Neighborhood mesh internet could be set up on cheap baofeng ham radios. Most neighborhoods arent big enough for that to be impossible. It'd take work of course, but what part of something like that wouldn't? You're rebuilding and decentralizing all the things. Bet it could be easily done on raspberry pis too, but I'm even less familiar with that.
I'm running this idea by my buddies. We're a community of dudes set on bringing back the manly skills that our world tries to suppress. Whittling, knife sharpening, natural spirituality, gardening, homeschooling, things that help build a resilient culture. I'd love nothing more than to have a decentralized economic system built into that community. We're all withing about an hour driving distance, so the mesh network isn't ideal for us rn, but the grid also hasn't collapsed so that's not a grand concern. Just getting something running would be a huge step forward.
Setting up internet on cheap ham radios? I'm not even sure I understand the concept (baofeng - no idea, and aren't ham radios the old two-way radios, the kind that truck drivers like to chat on?) but it sounds exciting! Thanks for even putting this thought out. So that means you only need the electricity to power your device and your ham radio (not a huge deal, that much I know), and that way you can access nodes, make transaction on the blockchain, etc. Does that mean we don't even need an internet provider?
That's exactly what it means. WiFi and other wireless internet (3G, cell phones, etc) is just broadcast on radio signal. A local mesh network would just be an autonomous internet in your local area. Lots of folks are experimenting with it.
Baofeng is the brand. They're a Chinese producer of crazy affordable ($20-50) radios. Walkie talkies, but not the ones truckers use. They're on what's called the citizen's band. Similar, but different frequencies. But yeah, you could do it with CB radios too, just have everyone on the right frequencies.
The radios have batteries, but they also have battery bypass to run on 12vdc, so I imagine it'd be super easy to run it on a small solar rig. Could even build it into an ammo can for a weatherproof box and hang it in a tree for better reception.