March Update

We were so busy building and growing I think we missed an update in February! We now have 23 users in Clatskanie, and several relays (a relay is a node that has a connecting antenna and an antenna that broadcasts to neighbors – relays make money by forwarding bandwidth).

People in Clatskanie are now paying for their internet by loading Ethereum on to their routers using the Coinbase mobile app with a debit card and scanning the QR code on the router dashboard. They are happy to leave behind their legacy providers and make the switch to faster, cheaper Althea internet.

Linda, whose farm is a relay node and also uses Althea at her business in town remarked, “The internet we get through Althea is so fast - lightning fast,” she said. One night my husband asked everyone in the family to stream video at once to see if it would slow down and we were surprised to see that it was still going strong. “I’m just in awe of the speed!”

Althea team member, Sebastian Bolanos, recently traveled to Colombia to meet with Althea users. The wireless link between the fiber connection towards the center of town and the school on the high hill in the Comuna was established. Now the members of the community are enjoying fast Althea internet. Sebastian described how people were eager to try out YouTube with their new Althea connections, and were excited when they could play their videos without buffering. Colombians are paying for their internet with the xdai stable currency and our custom made wallet, efectivo (https://efectivo.cc/).

We are currently putting the finishing touches on a big re-design of the router dashboard. In the coming software release, we also added failover for exits and a “low balance” text notification feature.

You can keep up on all the technical details of our releases here on the Althea blog.

A big component of the Althea system is supporting our local organizers. To do this we are rolling out an exciting new “Altheahood” pre-registration system. Similar to “fiberhoods”, this lets our organizers get their community excited about Althea and committed to participating before building out to a certain neighborhood. We are looking for prospective people to try out this new program. Get involved by contacting us at deborah@altheamesh.com. Now is a great time to reach out and start building an Althea network in your community.