Decentralise Everything!!!!
How Africa Can Leapfrog Development with Distributed Ledger Technologies
Being in the deep countryside of Ogun State, Nigeria got me thinking. The same thoughts that I have whenever I (now increasingly) travel interstate around Nigeria either by rail or road.
Huge swathes of tundra, forest, desert etc. Nature in its purest form. But technology must be embedded into the natural to get a sum product that is 'more'. Assuming (based on ‘liberal’ population estimates - that i have questioned in a prior post you can read here) there are 10s, if not 100s, of thousands of people living across the horizon of these rural areas - without connection to the internet. How can they be (realistically) brought online and become part of the global digital economy? This is the the root question that underpins (or should underpin) every tech-enabled idea/solution that has been developed since the initial Nigerian tech boom in the early 2010s - and even before that with the Telco monopolies.
The telecommunications and technology history of Africa over the last two decades has led me to one simple truth. Technology has to adapt to fit into the terrain; and the terrain has to adapt to accommodate technology. Decentralised internet infrastructure allows for this symbiotic relationship to take place whilst still leveraging on natural human nature by providing economic incentives to, and minimising deviant behaviour of, those participating in the network. So how can internet infrastructure be decentralised in Nigeria.
Imagine........
Imagine every Government-recognised traditional ruler is persuaded to enter into a 'localised' public partnership arrangement whereby they establish and maintain a network gateway (or relay) node in their homes or other location where a large proportion of their subjects/local community resides or works.
Imagine revenue sharing arrangements with (middle-mile or upstream) backhaul providers - where blockchain software protocols underpinning the network automate the payment, receipt, sharing and settlement of revenues paid by end users for internet access; and this blockchain software- via smart contracts - also ensures that all stakeholders receive their respective (pre-agreed) share of such end-user revenues on a per transaction basis and in real time.
Real estate developers can include built-in internet accessibility as part of the "utilities" of every commercial or residential building developed which automatically adds 5-10% to the value of a property - much like the value government-installed infrastructure around a property does. Such bandwidth can then be commercialised to users within the vicinity or a wider radius of the bandwidth signal.
A buoyant homeowner with (or that lives in) a country home can simply invest in a having fibre optic network connection (from an existing backhaul provider - at an average cost of ₦17-25k/$34-$50 per month) and immediately begin providing internet access to every person with a mobile device in their vicinity and be economically rewarded in an automated trust-less manner.
This would be revolutionary for broadband access in territories where high capital costs and weak market demand make communications infrastructure investment unattractive - for a single entity. The only logical means of overcoming this challenge is to therefore spread that cost amongst all the stakeholders in the value chain. A sharing economy, if you will.
This would potentially enable the following capital allocation structure for communications network stakeholders: upstream (landing cable) bandwidth providers shouldering the operational costs of landing the bandwidth in a relevant territory; middle-mile providers carrying the costs of upstream bandwidth acquisition and the establishment, operation and maintenance of communications towers and/or fibre-optic cabling.
Last-mile providers handle mass-marketing and end-user CPE network hardware acquisition costs. Fixed end-user communities bare costs of (fixed term) CPE hardware financing repayments and (recurring) backhaul bandwidth acquisition fees. Mobile users, the last layer of the value chain, pay for retail bandwidth costs by buying data or mining data via watching video ads, for example.
Decentralise, Incentivise and Automate
With the 'responsibilities' of all the stakeholders in the value chain clearly delineated as above, it is possible for all the suppliers (landing bandwidth, middle-mile, last-mile - and even end-user fixed communities) to work on a revenue sharing arrangement which would reduce the net capex investments and operational costs required by each party due to each party baring its own respective part of the overall capital required to establish and maintain the networks (from landing cable to the remotely located, unconnected user).
By having the value chain automated and run via a blockchain, revenues generated by users (both subscription fees and advertising revenue) could be shared according to pre-determined formulas based on factors revolving around a party’s contribution to the network that enabled the revenue to be generated from the end user. The reduced risk to each party - due to the transparency, immutability, and automation the blockchain provides - would increase the willingness of each participant in the value chain to work on such a revenue share model. Additionally, if the blockchain - as is generally the case - utilises a decentralised governance structure (via governance tokens), then all the players in the ecosystem can be further incentivised to contribute to its growth by receiving network token rewards. The more the network grows, the more valuable the network’s tokens become on the open market.
Token or local digital currency rewards can be issued to bandwidth suppliers (first-mile, middle-mile, last-mile, local network organisers and relay nodes) and to end-users (for relaying bandwidth, purchasing subscriptions, or by browsing - via data-mining through watching video ads - or referring new users etc). The immutable nature of the blockchain architecture can guarantee the integrity of all automated transactions thereby providing transparency (in real time) for all participants in the network - both as to revenue sharing, and other network-related information.
The Future
These ideas are more than just thoughts, with testing in various terrains around the world either ongoing or in some cases successfully completed. Successful test projects have been completed in Tanzania (World Mobile Token), Nigeria (Auranet ISP), and the rural US (Althea), with larger roll-outs being planned and in some cases already being implemented.
The above ideas are merely a glimpse of how current technologies can be used in Africa to really solve it's legacy issues. Fundamentally, if we are properly incentivised (with a guaranteed means of receiving economic incentive rewards of value) and prevented/dissuaded from deviant behaviour (through automated smart contract protocols and reward/asset slashing for mala fide actions), the continent’s citizens can engage in more productive economic activity and commercial relationships. Africa can and will then finally achieve the the growth that has so long been expected of the continent.
Decentralised technologies will lead to a unified continent that can actually begin to fulfil its potential.