanism the Bandz tokens would be created. They would you be used as the currency of exchange.
Thus when you sell your speed internet bandwidth you get paid inBandz tokens in exchange for selling band
In simple terms you would be three sets of people who would benefit from Bandz
i)The ISP or the internet service providers
ii)The consumer &
iii)The investors
The ISP companies have shown a growth of 8.8% from 2012-2017
However the current challenges faced by any ISP are that the infrastructure costs are high so to introduce a new product or service they have to incur a huge expenditure which may be very hard to recover owing to the high set up cost.
The client base can easy leave them for better offers or rival pricing.
There are areas which are not possible to be serviced by them due to demographic constraints or low density.
The rigid and centralized business models and monopolistic practices prevent them from creating collaborations with other companies.
This is where Bandz comes to their rescue
It would use individuals smart devices to create a mesh network and this can be used as a decentralized extranet that can extend the range of the service provider and provide a whole lot of services besides just bandwidth.
The mesh networks can service clients in areas that are far and remote such as the untapped regions of Africa, Middle-East and parts of South America
700 Million expected in Middle East and Africa this year
In conventional ISP business the ARU or the average revenue per user is flat. There are only so many users you can target in a particular demography you operate. They have little incentive to collaborate with other ISP's
The cost to change the ISP business model is large because of the fixed assets and the distribution network in play.
So the Bandz software devlopment kit (SDK) enables the ISP's to work with each others physical infrastructure by using the circulation of the Bandz tokens as a means of transfer of value.
The use of the BandZ lets them increase the ARU (which is possible by providing more services)
So BandZ create more services to offer
Mesh networks
VPN Proxies
Bandwidth Markets
Deep Learning *
Neural Networks*
- To come in the future.
Another thing that can be avoided is the Network Congestion Collapse.This occurs when the total incoming bandwidth exceeds the total outgoing bandwidth.
The mesh networks solve this as they are not based on centralized points of distribution instead they are a peer to peer networks which share their demand as well as their resources.
The customers who create these networks by contributing their devices contribute their spare bandwidth and earn tokens for doing so.
Enhanced security provided by Bandz
Security is a major concern when we are on the internet and a viable way to enhance security is to use VPN and Proxies. This could be the solution as the cybersecurity related attacks are extimated to be to the order of $2 Trillion US$ by 2019.
What Bandz offers for the end user
Cheaper internet while on roaming
Access to internet in difficult geographic locations.
To buy a SIM card in a new country can be a difficult process.
On the security front
Individual users are not that tech savy that they can configure firewalls, VPN's and sometimes even the basic security features.
With BandZ > The VPN and Proxy Services are built-in at no extra cost
BandZ> Easy to use with the click of a button
End users have to pay a substantial fee for 4G data and users cannot monetize the data and a lot of time the data lapses at the end of the cycle as it is not carried forward.
Even if were to be carried forward there is no way to monetize the data .
With BandZ a user can monetize the data that they have.
This would help them reduce the cost of usage.
Help them create a better internet experience as bandwidth would be available on demand and there would be less bottlenecks and slow networks.
The Users can earn a financial reward for sharing their data.
While roaming a consumer can avail a bandwidth at a low fee.
The idea behind the BandZ token is to turn the internet into a tradable commodity to create ease of use.
Individuals can secure their transactions by using VPN's . VPN's can also be used to bypass censorship by governments.
Proxy servers gives a user access to different IP's to a user and they can change it at will.The use of rotating IP's the identity can be cloaked making it difficult to track or analyze the foot prints.
So BandZ lets each user who lets his/her device like a smartphone or a tablet connect to the network can contribute the bandwidth and also act a a VPN, Mesh,Proxy apart from bandwidth sharing.
How can a user become a part of BandZ
By running a node on their device this can be on windows, mac, linux, ios, android and arm devices.
By running a node you are able to monitize the resources. you earn the Bandz tokens.
Bandz tokens and ICO (Benefits for the investors)
"At this moment, BandZ tokens are based on the decentralized Aeternity protocol (built on Ethereum). Formed within the blockchain and subject to automatic execution upon the occurrence of pre-defined criteria and events and subject to certain conditions"
The ICO is slated to happen in july 2018 and the investor can acquire the tokens at a cheaper rate and as the usability increase the value of tokens would increase over time.
The Team
To sum it with Bandz you get
a) Decentralized Bandwidth Sharing
b) End to End Encryption (Enhanced Security)
c) Enhanced control over your Bandwidth
More Information & Resources:
- BandZ Website
- BandZ WhitePaper
- BandZ Telegram
- BandZ Linkedin
- BandZ Facebook
- BandZ Twitter
- BandZ Reddit
- BandZ Github
- BandZ YouTube
As a use case I can say I would be very happy to use Bandz as it would save me tons of money during my travels.
I find even in our day to day lives we buy limited bandwidth for our mobile devices and the current rush of multimedia content which is viral content which everyone keeps watching and forwarding makes our devices as power guzzlers and so instead of buying more expensive packs we can used Bandz to obtain extra bandwidth at a lower cost or sell the spare bandwidth on our broadband fixed line connections and with the tokens earned buy small amounts of data for our mobile devices.
bandz2018
bandz2018
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Another solid review @thetimetravelerz
Is there any centralized app that is doing whatever Bandz is trying to achieve?
Cheers, Piotr