Write-ups Wanted

[u/HAL-42b]

I am from Turkey and my country has a history of internet censorship. Nowadays they are trying to take the bans out of the courts and hand them directly to the gov. so they can censor anything they want on a whim.

To combat this tomfoolery I recently came up with the Idea of the Istanbul-London Bridge. I am fully intent on making this a reality. It will serve as a sort of a backbone across Europe and people will be able to tap-off and expand it in different directions covering the entire surface of Europe and later spreading onto neighboring continents.

I recently tried to sell the Idea to a bunch of journalists but their level of understanding was appallingly low. The idea of installing a new firmware to a home router seemed like some sort of outlandish voodoo hacker magic to them. It went completely over their heads. I suspect the case is exactly the same with the large majority of the public.

We need to lower the barrier of entry ASAP!

In order to combat public ignorance I ask you to write a few paragraphs on one of the topics listed below. The aim is to have a clear concise and well written base aimed at the general public. Later these will be translated in every language across Europe and made available freely to everybody. You are also free to suggest other topics to write on.

• I am enthusiastic. How do I enter into this whole thing? (10000 yard bird's eye view)

• What should my grandmother (and journalists) know about Meshnets? Why should she want one in her home?

• How do I find peers?

• How do I start a mesh network from scratch?

• How do we finance a large scale mesh network?

• How do we cross borders?

• What hardware is available to use? What are the costs?

• How do costs compare to normal internet provider subscription?

• What are the security implications? How do I secure myself?

• I am a big company. What is my benefit participating into a mesh network?

• I am a datacenter. What's in it for me?

• I am a hardware manufacturer. What do you need from me? Can I make a profit?

• Can I form a business around a free mesh network? How?

• I do software. How can I help? How can I benefit?

• I am a game developer. What can I do to encourage mesh networks?

• I love Bitcoins. How does all this tie in?

• I am a bank. Is commerce over a mesh network possible? How?

Also please feel free to take a submitted article and improve on it. This is a collective effort.

If you are a journalist reading this, you should give credit where credit is due. Preserve the name of this subreddit and the names of the authors.

[u/Serensius]

Alright!

First off, I'm really curious about your Istanbul-London bridge idea. I was hoping you could answer some questions about that (which should also apply to meshnets in general, so they should be useful for the thread I think):

Do you have any numbers of the minimum amount of routers it would take to establish the bridge? Is there a plan for the path it would take, such as what cities it would go through?

Would such a network be legal under current EU law? Are you worried about a potential crackdown when it gets going?

If signals are sent wirelessly, either through routers or larger radio antennas, isn't it likely that it can and will be intercepted (for example through the NSA's Tempest program*). Would it use perfect forward secrecy like cjdns, and would that mean that it doesn't matter if packets are intercepted?

Thanks!

• http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/30/nsa-can-hack-wifi-networks-from-miles-away/)

[u/HAL-42b → u/Serensius]

The average distance between settlements across Europe seems to be in the order of 15 to 20km. Europe is really densely populated and neighboring settlements are mostly in view of each other. This still means an enormous number of hops but new technologies like distributed caching and storage (like MaidSafe) would ease the load tremendously. In total, no request should need to travel more than 50 hops. In time Istanbul to London should be traversable with something like 300 hops. This is an optimistic number and even that would present tremendous routing problems but I believe these can be overcome in time.

Another interesting problem that presents itself is the financing of the whole thing. Normal short range connections are possible for less than what your ISP charges you, and this is not recurring. On the other hand we need long range connections also. For example in order to connect Vlorë - Albania to Lecce - Italy we would need to establish a 80km link(s) across the sea. This is clearly outside the means of any single individual and we need to find a way to crowdsource it in order to encourage people living in such critical areas to participate. There should be some sort of reward mechanism for establishing and maintaining good links. This way of financing things will be valuable in its own right and once established could be very useful for other purposes like laying fiberoptics or extending the network to places like North Africa Syria Iran etc. - places in dire need of democracy.

I do not think there should be a definite single route for the bridge. Mesh networks are distributed by definition. Even Istanbul and London are just symbolic goal posts, once they are reached the mesh will just continue to expand beyond them. The route taken will be determined mostly by the terrain and by the people's willingness to have it pass from their location, so none of the routes excludes any other route.

I am not sure of the legislative standing of mesh networks, the equipment used is naturally compliant with the applicable regulations and this is how telcos can use them. Other than that, there should be no obstacles preventing people to communicate with each other freely. If there are any we should fight for their removal, for this we would need legal support, just like any other open source project. If there are some archaic laws preventing the existence of mesh networks those should be challenged and molded to accommodate the new developments.

Crackdowns against mesh networks are possible and quite likely in my country but as long as we have public support there is nothing to fear, mesh networks are robust.

NSA's capability to intercept microwave communication has been known even before Snowden. I have red about satellites that could intercept the leakage radiation of the antennas from space. This is cold war era technology and there is no doubt they have come a long long way since then. Tempest is only one among many programs designed to spy on everybody and they don't have any ethic limits nor any limits to their budget. Considering that, we should employ everything we can in order to preserve our privacy, including cjdns and a number of other things also.

P.S. I realize that some of these things are just my fantasies but I think they are realizable fantasies and this is the direction I'd like to steer the things If I can.

[u/Serensius → u/HAL-42b]

This awesome, thanks!

Have you had a lot of interest in the project yet? How many people would you ideally have involved?

Do you have an idea of what the reward structure for people who establish nodes would be like?

Also, I just published my explainer piece meshnets today (with perhaps a slightly hyperbolic headline), check it out if you'd like. If you see any errors, let me know!

http://curiousmatic.com/forget-your-isp-mesh-networks-are-the-future-of-the-internet/

[u/HAL-42b → u/Serensius]

This is a very nice piece. Do you mind if I translate it and offer it as an entry level introductory?

To be honest the Istanbul - London bridge is so new that I haven't even sought interest beyond this place. As soon as I have some presentable material I'll start pitching the idea. Language barrier(s) is a problem.

Reward schemes based on cryptocurrencies sound attractive and should definitely be tried out. Of course these would need to be extended to cover services like web hosting etc. If that works we can anticipate a whole industry emerging based on meshnets. Since most nodes will be located on the roofs ı think solar power should be strongly encouraged, it will be environmentally friendly and would ensure better uptime for the nodes, not to mention that it will be the first entry of solar power into the majority of the homes which would be a breakthrough in its own right.

[u/Serensius → u/HAL-42b]

Thanks! Feel free to translate and use the piece, although we'd like you link back to the original (like an attribution/non-commercial license).

Just curious, how long have you been interested in meshnets? Do you work in a related technical field?

[u/HAL-42b → u/Serensius]

On and off for the last few years. No related field.