Althea

Last updated Dec 11, 2022

• Type atom
• Status unfinished
• On blockchain
• On networks

Althea is an Internet Service Provider (ISP) platform and blockchain that enables the coordination of multi-stakeholder networks. ¹ It operates on the Last mile aiming to provide a decentralized and trustless access to the network/internet. It incentivizes peering agreements between nodes, i.e. nodes pay each other using cryptocurrency for forwarding packets +.

There are different types of nodes:

• User nodes
  • These are installed by the end-user who wants to buy internet access. +
• Intermediary nodes
  • These are installed by those who want to earn money by forwarding packets. +
• Gateway nodes
  • These are connected to a source of internet, acting as an intermediary between the Althea’s physical layer and the outside internet. +
• Exit nodes
  • These are connected to gateway nodes over VPN tunnels.
  • They provide an endpoint to verify quality metrics as well as take on the legal role of an ISP, dealing with copyright claims and more. +

The propose two main additions to Babel, which is the distance vector routing protocol they used:

1. Verifiable quality metric
2. Price metric

Routes are selected by optimizing the quality metric vs the price metric +.