The oppression of the Plex encouraged the creation of an antithesis. A network that was just as accessible, but was free, decentralized, open, unsurveilled, and neutral. This network became known as the Mesh, a peer-to-peer, ad hoc, self-sustaining connection of nodes. Everything that the Plex fails to provide, the Mesh does so without fees or a corporate agenda. In fact, the very nature of the Mesh means no one can own it. Its specifications, from the protocol to the hardware, are completely open source and anyone can build and host a server, amplifier, or connection point. The Mesh is even flexible enough to have multiple meshes, each on it’s own private subnet with minimal connectivity to the greater network. No one is sure who created the specification for the Mesh, or who first shared it, but it’s certainly a superior system to the Plex. Sadly, it is underutilized, comprising mostly of modder geeks and paranoid followers of fringe conspiracy theories.
