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If youâve taken a stroll through a large city lately, or even your local neighborhood, it may have struck you how few faces you actually saw. It isnât that people have packed up and moved away. Itâs that they no longer make eye contact as they walk around. Instead of looking up or around, their gaze is downward, directed at their smartphones.
With the average American spending 10 hours a day staring at screens, and those in other developed countries pretty much following suit, under-connectivity hardly seems an issue. In fact, when we hear about scandals like Cambridge Analytica and creepy uses of our personal data, the main problem most of us have with connectivity is that weâre online way too much.
But itâs a different scenario in many parts of the world.
If youâve ever experienced heart palpitations over leaving your smartphone at home, or losing your internet connection when youâre about to make a trade, youâll know how reliant you are on connectivity. So imagine what itâs like in the dark places of the world, where people have no access to the internet at all.
The Unconnected
When we think of people without connectivity, we often figure that itâs a small minority weâre talking about. But, according to RightMesh CEO John Lyotier, there are almost four billion people around the world who donât have an internet connection. The problem isnât just that they canât update their statuses, play Candy Crush, or invest in crypto. They also miss out on the serious social and economic benefits that being connected provides.
âThere are nearly four billion people who lack connectivity, and two billion who are unbanked or are not included in the financial systems of the world today. We have a unique opportunity to change the story of economic abundance,â says Lyotier.
Of the people not included in that statistic, many rely on spotty internet at best. Hardly enough to watch a YouTube video, let alone make transactions or carry out a job online. And while computers may be out of reach for financial reasons, the smartphone is a real possibility.
Founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, Cherie Blair says, âComputers are a distant dream but the mobile phone is an immediate reality.â Technology can at last be the great enabler and equalizer, if we choose to use it as such.
Blockchain Technology Can Help
Blockchain companies are appearing in all shapes with noble white papers on how to reduce world poverty. Whether itâs shifting more power to the individual seller in the supply chain, providing education, or expanding access to banking; for the first time we have a real opportunity to do something.
This is the goal of RightMesh, which will leverage the potential of blockchains to allow people around the world to connect without needing access to the internet. This will open up a world of possibilities, and even activate sections of the global economy. Â
Through a system called âmesh networking,â mobile phones can connect with each other directly, without the need for an internet service provider (ISP). Each phone has a unique blockchain identity, and RMESH tokens are used as incentives for users to participate in the network, allowing for peer-to-peer connectivity.
This means that after, say, a natural disaster, when all connectivity options are down â or in rural places where there is no provider â constant connectivity could be a reality. Blockchain technology can get the world connected and level the playing field for all.
âIt is not about a redistribution of wealth and knowledge,â says Lyotier, âit is about empowering those who have not (or have less) presently to create wealth and knowledge by being included. Â With mesh networks and blockchain, for the first time, we have the tools at our disposal, if we have the will.â
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the views of Bitcoin Insider. Every investment and trading move involves risk - this is especially true for cryptocurrencies given their volatility. We strongly advise our readers to conduct their own research when making a decision.