I almost overlooked This Forbes article. It was published in June 2016. It is not about Bitcoin. Rather, it discusses the Netflix effort to thwart Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which had been used to circumvent geographic content restrictions. Thousands of Netflix subscribers use a VPN similar to Linux NordVPN so that they can access different shows in different countries so it’s not uncommon. Many try to watch TV programs for free, too. Fortunately, there are ways to access TV programs completely for free, and you can click here to find out.

The author describes a fascinating work-around. It probably doesn’t break any government law-although it most certainly violates the Terms of Service which users acknowledge when they sign up or log into their Netflix account.

The workaround begins in paragraph 4, with the title: “The Solution”. It describes a self-balancing market for p2p use of desirable residential IP addresses. For example: USA has the largest number of movie and TV titles. The author proposes an automated process of bidding for temporary remote control of USA Netflix subscriptions, using the subscriber’s internet connection as a gateway, while content is delivered to Beijing, Dubai or Fiji.

Effectively, Bitcoin is used as the backbone of a clever negotiating, bidding and settling mechanism. Since USA IP addresses have a premium value to foreign Netflix subscribers, it enales USA members to auction the temporary use of their Internet connections.

Of course, using Bitcoin to arbitrage the disparate value of residential Internet connections doesn’t explain the technical process of relaying movies through remote user gateways. That part is achieved by adding an arbitrage-activated VPN proxy into members who choose to bid or auction regional access. Netflix is looking for the IP addresses of commercial VPN gateways and not the IP addresses of its own individual members. Although, I have not yet tested the work-around described, it should be transparent to both users. I hear that If you wanted to find the best VPN looking at Private Internet Access Review will help you make a decision. Understanding how you can enjoy a variety of streaming services with a VPN is a smart idea. You’ll get more value for money that way. Many learn more through this disney plus vpn about the possible applications of VPN.

For me, this is a particularly elegant application of capitalist economics. In fact, I recently sold my patent on a similar bid-for-attention mechanism that stops Spam without blocking anything that each individual user would find desirable, even if it is unsolicited, commercial or sent in bulk.

The key information [excerpt from linked article]:

“Basically, the number of users trying to watch U.S. Netflix would vastly outnumber the users trying to watch Australia Netflix so U.S. connections would be oversubscribed. This can be resolved with a balancing mechanism with financial incentives, such as Uber surge pricing,” Yen told Forbes.

“When U.S. connections become oversubscribed, U.S. users would be able to make money by making their connections available while foreign users would have to pay more to access U.S. connections. Bitcoin could be used to facilitate these payments since it is anonymous, decentralized and has a low transaction cost.”

What makes this proposal so attractive, is that it thumbs a nose at any vendor that thinks that it can control the individual use or application of its product in the field for no good reason. (I consider geographic content restrictions to be “No good reason”!). Regardless of EULAs and even national laws, in the end, it’s very hard to argue with grassroots phenomena and facts on the ground.

Hey! You’ll get no dog whistles here.

_{Ellery Davies is a frequent contributor to Quora. He is also co-chair of}
^{Cryptocurrency Standards Association and chief editor at A Wild Duck}