--- A decentralized mesh network is a "holy grail" of freedom and an important goal to work towards.
--- Such a network is subject to a "tragedy of the commons" and will fail, until digital cash is used to solve issues of resource allocation.
(Mojo Nation would have succeeded here, if they had used Bitcoin for the currency instead of Beenz/Flooz. You haven't actually tried a digital cash solution, unless you actually used real digital cash.)--- Once digital cash is used to solve issues of resource allocation, then wireless mesh routers will start popping up all over the place, like mushrooms, the same as ATMs do today.
--- The solution is for any Node to relay packets for other nodes UP TO A LIMIT, based on a trust value it assigns to each other node.
--- When a node has earned
more trust, then other nodes will forward
more packets to it, before reaching their limit and demanding payment. (Whereas nodes with less trust, will have to pay more often.)
--- When the limit is reached, payment should be settled using a transaction server such as Open-Transactions. (
http://open-transactions-tv.github.com/) These servers can run anonymously, for a profit.
--- Once voting pools are added to OT
(allowing Bitcoin reserves to be stored safely on the blockchain as multisig transactions, so hackers and transaction servers cannot steal them) then Bitcoins can be used to exchange onto/off-of the transaction servers, and to convert into any other asset type (on markets, on those same transaction servers.)
--- Network nodes should be able to demand payment in any currency type they wish, and should be able to pay for whatever resources they need,
all at the protocol level.When this is set up,
the network will grow like an organism. Again: trust units, eventually settled up on transaction servers, eventually settled up in Bitcoin and other currencies. Bitcoin is an essential part of the protocol,
since it enables transaction servers to operate anonymously at a profit, but should not be used directly for the microtransactions themselves, since that is infeasible on the blockchain.