On December 14, 2017, the FCC voted in a 3-2 party-line vote to end net neutrality despite overwhelming bipartisan and public support for it. Net neutrality requires internet service providers (ISPs) like Verizon and Comcast to distribute internet access fairly and equally to everyone, regardless of how much they pay or where they are located.
Before we dive into how net neutrality could potentially impact blockchain, let's better understand what net neutrality actually is. The FCC voted on the Restoring Internet Freedom Order, which concerned the repeal of Title II protection for net neutrality. Title II was the only legal way in which companies could be regulated without the passage of Congressional legislation instituting complicated new regulatory procedures in which ISPs could be regulated. Title II explicitly classifies ISPs as telecommunications companies, also classified as utilities, meaning they had to treat internet service like gas, water or phone service. They couldn't cut off service at will or control how much of it any one person received based on how much they paid for it. The idea was that the internet should be a public service that everyone has the right to use, not a privilege.
Net neutrality mandated that ISPs display all websites, at the same speed, to all sources of internet traffic. Without net neutrality, ISPs will be free to control what you access on the internet, meaning they will be able to block access to specific websites and pieces of software that interact with the internet. They will also control how quickly webpages are served, how quickly you can download and upload things, and in what contexts you can access websites, depending on how much money you pay to them.
In the past, Verizon banned Google Wallet in 2011 because it was working on its own payment system. And in 2014, Netflix was forced to pay Comcast a premium for faster service to customers.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR BLOCKCHAIN?
Some experts foresee a potentially negative affect on cryptocurrency.
“ISPs could potentially have the power to control access to exchanges, the speed of transactions, and even create and prioritize accessibility to their own cryptocurrencies, which is not such a crazy idea when you think of all the places in this country where a single ISP has a monopoly,” Justin Tabb, CEO of internet startup Substratum Network, told International Business Times.
Marvin Ammori, board member of Fight for the Future, a digital advocacy group, told Vice,
"The average person goes to Coinbase to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Litecoin - the average on-ramp is an exchange, and those are easy to block."
Exchanges may have to resort to paying the internet provider a premium in order to remain accessible. ISPs could also use this ability to stop the trading and usability of bitcoin and its counterparts effectively ending the cryptocurrency market.
Others feel more optimistic like Ethereum blockchain developers who welcome the shift as it may encourage new interest and fresh innovation in blockchain technology. They see the repeal as potentially reviving the interest in mesh networks, an old technology allowing users to access the internet without a conventional provider. Like blockchain, mesh networks are decentralized and rely on a community of users to work.
Ethereum developer Karl Floersch describes an Ethereum-based system that runs "in the background" of any mobile device. Using an interconnected series of smart contracts, the mobile device could theoretically act as a wi-fi enabled node, helping to expand the mesh network's reach. Donors support most mesh networks. As users increase, so does the bandwidth and cryptocurrency could cover the cost to run the service.
How will the net neutrality repeal and blockchain play out? We'll have to stay tuned.