Mining rigs, Roam access points, and Roam gateways implementing Roam protocol need to prove to the network that they are continuously providing high quality Wi-Fi services. In return, they will receive mining rewards. Due to the close coverage density of Wi-Fi networks, it is impossible for mining rigs to communicate to check each other’s statuses, so independent validators have to be introduced for this purpose. Roam encourages the sharing of Wi-Fi in public areas such as cafes, shopping plazas, public transportation stations, commercial buildings, etc. As a result, the mining rewards shall be designed to reward service providers in these areas. Based on this, we propose a Proof-of-Service mining algorithm which proves that honest miners continue to provide network services as required, while allowing the network to quickly discover malicious miners. At the same time, validators are required to validate the status of the WiFi services, for which they will be rewarded with tokens as well.

There are multiple roles in the WiFi mining process, namely:

(1) Wi-Fi Miner

WiFi miners are responsible for providing good quality network services in public areas, reporting the validator’s validation activities and the user’s check-in activities. Minersobtain corresponding rewards after the validator submits the network service proof to the network and receives the confirmation from the smart contract that the information submitted by the miner and the validator is consistent.

(2) Validator

Validators are responsible for verifying that the miners are providing good quality WiFi services. When the (good) quality of a miner's service is confirmed, the validator sends the confirmation credential information to the miner. The validator then gets paid for proving that the miner is providing adequate services. To carry out these duties, the validator has to obtain a Validator VC from the Roam foundation, and must stake a certain amount of $ROAM as a security deposit.

(3) Other roles

Additional roles will be gradually introduced to the network, including:

Discoverers who find other OpenRoaming locations not deployed by Roam, and successfully mark them on Roam’s WiFi map.

RADIUS providers: the community members who run AAA servers for the network. Each provider first needs to stake a certain amount of $ROAM, and subsequently their rewards will be issued via the staking process.

Witnesses who voluntarily find cheating activities between Miners and Validators, if there is any. The proposed rewards system will be resilient against potential cheating events, and this role might not be necessary. However, it could be incorporated as needed.

4.3.2 Mining Process

4.3.2.1 Main Mining Process

The main mining process is as follows:

(1) Wi-Fi mining device initialization

When a Wi-Fi device is initialized, the miner needs to configure the device's location, MAC address, public key address, and certificate information.

(2) Validator validation of Roam mining devices

Roam encourages Wi-Fi miners to continuously provide network services to the public in open areas. After the Wi-Fi devices are online, nearby Validators can obtain Roam Points by verifying that the mining devices are online and reporting the network matrix. The miner will also receive rewards when its status is reported by the Validator. At a fine level of detail, this process includes two steps:

The first step is the regular DID/VC login check as specified in Section 3.3.1.2.

In the second step, the mining device will in real-time post the Validator’s VP to the on-chain smart contract, while the Validator will collect the mining device’s VP. When the validator submits the mining device’s proof (VP) to the blockchain, the mining rewards smart contract will compare the submission time stamps to those of both proofs. And for both proofs, the time gap between proof creation and submission has to be within limit T. Otherwise, the mining will be considered invalid. If any VP submitted by the validator is invalid, none of the other proofs in the same submission will receive the mining rewards. Note that the validator has to accumulate a minimum of n proofs before being eligible to submit.

During the above mining process, additional information will be collected and submitted to the Roam backend as well as the blockchain smart contract. The Validator will collect certain information about the behaviors of the mining device in the past 24 hours, e.g. the mining rewards, the total network traffic carried, extensive QoS data, the number of users served, the number of validators interacted with, the status of Roam Points staking by the device, the location of connected RADIUS servers, etc. The mining device will collect additional information on the Validators as well, including the status of Roam Points staking by the Validator, mining devices it has interacted with, the total network traffic volume created by these interactions over the last 24 hours, received Roam Points, etc.

Please note that the mining device constantly sends a “heartbeat” packet which includes its operation status to both the Roam backend and the blockchain. The reported heartbeat information will also be checked against the information reported by Validators.

(3) Rewards distribution

Roam Points will be distributed to the miner and validator once the validation is confirmed by the blockchain. The amount of rewards will be adjusted to encourage the mining device to serve as many people as possible.

For each mining device/validator pair, only one reward opportunity will be presented within each given predefined time frame, and the reward amount will be reduced if the same pair has occurred repetitively. Other measures designed to optimize the network’s services will be introduced to the rewards distribution scheme as well.

4.3.2.2 Other Mining Processes

As mentioned in Section 4.3.1, additional mining processes are available to facilitate the growth of the network. These methods will be introduced or removed via votes by the community.

RCOI-Free discovery process: whenever a Discoverer identifies an RCOI-Free OpenRoaming node not deployed by Roam, it can mark it in the app so Roam users can access it with their Roam OpenRoaming profiles. Subsequent to adding an OpenRoaming location to the app, a mining reward could be distributed to the Discoverer. The amount would be proportional to the total rewards allocated to this process during the particular time slot.

4.3.3 Device Certification and Licensing

Device Certification

In order to prevent manufacturers and equipment from cheating, mining device manufacturers need to go through an audit and certification process before they can formally produce the Roam mining device. This process examines the quality of service which the device would likely provide, how it utilizes the trust platform modules, its regulatory compliance including both EMI and safety, and its compliance to Roam protocol. Roam Foundation will form a technical committee to handle this certification process.

Each Roam mining device shall require a pre-deposit of Roam Points as an activation fee. These Roam Points will be removed from the user’s wallet once it is activated. If the mining device changes owner, the new owner shall activate the device using their own wallet.

Each Roam mining device producer shall stake a certain amount of $ROAM tokens as collateral to ensure that it will support the community’s growth and not abuse its manufacturing rights. The exact amount will be determined by the community management committee.

‹ 4.2 Category and Quantity

4.4 Staking Process ›