Bandwidth as global currency?

Trade

An international team of computer scientists has proposed a next-generation e-commerce system that uses internet bandwidth as a global currency. The software exploits the power of peer-to-peer technology, which is based on forming networks among individual users.

Developed by researchers at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, in collaboration with colleagues from the Netherlands, the Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Client is available for free download. The application is an enhanced version of a program called Tribler, originally created by Dutch scientists to study video file-sharing.

“Successful peer-to-peer systems rely on designing rules that promote fair sharing of resources among users. Thus they are efficient and powerful computational and economic systems,” said Prof David Parkes of Harvard.
Delft University of Technology’s Johan Pouwelse added: “Our platform will provide fast downloads by ensuring sufficient uploads. The next generation of peer-to-peer systems will provide an ideal marketplace not just for content, but for bandwidth in general.”

The researchers outlined an e-commerce model that connects users to a single global market without any controlling company, network or bank. They see bandwidth as the first true internet currency for such a market. For example, the more a user uploads (earns) and the higher the quality of the contributions, the more they would be able to download later (spend) and the faster the download speed allocated to them.

The researchers concede that the greatest challenge to any peer-to-peer backed e-commerce system is implementing regulation in a decentralised environment. To keep an eye on the virtual economy, Parkes and Pouwelse envisage a “web of trust”, or a network between friends used to evaluate the trustworthiness of fellow users aimed at preventing content theft, counterfeiting and cyber-attacks.

“This idea is not new, but previous implementations have been costly and were dependent on a company and/or website being the enforcer,” said Parkes.

“Addressing the trust issue within open peer-to-peer technology could lead to future online economies that are legal, dynamic and scaleable, and have very low start-up costs, and minimal downtime,” he concluded.

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