🔵How Lanify App Works
Lanify is a browser extension that enables users to monetize their internet connection in real-time by selling unused network resources, essentially selling their distinct "view of the internet."
In one word Lanify enables you to sell a product you didn’t even know you have.
Your internet connection holds value, with others willing to pay for it. However, the current market for these resources is centralized, with proxy providers selling your network space without compensation.
This is where Lanify steps in as a decentralized residential proxy market, utilizing token rewards to disrupt the traditional business model and ensure fair compensation for its users. Lanify has the potential to revolutionize this industry, establishing a more equitable, secure, and ethical marketplace for network resources.
What are Residential IP Proxies?
Residential IP proxies are IP addresses assigned by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to homeowners or individuals. These proxies utilize IP addresses associated with residential networks, making them appear as if they originate from residential locations rather than data centers or commercial entities. Residential IP proxies offer a higher level of anonymity and credibility compared to data center proxies because they mimic the behavior of regular internet users. They are commonly used for various purposes such as web scraping, data mining, ad verification, and bypassing geo-restrictions.
Example: Imagine a retail chain that wants to track the prices of their competitors' products across various online platforms. This data is publicly available but retrieving it presents a challenge, especially considering that prices might vary based on the viewer's location.
Or consider a startup that invests in online advertisements and wants to ensure their ads are being displayed in all the targeted markets they paid for.
To gather this information from the web, they require access to the internet from the public's perspective — from multiple sources and locations.
This is where you play a crucial role.
Every time you browse the internet, you do so with a unique IP address, and much of the content you see is customized to your location. Acting as a residential IP proxy means allowing someone to route their internet traffic through your IP address, granting them access to the internet from your viewpoint. They can then leverage this perspective to extract public data from the web.
How Does This Translate into Practical Terms?
Imagine you're sharing your internet connection with someone else. Let's say you have a connection with a maximum download speed of 100 MB/s. If you're only using 50 MB/s to download a file, that leaves 50 MB/s of idle bandwidth that isn't currently being utilized. Companies capitalize on this unused bandwidth to scrape the web from your IP address, essentially utilizing a resource you're unknowingly providing.
Initially, this might not seem significant in the realm of big data. How much value could there possibly be in someone checking a website from your IP address? However, these small contributions accumulate over time, especially as companies increasingly scrape vast amounts of data for market research purposes each year. So, if the acquisition of public web data is becoming an integral part of the business landscape, why aren't any of us reaping the rewards when our internet connections are the ones facilitating it?
The Current State of Residential Proxy Markets
Today, a handful of highly centralized service providers dominate the market for residential IP proxies. These companies build extensive proxy networks using residential IPs from around the globe, selling their unused bandwidth to buyers, such as the examples mentioned earlier. Typically, these networks maintain a list of authenticated IP addresses that are whitelisted for use by purchasers. Unfortunately, this arrangement lacks fairness for all parties involved.
In the best-case scenario, addresses on the whitelist are added with the explicit consent of their owners. Owners agree to participate in exchange for some form of compensation, and residential internet users may voluntarily sign up to sell their network resources (the unused bandwidth from their residential internet connection associated with their IP address).
However, even when residential internet users consent to participate and receive compensation for their resources, the network is motivated to pay them as little as possible to maximize its profits. With limited competition among proxy networks and no means for buyers and sellers to connect outside of them, these networks dictate the terms of engagement, often charging buyers exorbitant fees while paying sellers meager amounts.
In the worst-case scenario, ordinary internet users like yourself are entirely excluded from the equation. Many free apps include clauses in their terms and conditions that automatically enroll users in donating their unused bandwidth to proxy networks. While this may help developers monetize their products and aid proxy companies in recruiting unwitting internet users, individuals rarely see any share of the proceeds.
The consequence? You pay for a certain amount of bandwidth, but when you don't utilize it all, your ISP doesn't refund the money. Instead, it sells the unused bandwidth to someone else, without offering you any compensation.
Clearly, the current landscape of the residential proxy industry leans toward exploitation and unethical practices. So, what can be done to address these issues and return network resources to their rightful owners?
Introducing Lanify
In essence, Lanify stands as a decentralized departure from the previously described networks. It presents itself as a network-sharing platform, enabling users to monetize their unused bandwidth. While existing networks are steered by exploitative intermediaries, extracting value from resource exchange participants, Lanify emerges as an equitable alternative where both parties hold a vested interest in the network's operation.
For end-users, Lanify manifests as a web extension that's easily downloaded, set up, and subsequently overlooked. Operating quietly in the background, it facilitates the acquisition of public web data for others in exchange for payment in the protocol's native token.
In contrast to its centralized counterparts, Lanify embodies:
Ethicality: Recognizing that these resources are already being exploited, Lanify merely redirects the proceeds to their rightful owners.
Democracy: Through token compensation, Lanify not only reimburses users for their unused network resources but also endows them with ownership stakes in the protocol itself.
Security: Decentralization mitigates the inherent risks posed by a limited number of companies controlling this infrastructure.
Ultimately, Lanify adopts a principled stance within this industry, diverging from the unethical practices prevalent among current market leaders. Like many applications of blockchain technology, it fosters a more equitable distribution of resources by dismantling centralized network control, thereby promoting fairness on a broader scale.
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