Router Finances
Managing Your Routers Finances and Digital Wallet
You can access your routers finance page by clicking on the menu in the upper right-hand corner of your routers dashboard and clicking on the “Finances” link. You will be presented with a page that looks like this:
Your Digital Wallet
Each Althea router contains a private digital wallet that your funds are securely stored in a cryptocurrency known as DAI. DAI is what is known as a “stablecoin” that’s value is paired 1:1 with USD (you can learn more about DAI here). For all intents and purposes you can consider your balance in DAI the same as a balance in USD.
On this finances page you will find everything regarding the finances of your router, such as:
- Current Balance
- Router Wallet Backup
- Bandwidth Quality Settings
- Bandwidth and Support Costs
- Spending History
Backing Up Your Wallet
The first most important thing to do is backup your router’s wallet (what is referred to as your “private key”). This is something that your professional installer will walk you through in the course of getting you set up for the first time.
In the event that you lose your backup you can recover your backup at any time on this page.
It is important that you store this key in a safe and memorable place because if your router ever dies, or when you upgrade your router, the only way to access your funds is with this “private key.”
Important Note:
At no point do we store a copy of your routers wallet private key. All funds are stored securely on your router and accessible by you and you alone.
This is both a matter of security and liability.
We want to ensure that each customer is the only one who can access the funds stored on their wallet, as well as ensure that even if our internal systems are compromised that no customer funds are ever at risk of being accessed or stolen by a malicious third party. However this also means that if you do not safely store your router wallet private key, and your router fails, your funds will be lost forever.
Managing Your Routers Funds
On this finances page you are able to both add and withdraw funds from your secure digital wallet.
Clicking on the “Add Funds” button will direct you through a step-by-step process of adding funds to your router via a debit card. (Note: credit cards are not supported. If the card you are using is not supported please contact us directly and we will provide an alternative method of loading funds on to your router)
Clicking the “Withdraw” button will allow you to withdraw your DAI to an external digital wallet. If you are unfamiliar with using cryptocurrency digital wallets it is recommended that you contact support and we will walk you through this process.
Purchasing Bandwidth
Althea mesh networks are unique in that they allow customers to purchase bandwidth on what is effectively a “marketplace for bandwidth.” This allows customers to tune their level of desired service and to some degree negotiate the price they pay for this bandwidth. This is described more detail in our blog post entitled The Power Of Pay-Per-Forward.
Under the “Purchasing Bandwidth” header there is a slider bar. For customers that are multiple relays away from the nearest network gateway this slider bar lets you control the quality and price of the bandwidth you receive.
By setting the slider to the left you will receive cheaper, but lower quality bandwidth (i.e. higher latency / higher packet-loss).
By setting the slider all the way to the right you will receive more expensive, but higher quality bandwidth (lower latency / low packet-loss).
For customers that use the internet more for web browsing and simple streaming setting the slider further to the left can result in a lower service cost per month.
For customers who use the internet more for gaming or video conferencing it is recommended to set this slider further to the right.
Prices
Under the “Prices” heading you will be able to see what the current cost of bandwidth is per gigabyte. The cost of bandwidth goes towards paying for the main fiber connections to the network and the resources required to keep the network operational.
The “Organizer Fee” is what the current support fee is, paid out in small payments distributed across a 30 day period. This organizer fee goes towards covering things such as customer support costs, replacement of failed hardware, and network hardware upgrades.
Billing History
Under the “Billing History” heading shows your total historical spending statistics, month by month. Clicking the “Export to csv” button will give you a full spreadsheet download of your entire spending history.