It's certainly not unusual in the bitcoin and blockchain industry to see several companies coalesce around a new use case for the technology. However, what may be novel about the sudden focus on Wi-Fi is the size and ubiquity of the consumer pain point.
To date, startups such as the Boost VC-backed BitMesh and Wi-Fi services provider WIFI Metropolis are both developing concepts around the idea. The consensus? The popularity yet inaccessibility of Wi-Fi networks offers a compelling use case for bitcoin today, one that is more promising when compared to the costs consumers currently bear for data access at home and on-the-go.
"Wi-Fi is virtually everywhere," explained WIFI Metropolis chief Wi-Fi explorer Reilly Smith. "If you walk around a dense area there's going to be signals, none of which you can really connect to. I pay for data out of convenience because it's such a hassle to deal with Wi-Fi."
At the heart of both the BitMesh and WIFI Metropolis initiatives is the idea that it could become profitable for businesses and consumers to begin opening their Wi-Fi networks to the public.
As Smith told CoinDesk:
"For Wi-Fi, there's free and expensive. There's no micropayments middle ground."
read more at
http://www.coindesk.com/can-bitcoin-change-wi-fi-for-the-better/
