The Economics of Ammbr
Overview
The Ammbr Foundation is overseeing the development and expansion of a wireless mesh network called the Ammbr Network. This network will use a multi-radio mesh router with a built-in blockchain, the Ammbr Blockchain, which provides the ability to effect micropayments. The Ammbr mesh router is a modular device, with mesh networking and micropayment functionality, that can be extended to offer more functionality through additional modules. Users of the Ammbr Network, and owners of the Ammbr mesh router, use Ammbr’s native self-sovereign digital identity framework, that is compatible with other self-sovereign digital identity frameworks e.g. Sovrin and uPort.
The Ammbr mesh router is therefore an Edge Computing platform, providing functionality at the “edge” of the network, closer to the users of the Internet.
The economic layer binding together the distributed services on the Ammbr mesh router, the Ammbr mesh network, and the Ammbr blockchain, is a Byzantine fault tolerant (BFT) cryptocurrency called AMR.
AMR
AMR is the coin of the realm in the Ammbr ecosystem. Services can be traded for AMR as an economic unit of exchange.
Distributed Free Market Economics
Capitalism and Free Market Economics are often assumed to be synonymous. However, they differ in that, while capitalism refers to the production of wealth, the term free market is concerned with the exchange of wealth. In capitalism, capital owners generally dominate the means of production and, as such, may wield unfair advantages. A free market is rather concerned with the unhindered exchange of products and services between participants, and the potentially advantage of dominant capitalists therefore hinder a truly free market.
Much has been written about the failings of the capitalist system, and its tendency to concentrate the majority of resources i.e. wealth, in the hands of the few. It is our view that this may be true, but that a free market system counterbalances this tendency to achieve greater equity, if not a totally egalitarian distribution of wealth. Attempts to constrain capitalism inevitably fail, resulting in lethargic economies, or utter collapse.
The development of distributed digital systems, such as blockchain with its near frictionless medium of exchange, present an opportunity to create a true free market, while alleviating the negative tendencies of capitalism, i.e. monopolies. The classic, industrial age development of capitalism were predicated on limited resources — land, education, capital, and, to some extent, labour. The exploitation of labour by capital was therefore inevitable.
Money itself has been tightly controlled, both in its production and movement, and there are many arguments to make the case that money itself has been used as a tool to concentrate wealth.
However, in a modern, digital and distributed system, we have the means to disseminate education more freely, capital is arguably generated to fulfill the need for a means of exchange rather than a tool that concentrates power, digital real-estate is virtually limitless, and governance can be applied in a consensus driven, transparent manner that prevents undue influence or corruption. Hence the tremendous interest in this space.
Essentials of a Digital Marketplace
A marketplace exists to facilitate the efficient exchange of goods and services between participants. To do so, it must therefore provide three essential features.
· The buyer must be able to correctly assess the qualitative and quantitative aspects of what is being bought
· The seller must be able to correctly assess the ability of the buyer to pay
· Any required intermediation by mutually trusted third parties must be available and the cost must be as low as possible
To achieve this is a very difficult task, as we have experienced across different marketplaces.
The Ammbr network will create a marketplace suitable for different products and services to be exchanged, with all three essential features baked into the technology of the network.
Note on Security
Even though we have not emphasized security, it is obviously of great importance if there is to be trust and sustainability in a marketplace. However, this is such a broad discussion it merits its own discussion. Let it suffice to say that the self-sovereign digital identity regime employed by the Ammbr network provides for levels of security that are more than adequate to underpin market interactions at any graduation of value.
Qualitative and Quantitative Metering
The type of product or service being exchanged determines the measurements that need to be communicated in order to achieve an accord. Digital services are arguably the easiest to accurately measure, hence their prevalence in early digital marketplaces. Physical products, such as real estate or non-homogenous commodities, require extensive reporting by mutually trusted third parties, and complex terms and conditions, for effective trade to take place. The greater the asymmetry of information i.e. one party have more information than the other, the greater the need for complex controls to mitigate the risk of the disadvantaged party. This is why securities regulations, for example, place such a costly burden on sellers and intermediaries.
Traditionally it has been necessary to disclose sensitive information in order to comply with such risk regulations, which has become a privacy risk in itself. The recent exposure of the confidential data for 143 million people at Equifax perfectly illustrates this. Ammbr puts in place the foundations of a truly decentralized identity and governance system that eliminates any such risks.
The Ammbr network is being built as a marketplace for telecommunications services initially. The assessment of quality and quantity of a service can be entirely digitized, and programmatically added, along with digital payment, to a “smart contract” between market participants. Data asymmetry can be reduced to virtually zero.
Other digitized services will be added in future, and the tools provided for more to be traded on the common infrastructure as the network matures.
Examples of Future Products and Services
The Ammbr router has been designed as a modular edge computing platform. Its evolution will see the introduction of more services, and more revenue streams, the owner of a router can deploy.
Storage
A storage platter will provide 5 terabytes or more of Solid State Drive (SSD) capacity, which can be rented out in exchange for AMR to other users. This could be for a variety of purposes, including backup, or cache provisioning at the edge to relieve transit costs and latency during peak delivery of applications like video on demand.
Computing
Virtual Private Server (VPS) partitions, possibly further subdivided into containers for particular applications, located at the edge of the network for a better user experience, or highly distributed application delivery — also in exchange for AMR.
IoT
Support for IoT communications (e.g. Sigfox, LoRa, Bluetooth) on the router, combined with computing capability, a security framework (digital identity) and micropayments, presents an interesting opportunity for IoT devices and their management from Ammbr routers.
Distributed Applications
Software vendors will be able to write and deliver distributed applications (DApps) that exist across the Ammbr network on routers. Early partners, like SendX, are already seeing the benefits.
Governance and Smart Contracts
The use of code to fully automate the application of governance models, and contractual terms between parties, is in its infancy. While we are building certain functionality into the Ammbr connectivity marketplace, we envisage tremendous growth and development in this area to be able to achieve a more heterogenous product and services marketplace in future.