The Problem
Internet Centralization
It's not only The Web, but also the actual network infrastructure it runs on has been fundamentally captured by centralizing entities.
Hierarchical Relations
Address ownership and routing rules are top-down dictated through KYC laws.
Censorship Risk
Service providers can be mandated to block certain traffic.
Exclusive Access
Reliance on a few companies restrains competition.
The Opportunity
Routed Networks
A routed-packet network protocol such as IP is, in principle, decentralized.
Distributed Structure
Each packet hops through independent nodes towards its destination.
Minimal Knowledge
A node doesn't need to know anything but its own direct connections.
Layered Resilience
Upper layers can handle failures on top of best-effort routing.
The Barrier
Scaling Challenges
Outside collectively owned relatively small size networks, IP alone is not enough, traditionally relying on global routing protocols.
Goodwill Reliance
Peers are expected to behave well, following common rules.
Incentive Gap
Node profits are not tied to efficient routing decisions.
Coordination Hurdle
Local path selection requires a global topology knowledge.
The Solution
Market Routing
A simple standard that addresses both incentive alignment and coordination through market-based mechanisms, enabling true decentralization at scale.
Paket-Reply Flow
Delivery of each packet is proven by a reply from receiver to sender.
Digital Signatures
Replies are signed by the receiver, so anyone can verify its authenticity.
Voluntary Contracting
Nodes are incentivized to offer routes they can serve and profit from.
How It Works
Powered by market incentives
Free Market
Hop-by-hop payments between neighbor nodes, based on delivery of receiver-signed reply.
Sender
42 SAT
N₁
21 SAT
N₂
···N₋₂
3 SAT
N₋₁
2 SAT
Receiver
N₁ profit:21 SAT
N₋₁ profit:1 SAT
Routing Tables
Each node maintains two separate tables for inbound and outbound routes used for efficient packet routing.
OUTBOUND
(routes offered by neighbors)
out_15fd86ad2...21 SAT|1984 ms
out_2deedc74e...1971 SAT|10 ms
INBOUND
(routes offered to neighbors)
in_15fd86ad2...via
out_1+21 SAT|+24 ms
42 SAT|2008 ms
in_2deedc74e...via
out_2+169 SAT|+21 ms
2140 SAT|31 ms
Node Discovery
Decentralized route discovery through neighbor-to-neighbor propagation.
ROUTE ANNOUNCEMENT
New node joining the network
Node announcesNeighbors add routePropagate
ROUTE DISCOVERY
Node sending to a new peer
Node asks neighborsNeighbors check their tablesPropagate
Key insight:
Each node is incentivized to maintain updated tables, so it can profit from economical routing decisions — no central map or authority needed.
Two-Layer Architecture
Asynchronous communication is achieved by a second layer.
L1
ISP Layer
Always online, routing through peers
- • Immediate synchronous replies
- • Provide send/receive service to customers
L2
Customer Layer
Not always online, routing through ISPs
- • Asynchronous delivery when available
- • Customer-to-customer encrypted communication
Name Resolution
Name servers track which ISP(s) currently serve each customer address, enabling dynamic routing as customers switch providers.
Customer-to-ISP Mapping
5fd86ad2...abc123ef...Last verified: 2m ago
deedc74e...7f9e42a1...Last verified: 5m ago
How it works:
- • Customer notifies NS of its current ISP(s)
- • NS periodically checks by pinging via currently registered ISP(s)
- • Digital signatures ensure authenticity of customer messages
- • Sender queries NS to get full address to a given customer
Implementations
Explore the diverse ecosystem covering several languages and platforms.
Rust ISP
- pnet for Ethernet interface
- Axum for user-exposed API
- SeaORM for data persistence
- k256 for ECDSA cryptography
FAQ
Frequently asked questions.
- Are sign/verify operations fast enough? — TBD.
- How is squatting avoided? — key-based ownership.