Blockchain technology has often been proposed as a solution to the problems inherent with centralized systems. Blockchain projects are being developed to provide decentralized computing, storage, and a suite of applications to realize a decentralized future. However, these projects all continue to build atop the same underlying network infrastructure consisting of switches and routers connected by Ethernet, a foundation which remains fragile due to being insecure, difficult to manage, and centrally controlled.

Marconi is a networking and blockchain protocol that allows smart contracts for network packets and is designed to meet these challenges. The protocol has been designed down to layer 2 of the OSI model and works with wired and wireless standards. You can read the white paper to learn more about systems and methods for processing network packets using smart contracts, forming secure mesh networks with decentralized traffic auditing and metering, virtualizing and binding OSI layer 2 connections, ranking peer nodes, and performing decentralized distributed network routing.

Marconi Protocol facilitates secure network communication, flexible network infrastructure, and the formation of mesh networks. The supporting technology can be broken down into three major components which we’ll summarize here but cover in greater detail in our white paper.

Marconi Pipe. Marconi Pipes provide a secure communication channel for transporting network traffic between peers. The pipes are established all the way down to layer 2 of the OSI model and provide encryption, routing, and processing capabilities. Marconi Pipe works with wired standards to allow the Marconi Protocol to be used as an overlay on existing internet infrastructure. There is also an extension called Marconi Link which is being designed to work with wireless standards such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and the U-NII radio band to power scalable mesh networks, both public and private.

Programmable Packets. Network packets can be routed and processed using smart contracts. This technology unlocks numerous use cases for smart decentralized networking applications such as anti-phishing and anti-malware protection, intrusion detection and prevention systems, and distributed virtual private networks.

Global Chain. The global blockchain serves as a distributed database ledger which is shared by all nodes in a network. This global chain facilities the creation of new networks and the management of nodes on that network. It also houses protocol components such as smart contracts for facilitating network functionality like DHCP.

These components are the building blocks that underpin the Marconi Network. Additional details can be found in the white paper.

Marconi is composed of four key components.

Marconi Command-line Interface (mcli) The mcli provides a simple interface to all of the Marconi components. It allows the user to run commands and interact with the Marconi Network. It is also responsible for ensuring all of the required packages are downloaded/updated and any configurations are executed as needed.

Middleware The middleware bridges go-marconi and marconid. It does this by exposing a JSON RPC API which allows other processes to interact with go-marconi and marconid.

The middleware component is composed of three main pieces:

• A daemon that periodically fetches data from the blockchain
• An interface that allows the middleware to interact with the blockchain
• A http interface to interface with the middleware

Go-Marconi This is the Marconi fork of go-ethereum. go-marconi finds peers through the go-marconi bootnodes and connects itself to others on the network to sync blocks from the Global Chain. Changes have been made to support the CryptoNight Variant 4 (aka CryptoNightR) hashing algorithm.

Marconid The Marconi Daemon creates and manages mPipe connections between nodes. This includes interfacing with the operating system’s networking functionality, establishing peer connections, and handling packet authentication, encryption and decryption. Marconid also contains a processor that executes programmable packets.

With all of the above mentioned components each node in a Marconi network can handle all of the routing necessary to connect to all of its peers without any additional hardware or software. The programmable packets provide a platform for developers and network admins to configure and deploy rule sets across the network for how traffic should be routed and processed. This facilitates the the creation of simple, yet robust networks that can do things like connecting multiple cloud providers and securing blockchain deployments. These are just a few of the sample use cases and the Marconi Team looks forward to the different ways the Marconi Platform will be used and built upon by the development community.

The marco is the token that powers the Marconi Network. These tokens can be consumed as fuel for administering networks and running smart contracts. Mining nodes receive marcos when confirming blocks. In a future release when individual nodes can share their network bandwidth Marcos will be the primary token for facilitating the bandwidth exchange marketplace.

Marco is the primary denomination.

Gauss is small denomination of marco.

1 marco = 10^18 Gauss

The Developer Testnet was released in December 2018. The Developer Testnet Network includes a complete blockchain release with the Marconi Client (mcli), MarconiD, Middleware, and Go-Marconi. The testnet provides developers the tools to solve numerous use cases and we are excited see how the community will use this technology. To help understand how the tech can be used, we have documented a few example scenarios with step by step deployment details including:

• Securing Blockchain Networks
• Connecting Branch Offices
• Connecting Hybrid Clouds
• Load Balancing

Additional use cases will be documented and added in upcoming releases.

Suggest a use case by emailing [email protected]

• October 2019 — Subnet Staking
  • A staking process where individuals can stake their coins and earn rewards over time while securing the network.
• 2020 — Marconi Link
  • An extension to Marconi Pipe called Marconi Link that is designed to work with wireless standards to power scalable mesh networks, both public and private.
• 2021 — Proof of Network Element
  • A decentralized metering protocol that captures network node availability and bandwidth over time, and incentivizes network bootstrapping and continued network participation.