Most of us consider the Internet as one of the daily commodities we cannot imagine life without. In recent years, scrolling the channels of social media, using various search engines or news websites for collecting all necessary information, binge-watching favourite TV programmes on Netflix have already become things, which are perceived similarly as brushing teeth or drinking coffee in the morning. Our lives have become digitalized to an enormously large extent, and it is definitely an amazing development. However, the ongoing Internet revolution is not entirely bright, as some enthusiasts may try to claim. The global Internet structure is currently affected by a number of significant flaws which are already serious obstacles in terms of the further development of this phenomenon.
The problem: current Internet infrastructure is broken
Since the overall consumption of content online is steadily increasing and will grow 4 times in a next few years, the current Internet infrastructure is not capable to cater to the needs of everyone. As a consequence, the content delivery to a global audience of viewers remains a serious problem.
At the moment, this issue can be solved with the appliance of Content Delivery Networks (CDN). Their providers allocate Points of Presence (POP) in order to localize the content of web and send it to any requested geographical location later. Even though this action is essential considering the simplified chance to access the hosted content on a global scale, it does not completely solve the problem of unequal speed of broadband. The most common limitations of CDNs are as follows:
- Unbearable costs.
Delivering high definition (HD) content to a global audience using CDN’s is very expensive, but it’s practically impossible to distribute 4K, VR, AR, and other ultra-high definition content in an affordable way. The speed which is required to stream HD video content is approximately 8–10 times lower than the one needed for 4K & VR content. As a result, the amount of delivered data increases proportionally. This connection makes the future prospects of CDN unrealistic while taking into account the current prices.
- Limited availability.
Despite the fact that CDN’s have limited availability even in well-developed countries due to their centralized nature, CDN services are almost unavailable in the emerging countries in Asia, South America and Africa where the internet content consumption is increasing rapidly, but the average speed of broadband is still significantly slower than in Europe or North America.
- Technological limitations
The dramatic growth in bandwidth-intensive content requires an application of a new data transmission technology that can ensure Quality of Service, low latency and efficient data delivery to mobile networks (5G). The current CDN infrastructure is hardly capable of to adapt. All in all, it definitely indicates the need of a more innovative idea for content delivery.
The solution: the decentralization of content delivery
All in all, the struggle with content delivery, impacted by the speed of broadband is a serious issue for many Internet users worldwide. In order to ensure more equal development of the global Internet network, an innovative and technically valuable solution is crucially needed. And it is actually possible to be realized with the help of decentralization of content delivery.
Generally, every connected device (for example, laptops, tablets or desktops) automatically becomes a part of the whole Internet infrastructure. The interesting feature of this interconnection is that all users of the network are able not only to consume particular data, but also to share them with other users. When a large number of people are sharing the unused bandwidth of their personal computers, an unlimited network of data transfer is created. In other words, every person using the network of globally distributed nodes becomes a Point-Of-Presence. The decentralization of such network along with the wide and global incorporation of ordinary users will significantly increase the efficiency of content delivery.
Additional benefits:
- The inclusion of ordinary Internet users will increase the number of nodes, what will also entirely grow the stability of service and advance the overall performance.
- Decentralization of content delivery and creation of global network would be able to incorporate AI and Machine Learning which would contribute the best routing, caching, and demand prediction strategies in real time.
Empirical case: NOIA Network
Blockchain technology is fully able to support the content scaling network which can utilize unused bandwidth from devices globally in order to create a better distributed, efficient and integral layer of the internet’s infrastructure for the global content delivery.
NOIA is the example of a system which is designed to serve as a bandwidth optimization mechanism for every type of web content and provide a significantly more effective delivery way online which is also decentralized.
With the help of blockchain, content delivery can become both autonomous and has virtually no limit in terms of scale. Smart Contracts layer in NOIA’s network governs all relationships between different actors in the network and provides the framework for the creation and flow of value within it.
NOIA Token
NOIA token is a utility token used to transfer value between NOIA’s network participants. The token is also compliant with ERC-20 standards.
Essential features:
- 1 NOIA token represents 5 GB of data transfer, which can be applied for content delivery services. Exchange rate between NOIA token and amount of data transferred is pegged only during the Initial Coin Offering.
- In order to ensure price consistency and ability to predict its expenditures for the investors, NOIA services (data transfer pricing) will be denominated in fiat currency in a meantime. Also, customers will have a chance to know exactly how much they’re paying in fiat even if USD/NOIA exchange rate fluctuates.
In conclusion, blockchain technology is an especially helpful tool as far as the development of technical aspects within the global Internet network is concerned. The establishment of the decentralized network of nodes can boost the overall the speed of broadband, making the content online easier and faster accessible as well as advancing the performance of various content sharing platforms.
For more information about NOIA, visit: https://noia.network