›› decentralized, verifiable bandwidth
Your internet connection works for you, even when you don't use it.
Lend the upload your connection leaves idle. People pay per verified gigabyte to have files delivered from lines near them, every chunk is checked against its hash, and you are paid in $ROOM.
the idea
You pay for a fast upload. You use it a few hours a day, for a call or a cloud backup. The rest of the time it is an empty lane.
Somewhere else, a studio ships a 6 GB installer, a team pushes an open model, a game sends a patch to a million players, and each pays a cloud provider by the gigabyte to get it out.
Headroom connects the two. Your line sends pieces of public files when you are not using it, steps aside the second you are, and is paid for every gigabyte that arrived intact.
No line is trusted on its word. Every chunk is checked against its hash before anyone is paid.
Class B: 100 to 499 Mbps up. Upload, not download: that is the side that gets lent.
24 hours: grey you, blue booked (about 2h worth), dashed on offer, unbooked
per day
$0.583
per 30 days
$17.50
shared per day
81.0 GB
An estimate from the launch rate card, paid in $ROOM, with 90% of each payment going to the lines that carried the bytes. Not a promise: what you earn depends on how much the network has to deliver. Check your ISP's terms and data cap first.
try it
Pick a file and watch it get cut into pieces, striped across lines near you, checked chunk by chunk, and paid. The receipt at the end names every line.
file
ubuntu-24.04-desktop-amd64.iso
0.00s · replayed at 8x
0 of 5 pieces verified
hover a line to see who it is
›› tail -f pull.log
waiting for a pull_
›› cat manifest
the manifest lands here once every chunk has matched its hash.
verification
A network of anonymous connections is only useful if a wrong byte or a fake speed cannot get through quietly. Four rules make sure of that.
A file is published with a manifest of hashes. The client checks every 4 MiB chunk on arrival and throws away anything that does not match. A peer cannot slip in a wrong byte, and it is not paid for one.
Random spot-checks time a fetch of a file the network already knows. A line that fakes or throttles fails one sooner or later, and loses its stake and its pay.
You set the ceiling. The moment you start a call or a game, your line backs off within a second and the rest of the transfer resumes on another peer, from the same byte.
Headroom only serves public, content-addressed files the publisher asked it to. It never carries someone's browsing, and your IP address is never used to visit a site on anyone's behalf.
About 2 of 20 checks land on a faked delivery. One failed check is enough.
Chance the line gets through the day unnoticed
12.2%
It takes about 44 spot-checks to catch it with 99% confidence.
Spot-checks are timed fetches of a file the network already knows the hash of, so they measure real speed and real bytes. A failed check cuts the line's stake and its pay. Tampered bytes never get this far: a chunk that does not match its hash is thrown away on arrival.
how it works
Time the real upload of this line, see its class and what it could be worth.
Pick the hours, a ceiling on your upload, and a monthly data cap. Outside of them it sleeps.
Every gigabyte whose chunks matched their hash is paid in $ROOM, straight to your wallet.
Give it a manifest hash. Open files, models, updates and video segments work best.
Each piece is split across 3 lines near you at once, so it arrives faster than any one of them could send it.
Get the file, the root hash every chunk matched, and the list of lines that carried it.
against the cloud
Delivering files from a big provider is fast, dependable and simple. A network of home connections has to answer on all three, or it is a toy.
price
A cloud provider charges for outbound traffic on top of the machines. A home line at 3 a.m. only has to beat nothing: the connection is already on the bill, and the upload is going unused.
class B from $0.008 per verified GB
reliability
Home connections drop without warning. Headroom assumes they will: pieces are striped and every transfer can resume mid-file on another peer, from the exact byte it stopped.
resume from byte offset, no restart
simplicity
No bucket to set up, no region to pick, no egress bill at month end. You name the file by its hash and you are charged for the verified gigabytes that arrived.
billed per verified GB
the token
The unit the network runs on. Deliveries are paid in it, lines earn it, and lines stake it to be allowed to carry files.
Lines that carried the bytes90%
Spot-check pool5%
Burned5%
Applied to every delivery, on settlement.
questions
Not while you need it. The network only uses what is under the ceiling you set, only in the hours you allow, and it backs off within a second when you start something. If you ever feel it, lower the ceiling.
No. Headroom serves public, content-addressed files and nothing else. There is no exit traffic: nobody can use your connection to visit a website, and nothing you do is routed through anyone.
Every chunk is checked against a hash the client already has. A wrong byte changes the hash, the chunk is dropped, the lane moves to another peer, and the sender is not paid for it and loses part of its stake.
Random spot-checks. They time a fetch of a file the network already knows the hash of, so a line that throttles or fakes a share of its deliveries is caught as the checks pile up. Payouts follow measured throughput.
Only if you let it. You set a monthly cap in GB and the line stops sharing when it is reached. Check your ISP's terms too: some residential plans forbid resale of bandwidth.
It is the unit the network settles in. Buyers pay in $ROOM, lines are paid in $ROOM, and lines stake $ROOM so that faking a delivery has a price.
It takes one measurement to see what your line is worth to the network. It takes one click to watch the network deliver a file.