During the recent protests in Nigeria, millions of people noticed something unusual, social platforms slowed down, calls dropped, and connections felt broken. Civil society groups later called it out as intentional throttling of the internet, designed to control the flow of information. protests in Nigeria protests in Nigeria This isn’t just a Nigerian issue. India, Iran, and other countries have all used internet shutdowns as a tool to silence citizens. Every time it occurs, it costs business, it silences voices, and it damages confidence in the system. This repetitive trend raises a bigger question: how can we create an internet that cannot be shut down, censored, or controlled by anyone? Why Centralized Internet Fails Us The internet we use today is built on shaky ground. A few providers and national backbones retain most power, so if a government or telecom giant wants to turn off access, millions are severed instantly. There were 296 internet shutdowns in 54 countries in 2024, the highest ever recorded. Almost all were during protests or conflicts, silencing people and harming economies. The shutdowns were costly, too, and cost the world a total of $7.7 billion. 296 internet shutdowns 296 internet shutdowns 296 internet shutdowns $7.7 billion $7.7 billion $7.7 billion The problem is simple: centralized systems create a single point of failure. When a solitary undersea cable is severed or a data center goes down, regions are left in the dark. And on top of that, ISPs and large platforms can censor or slow down content whenever they want. One expert put it plainly: Centralized internet gives too much control to a few, leaving everyone else at their mercy. At the end of the day, a centralized internet means one thing: whoever holds the power can hit the kill switch, and the rest of us just go offline. The Promise of a Borderless Internet The decentralized internet throws the modern system on its head. Instead of a few companies or governments holding the keys, power is spread among all, every phone, router, and satellite, as a node in a giant peer-to-peer network. The idea is simple: if no one owns the system, no one can shut it off. Certain projects are already working on it. MASQ, as an example, employs a mesh-VPN and browser that directs your internet traffic through the nodes of other users. That allows you access to internet content that you would otherwise be blocked or censored from. DAWN does something different, allowing individuals to share their broadband and be their own internet providers through a protocol powered by blockchain. MASQ MASQ MASQ These setups fall under what’s called Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePINs). They use blockchain incentives to grow coverage. The common thread? Decentralized systems are inherently resistant to censorship. Content is on many nodes, which no individual player can close down. Technologies like blockchain and IPFS are no different in altering the technology, but rather, shift control back into the hands of users. How Orbit Changes the Game Decentralization gets even stronger once you take it off the ground. Low-Earth orbit satellites cover whole countries at once, no matter who controls the cables or towers below. Elon Musk’s Starlink already shows how this works: hundreds of satellites passing signals between each other, keeping the network alive even if one drops. Visualize satellites that, in addition to providing internet, are actually self-sufficient blockchain nodes. That’s what Spacecoin XYZ is building. Once a satellite is up in orbit, nobody can come in and seize the hardware. It's a trustless relay in the sky, therefore recording, validating, and connecting without requiring anyone's government or telecom's permission. Spacecoin XYZ Spacecoin XYZ Spacecoin XYZ This flips the power dynamic. Rather than borders and monopolies determining who gets online, an orbital mesh would do the same thing to everyone. Whether you're in Lagos or Pyongyang, the signal gets to you. And since there's no particular switch, it's all but impossible to turn it all off. Can Blockchain Mesh Networks Make Shutdowns Impossible? No network is perfect, but mesh networks built on blockchain technology could make internet shutdowns almost impossible in practice. Instead of a cable or a server to be cut, a mesh spreads the traffic across countless nodes. To take it down, authorities would have to suppress thousands of devices at once, a job that is troublesome, expensive, and often unrealistic. We’ve already seen glimpses of this. Activists have established pop-up WiFi mesh networks and radio connections during blackouts to remain online. In Myanmar, the Mycelium Mesh project allowed protesters to send text messages via off-grid phone networks when the internet was blocked. These tools demonstrate how individuals are capable of routing around telecom giants and government choke points. Mycelium Mesh project Mycelium Mesh project Mycelium Mesh project Add blockchain into the mix, and the resilience grows. When a city goes dark, data continues to jump from node, satellite, or long-range radio. Policy analysts point out that more peer-to-peer connections and local exchange points force governments to work much harder to censor, shutting down a good bit more of the nation in a bid to hamper a small portion of traffic. The blockchain mesh is never going to abolish censorship, but it shifts the balance. Instead of a single "kill switch," a government would need a total national blackout in a bid to freeze the traffic, and yet, data could still spill out into foreign lands. Every added node is another stumbling block in the way of someone who would desire to shut the internet down. What will a Decentralized Internet look like? A decentralized internet won’t look like the web we know today, where a handful of companies control the pipes, platforms, and choke points. Instead, it would feel more like a living organism: disorganized, redundant, and difficult to destroy. Every device could double as part of the network: your phone, router, or even a solar-powered hotspot could act as a mini server, storing and relaying data. Instead of traffic passing through a few giant data centers, information would scatter across thousands of independent nodes. Censorship would be harder because there’s no single gate to block. If one node goes down, the data simply reroutes itself. Borders matter less, too; your message could bounce through nearby devices, then jump to a satellite, and finally reach its destination without ever touching a central hub. It also means the internet gets more local and worldwide all at once. Local groups could spin up their own networks that connect into the larger mesh, providing people with trustworthy access even in the midst of shutdowns. Meanwhile, worldwide protocols such as blockchain and IPFS would ensure that anyone's data is able to sync up all around the world. In short, a decentralized internet would be a freer, faster, and more resilient one, owned by no private company or government, yet held together by the people who use it. Conclusion The vision of a network that cannot be turned off is now a reality and no longer science fiction. Decentralized networks, blockchain incentives, and orbital meshes are gradually turning the "kill switch" into a relic of the past. Through the blending together of satellites, long-range radios, local Wi-Fi, and peer-to-peer nodes, the future web won't have a single plug to pull. kill switch Of course, it's not a magic fix. To make it stick, we require less expensive hardware, actual adoption, and communities willing to maintain these systems. But there are signs already: neighborhood mesh networks keeping users connected during outages, crypto-backed satellites in orbit with nodes, and protocols that spread data across countless devices.

The is an opinion piece based on the author’s POV and does not necessarily reflect the views of HackerNoon.

Blockchain Emerges as a Fix for Space’s Governance Void

How Space Debris Cleanup Could Become the Next Trillion-Dollar Industry

Read My Stories

Too Long; Didn't Read

CTA: Download the FREE AI Productivity Shift report

Can a Blockchain Mesh Finally End Internet Shutdowns

About Author

Comments

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN

Related Stories

Untitled Story

Blockchain Emerges as a Fix for Space’s Governance Void

Browsers Are the Gatekeepers of The Decentralized Web

Censorship: From Ancient Greece To Today's Big Tech - A Brief Overview

Checks, Balances, and Freedom: Censorship vs The Internet

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t: Censorship, Decentralized Networks and Moderation

Blockchain Emerges as a Fix for Space’s Governance Void

Browsers Are the Gatekeepers of The Decentralized Web

Censorship: From Ancient Greece To Today's Big Tech - A Brief Overview

Checks, Balances, and Freedom: Censorship vs The Internet

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t: Censorship, Decentralized Networks and Moderation

Light-Mode

Classic

Newspaper

Dark-Mode

Neon Noir

Minty

HN StartUps