The Metanet
The Metanet is the term given to a value-based internet built on the Bitcoin SV blockchain. The Metanet can be used to refer to either of:
- The concept of value-based internet built on Bitcoin SV.
- The Metanet Protocol.
The Metanet was first announced as a concept by Dr. Craig Wright at the CoinGeek Week conference in London on November 30th 2018.
The motivation for the Metanet is the creation of an on-chain internet that functions as an efficient value network, which has improved properties and capabilities compared to the existing infrastructure of the Internet. The Metanet as a concept has since been widely adopted by the Bitcoin SV ecosystem and many protocols and applications have been built to implement the vision of a highly-connected blockchain-based internet for peer-to-peer content creation and monetization.
Core Principles
The motivations for the Metanet are linked to well-known problems with the existing Internet and e-commerce, which include the following:
- Reliance on intermediaries for payments.
- Lack of a granular micropayment layer.
- Walled-garden applications and data silos.
- Concerns over data privacy and ownership for users.
- Prevalence of spam, trolling and bots in online social platforms.
The first two issues, relating to payment intermediaries and lack of micropayments, are addressed by the use of the Bitcoin SV blockchain for simple payments. The Metanet aims to solve the remaining issues by combining online payments with immutable data stored on the public Bitcoin SV blockchain.
The combination of payments and data both using the Bitcoin SV blockchain as a universal source of truth theoretically allow for a more equitable internet ecosystem in which:
- Information is attributed value.
- Quality is incentivised over quantity.
- The cost of dishonest behaviour (e.g. trolling) is increased.
- Users own their data.
The Metanet Protocol
The Metanet protocol is a protocol for structuring data within the on-chain internet architecture of the Metanet. The Metanet protocol uses a graph data model to create on-chain data structures for Metanet applications, websites and use cases. The protocol allows users to store, distribute and monetize their data using its native permissioning framework.
The Metanet protocol is a graph-based data structure protocol. The protocol uses the native directed acyclic graph (DAG) data model of the underlying Bitcoin SV blockchain to create overlay DAG structures that exist natively on-chain.
Capabilities
The Metanet is widely attributed with the following capabilities:
- Facilitation of micropayments.
- Higher cost to spam, trolling and bot accounts.
- Efficient commerce.
- Users able to own their data.
- Easier monetization for content creators.
- Incentivises higher quality of content than