A new ambitious software project, based on highly tailored version of the Bitcoin protocol, has been launched which aims to replace the internet.
Dubbed ‘Bitcloud’, the new project is aimed at replacing YouTube, Dropbox, Facebook, Spotify, ISPs, amongst others with decentralised applications.
Claimed to be nothing less than an entire internet, Bitcloud aims to exploit similar procedures that allow mining Bitcoins, and offer services that are currently monitored by ISPs and corporations.
Founders told the BBC that they were in search of developers for the project.
"We will start by decentralising the current internet, and then we can create a new internet to replace it," they added.
"If you’re interested in privacy, security, ending internet censorship, decentralising the Internet and creating a new mesh network to replace the internet, then you should join or support this project."
According to the team behind Bitcloud, individual internet users will be allowed to carry out tasks including storing, routing and providing bandwidth to the Bitcloud network, in return for payment similar to Bitcoin miners.
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"Adding the profit motive to the equation gives this project a chance to succeed where many others have failed in the past," the group’s white paper noted.
"WeTube can act as a replacement for YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Soundcloud, Spotify and other audio video streaming services," the whitepaper added.
Artists would be rewarded with a percentage of revenues generated through advertising.
It is not the first effort to swap major features of the internet with a decentralised network, in 2010 Diaspora raised more than $200,000 on Kickstarter to develop a peer-to-peer centralised social network alternative.
