Wghero: An Alternative to Lebanon's Internet Monopoly

Abstract

This thesis covers the design of incentive mechanisms for an alternative source of internet in Lebanon. The workings of the thesis began in anticipation of the arrival of Starlink, a satellite internet provider, to the country, which came to fruition when news of its deployment and regulation, yet inaccessibility, emerged. This thesis highlights the possibility of coordinating people through decentralized physical infrastructure networks, specifically through the lens of tokenized incentives whereby participants may be rewarded via a digital currency for behaving or contributing in certain ways. Finally, this thesis uses the possibility of a decentralized network as a basis to design a protocol tailored to the realities of the country. Through this lens, we attempt to address the issues of network monopoly, lack of infrastructure, and poor service in the country, and explore tokenized incentives as a means to propose what systems might be needed to address such issues while coordinating the growth and sustainability of such a network. We analyze the types of actors needed for the network to function, and define a topology for classifying these various types of participants. By examining what behaviors might emerge, various incentive mechanisms are tailored to the design accordingly. We visualize these mechanisms using a simulation, allowing us the ability to see what such concepts, when applied, might look like in terms of cost, feasibility, quality of service, etc. Finally, we explore a few example scenarios, considering what they achieve under various specific behaviors and parameters.