Mysterious Bounties - A call for applications that can't be censored

Mysterium Network is building a distributed and permissionless VPN network. In our network providers are paid directly by consumers for providing VPN services.  

Payments are a crucial element of Mysterium Network. As such, we needed to design a solution which was capable of meeting real-world requirements of scalability and affordability. This system also had to comply with the ethos of decentralised ecosystems. These are two opposing forces, with no solution fit for Mysterium Network readily available in the market.

The architecture of our payments system is a fusion of research and experimentation with existing Layer 2 solutions. But none of these fit our particular use case. 

Here were the main requirements of our proposed system:

1. High throughput – the network’s ability to handle frequent and small payments (eventually thousands per second)
2. Support for our native utility token, MYST
3. Anonymity while also being secure, such as through the use of identity registration and reputation system
4. Great user experience, removing as much complexity as possible for the end-user.

We also had to consider that consumers won’t pay a large amount up-front and the service providers (nodes) are unlikely to offer their services without prepayment.

Our proposed solution fuses together the technologies and methodologies used by other payment solutions, such as State Channels. Find out more about Mysterium Accountant and how payment promises (digital IOUs) will help solve micropayment challenges for decentralised VPN, CDN and SDN networks.