MeshT
Enabling Offline Blockchain Payment System
Created on 28th December 2025
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MeshT
Enabling Offline Blockchain Payment System
The problem MeshT solves
Modern digital payment systems and blockchain transactions rely heavily on continuous internet connectivity, making them unreliable in real-world conditions such as network congestion, outages, disasters, rural regions, and large crowded environments. Even when users are physically close and capable of local device-to-device communication, value transfer fails because existing systems depend on centralized, internet-based infrastructure. This creates a critical weakness in the resilience of digital financial systems.
How meshT Helps
meshT enables users to create and cryptographically sign blockchain transactions completely offline and propagate them through nearby devices using a Bluetooth Low Energy mesh network. Transactions are forwarded opportunistically between devices until an internet-connected node is reached, which then submits the transaction to the blockchain. This approach decouples transaction creation from internet availability, eliminating connectivity as a single point of failure.
What People Can Use It For
- Emergency and disaster scenarios where internet infrastructure is unavailable
- Large events, campuses, and crowded venues experiencing network congestion
- Rural and low-connectivity regions with intermittent or unreliable internet access
- Backup or fallback payment infrastructure when traditional systems fail
- Offline-first financial and transaction systems that prioritize reliability over real-time execution
Why It Is Safer and More Reliable
- No funds, balances, or private keys are ever transferred between devices
- Only cryptographically signed transaction data is propagated through the mesh
- Relay and gateway nodes cannot modify, redirect, or steal transactions
- All balance updates and final settlement occur exclusively on the blockchain
Impact
meshT improves the resilience of digital value transfer by ensuring that transactions can still be delivered and executed even under adverse connectivity conditions. It provides a secure, decentralized, and failure-tolerant foundation for offline-capable financial systems.
Challenges we ran into
One of the primary challenges was handling the limitations of Bluetooth Low Energy, particularly its extremely small payload size. A single signed blockchain transaction had to be split into nearly a hundred fragments, which introduced issues such as packet loss, out-of-order delivery, and redundant rebroadcasting. To address this, we implemented a robust fragmentation and reassembly mechanism using message identifiers, chunk indexing, and local state tracking to ensure data integrity and correct reconstruction.
Another major hurdle was managing latency and network congestion in dense environments where many devices were offline and blindly rebroadcasting packets. This initially caused unnecessary delays and excessive BLE traffic. We overcame this by adding controlled rebroadcasting, message caching, and opportunistic forwarding logic that biases propagation toward likely internet-enabled gateway nodes, significantly reducing redundant transmissions without breaking existing functionality.
We also faced challenges in securely executing transactions when the sender was offline, particularly around gas fees and transaction submission. This was resolved by integrating meta-transactions, allowing gateway nodes to sponsor gas fees while preserving cryptographic security and preventing transaction tampering.
Together, these solutions allowed us to build a resilient, offline-first transaction delivery system that maintains correctness, security, and reliability under real-world constraints.
Tracks Applied (2)
Ethereum Track
ETHIndia
Creative Use of Kiro
AWS
Technologies used