Bitcoin Forum

I have been thinking about this for a little while, but I am not an expert in radio and am relatively new to the field so I could use some help from people who know what they are doing.

As we know, not everyone in the world has access to the internet, has a decently fast connection, or has a connection that isn't blocked. To get around these problems, I propose that we should, as a community, create a radio network that allows the relaying of blocks and transactions without relying on internet connections which we have no control over. It would facilitate the use of full nodes and the accessibility to the Bitcoin network especially to third world countries where the internet is not available. Such a network would also help in places where there is a lot of internet censorship like in China. It would be able to bypass internet filters since those inside the country would still be able to pick up signals originating in neighboring countries.

Ideally this radio network would be on a frequency that can carry a lot of data, has a wide range, has little interference, and is legal to use worldwide. It should also be able to be broadcast to and from space so that we can have satellites that operate as full nodes and can further connect nodes to each other.

Part of the problem is finding a frequency that can be used for this. We could use CB frequencies but those are not able to carry a lot of data. Higher frequencies would require having an amateur radio license and may also be crowded and thus we would have interference. The best case would be to buy spectrum specifically for Bitcoin radio use only.

To transfer data, we could use already existing technologies. We could use the existing Packet Radio stuff and use the de-facto packet radio standard, AX.25. With this we could wrap blocks and transactions in a special message and send the packets with packet radio in order to propagate those blocks and transactions.

I will be working on this project to develop a Bitcoin radio network on and off. Currently I do not have the equipment for implementing or testing any of this, the proper licences, or the experience and knowledge. If anyone is more knowledgeable in radio, specifically packet radio, then the help would be appreciated.

Let me know what you guys think of this idea.

I think that already exists... There is even a technology that allows people to send BTC via RADIO signals.

http://tunein.com/radio/Bitcoin-Talk-Radio-s250329/
http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoiners-finland-send-cryptocurrency-radio/

This is a great idea. And it is nice to see that there is an existing radio network for bitcoin transactions. If this is system is full implemented along side existing internet based bitcoin networks, it will eliminate lot of costs for installing and having active nodes all the time. However, this needs a decent software platform, where the program utilize radio network to send and receive bitcoins.

That is a radio station, not what I am talking about

This one doesn't allow full nodes and it isn't what I want to build. The idea behind mine is that it can fully sync a new full node and uses a p2p radio network. That article sounds like the project relies on a centralized radio broadcast and does not allow full nodes.

Anyone know anything about radio and can help me here?

If I imagine a situation where the internet by landline/satellite is cut (for whatever reason) a packet radio network would be very useful and should also be considered to be implemented.

The idea sounds "ingenious" until you discover why its been sidelined.  (http://www.isode.com/whitepapers/ip-over-stanag-5066.html)

"Imagine waiting up to 2/5 minutes to setup a connection stream, which could be dropped at any second?"

But you're obviously talking about some sort of decentralized (unique/individual) HF transmition/receive station. It could be possible (at least with some special equipment at both ends). The ultimate option, would be for you to either find some more research papers on this, or build/test some sort of system...

It most likely wouldn't be in HF but probably UHF or SHF which can carry a lot more data but also have less range.

I'm not sure which spectrum is used for Satellite-Earth communication but that would turn out to be effective in the long distance transfers along with the capacity.But the experiment would be a failure as the only underlying technology can be used to run the chain would be RFID which has failed several times over Internet.
https://i.imgur.com/bxiPjxl.gif

They are usually in the SHF or EHF range with tens of GHz. That could work but they require a lot of power.

Could you explain this? It doesn't make very much sense to me.