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Mehr Network

A Decentralized Capability Marketplace Over Transport-Agnostic Mesh

Mehr is a decentralized network where every resource — bandwidth, compute, storage, connectivity — is a discoverable, negotiable, verifiable, payable capability. Nodes participate at whatever level their hardware allows. Nothing is required except a cryptographic keypair.

Vision​

Strengthen Communities​

The internet was supposed to connect people. Instead, it routed everything through distant data centers owned by a handful of corporations. Mehr reverses this: communication within a community is free, direct, and unstoppable. Trusted neighbors relay for each other at zero cost. The economic layer only activates when traffic crosses trust boundaries — just like the real world.

Democratize Communication​

A village with no ISP should still be able to communicate. A country under internet shutdown should still have a mesh. A community that can't afford $30/month per household should be able to share one uplink across a neighborhood. Mehr makes communication infrastructure a commons, not a product.

One Decentralized Computer​

Every device on the network — from a $30 solar relay to a GPU workstation — contributes what it can. Storage, compute, bandwidth, and connectivity are pooled into a single capability marketplace. Your phone delegates AI inference to a neighbor's GPU. Your Raspberry Pi stores data for the mesh. No single point of failure, no single point of control. The network is the computer.

Share Hardware, Save Money​

Most hardware sits idle most of the time. A home internet connection averages less than 5% utilization. A desktop GPU sits unused 22 hours a day. Mehr turns idle capacity into shared infrastructure: you earn when others use your resources, and you pay when you use theirs. The result is that communities need far less total hardware to achieve the same capabilities.

Why Mehr?​

The internet depends on centralized infrastructure: ISPs, cloud providers, DNS registrars, certificate authorities. When any of these fail — through censorship, natural disaster, or economic exclusion — people lose connectivity entirely.

Mehr is designed for a world where:

  • A village with no internet can still communicate internally over LoRa radio
  • A country with internet shutdowns can maintain mesh connectivity between citizens
  • A community can run its own local network and bridge to the wider internet through any available uplink
  • Every device — from a $30 solar-powered relay to a GPU workstation — contributes what it can and pays for what it needs

Core Principles​

1. Transport Agnostic​

Any medium that can move bytes is a valid link. The protocol never assumes IP, TCP, or any specific transport. It works from 500 bps radio to 10 Gbps fiber. A single node can bridge between multiple transports simultaneously.

2. Capability Agnostic​

Nodes are not classified into fixed roles. A node advertises what it can do. What it cannot do, it delegates to a neighbor and pays for the service. Hardware determines capability; the market determines role.

3. Partition Tolerant​

Network fragmentation is not an error state — it is expected operation. A village on LoRa is a partition. A country with internet cut is a partition. Every protocol layer functions correctly during partitions and converges correctly when partitions heal.

4. Anonymous by Default​

Packets carry no source address. A relay node knows which neighbor handed it a packet, but not whether that neighbor originated it or is relaying it from someone else. Identity is a cryptographic keypair — not a name, not an IP address, not an account. Human-readable names are optional and self-assigned. You can use the network, earn MHR, host content, and communicate without ever revealing who you are.

5. Free Local, Paid Routed​

Direct neighbors communicate for free. You pay only when your packets traverse other people's infrastructure. This mirrors real-world economics — talking to your neighbor costs nothing, sending a letter across the country does.

6. Layered Separation​

Each layer depends only on the layer below it. Applications never touch transport details. Payment never touches routing internals. Security is not bolted on — it is structural.

Protocol Stack Overview​

Mehr is organized into seven layers, each building on the one below. Click any layer to read its full specification.

Apps
L6
Applications
MessagingSocialVoiceNamingForumsHosting
Services
L5
Service Primitives
MHR-StoreMHR-DHTMHR-PubMHR-Compute
Market
L4
Capability Marketplace
DiscoveryAgreementsVerification
Economics
L3
Economic Protocol
MHR TokenPayment ChannelsCRDT LedgerTrust
Protocol
L2
Security
EncryptionAuthenticationPrivacy
L1
Network Protocol
IdentityAddressingRoutingGossip
L0
Physical Transport
LoRaWiFiBLECellularTCP/IPSerial
Protocol
Economics
Market
Services
Apps

How It Works — A Simple Example​

  1. Alice has a Raspberry Pi with a LoRa radio and WiFi. She's in a rural area with no internet.
  2. Bob has a gateway node 5 km away with a cellular modem providing internet access.
  3. Carol is somewhere on the internet and wants to message Alice.

Here's what happens:

  • Carol's message is encrypted end-to-end for Alice's public key
  • It routes through the internet to Bob's gateway
  • Bob relays it over LoRa to Alice (earning a small MHR fee)
  • Alice's device decrypts and displays the message
  • Bob's relay cost is paid automatically through a bilateral payment channel

No central server. No accounts. No subscriptions. Just cryptographic identities and a marketplace for capabilities.

Next Steps​