Deborah Simpier is Althea's new CEO!
I’ve been working on Althea since 2015, when I started researching what was possible at the intersection of blockchain and networks (Justin, our CTO, had actually been working on similar concepts since
Roles in the Althea network
The difference between Althea and most networks is that Althea is decentralized and so different members of the public can perform different roles.
Althea validator update: Hard fork governance proposal passed
A few weeks ago, we started a governance proposal on altheazone4 to vote on the next hard fork. This time, it will be scripted. Read my summary about it here. The proposal passed
Monday's hard fork and next validator challenge
On Tuesday, the Althea validators finished a hard fork from altheatest3 to altheatest4.
Althea blockchain update and validator Olympics
We launched the altheatest3 test blockchain. We'll be having a series of collaborative challenges for the validators.
Launching the Althea blockchain
Up to now, we've been running our networks on the Ethereum blockchain. The reality is that Ethereum simply isn't suitable for our use case. Ethereum's great for manual, medium or high value, sophisticated transactions...
How to be a validator on Althea
What is a validator and what do I need?We're currently in the process of spinning up the Althea blockchain. We are using Cosmos, a proof of stake blockchain framework. This post is
5G brings cell carriers up to par, but it isn't a revolution
There's an amazing wireless technology that lets you download a high definition movie to your phone or computer in seconds. This technology can send gigabits of data over tens of miles in a
Making a Cosmos chain
Cosmos is a project creating an "Internet of blockchains" which will be linked together through the IBC protocol. Unlike many blockchains, where your application will have to pay fees to some weird guys
Decentralized vs federated payment structures in Althea
Me and Deborah Simpier were just talking about the role of decentralized node-to-node payments vs “federated” subnet DAO payments in…
The Althea governance model
Althea is a system that lets routers pay each other directly for bandwidth, similar to how ISPs peer with one another on the internet…
“New Internets” on Althea
Althea is a network that will provide last-mile internet access with an incentivized mesh network where long-range wifi transmitters pay…
Althea and net neutrality
There’s been a lot of talk recently about the FCC’s efforts to get rid of net neutrality. I’d like to take a little bit of time to talk…
Comparison of Althea and RightMesh
Althea has made many careful design decisions to optimize performance and reduce overhead. In this post we compare Althea to a different incentivized mesh architecture and show how each of these choices impacts the final product.
Live demo video
We’ve been hard at work getting our hardware demo polished. It consists of 10 Raspberry Pi’s, running our extension to the Babel routing protocol that lets it route according to price as well as quality.
Althea's multihop payment channels
Althea's payment channels are key to how it works, but they are also one of the simpler parts to implement and explain. Payment channels allow payments to be made with a minimum of overhead. In the simple case, a payment can be made between two neighbors in the network with only one packet.
Battlemesh talk
Just realized that I forgot to post my talk from Battlemesh. Here it is:
Development Roadmap
We are developing Althea incrementally over several stages. The first couple stages are not anywhere near the full capabilities that Althea will have. They are not even mesh networks. However, developing software in an incremental manner lets us test and prove out various elements of the system cont
Battlemesh
Last week I went to Battlemesh in Vienna. Battlemesh is a conference and competition that is held in a different location in Europe about once a year. Its original purpose is to test all the routing protocols against each other, hence \battle\. It's evolved into a great meeting of community network
Pay for forward v.s. pay for internet
We've considered two main mechanisms for an incentivized mesh network so far. Pay for forward is the mechanism laid out in Althea v1, and Hocnet. Pay for internet is something I've been working on as Althea v2 and it is also kind of how ISPs work now. This is a brief summary of both approaches.