How do you build a global delivery network that can handle billions of drones?
NOTE: Why billions of drones? A short haul, on-demand delivery service that costs peanuts to use would generate enormous use. New markets would rapidly emerge. Instant food, pharma, etc. Jevon's paradox (although applied to deliveries) would also be in effect.
How do you build a massive, decentralized network? You turn it into an open platform.
A platform is based on simple standards of interconnection and shared services.
These standards need to be bare bones. The minimum required for interconnection. Anything more than that, and the network becomes too top heavy to scale (and scales too slowly to matter).
IN the case of dronenet, here's what a potential platform would look like.
- Hardware standards. Simple rules for drone weight, dimensions, service ceiling, and speed. Simple rules for battery swap and recharging (from battery type, dimension, etc.). Simple rules for package containers. Simple rules for the dimensions and capabilities of landing pads.
- Network standards. Decentralized database and transaction system for coordinating the network. Rules for announcing a landing pad (information from GPS location and services provided) to the network. Rules for announcing a drone to the network (from altitude to speed to direction to destination). Cargo announcement to the network, weight, and routing (think: DNS routing). A simple system for allocating costs and benefits (a commercial overlay). This commercial system should handle everything from the costs of recharging a drone and/or swapping a battery to drone use.
BTW: It would be interesting to see if a dronenet "coordination" layer could be built to operate like Bitcoin's transaction processing system.
BTW2: It's possible to break the FAA's "line of sight" rules regarding drones right now and get away with it to enable fast decentralized growth. This strategy works. e.g. PayPal flagrantly broke banking laws and regulations in order to out-compete a field of competitors that decided to follow the law.