South African researcher and a senior electrical engineer Daneel Uys has produced a paper introducing a new proposed peer-to-peer (P2P) mobile data platform in response to high data rates and the #DataMustFall movement.

In the attached White Paper, BitData: A Peer-to-Peer Mobile Data System, he proposes the development of a system exchanging bits of data in a P2P approach, similar to that of the bits value transfer on the Bitcoin network.

Uys, who is working to bring his idea to fruition, unpacks how the concept will work:

“Consider the following situation – you are at home where you have a fast, cheap and reliable Internet connection probably connected through a fixed line or even optical fibre.

The rate charged for very high speeds and uncapped data over a fixed connection is orders of magnitude less expensive than that what you are being charged by your mobile data provider."

Uys suggests sharing that “fast, cheap and reliable Internet” with others through Wi-fi or other wireless technology (originator node) in return for “credits” directly proportional to the amount of data shared, similar to that of Bitcoin miners that are rewarded for the work that they do.

The credits, stored either in a public ledger or stored by the application running the BitData protocol, can be transferred in exchange for Internet connection access from another BitData user when the original sharer is mobile (receiver node).

The introduction of a third type of node – a transmitter node – acting as data carriers only can aid in overcoming the limited range of Wi-fi technology.

“These nodes are not connected to fixed-line Internet connections and thus do not originate data, but they are willing to act as intermediate nodes to transmit the Internet data over greater distances from the originator node to the receiver node who requires the data; in return they earn the same credits but to a lesser extent. Each and every mobile device with Wi-fi capabilities, and whose owner is willing to participate in the system, has now become a virtual Wi-fi hotspot. Because of the extent to which mobile devices are used in the modern society, this will quickly cover entire cities where population density is high, eliminating the need for the mobile infrastructure of large mobile data providers.”