Cache to the Future: A Distributed Webpage Archive for Internet Blackouts

2026-06-15

AI Summary

This work addresses the challenge of accessing static web content during internet outages, a scenario inadequately supported by existing censorship-resilient technologies. The authors propose a distributed web caching system that leverages community-driven crowdsourcing to cooperatively cache and disseminate static content. To ensure content integrity and resilience against malicious interference, the system integrates cryptographic mechanisms including digital signatures and proof-of-work. It represents the first large-scale solution enabling offline accessibility of web pages in disconnected environments and introduces an innovative cache replacement policy driven by community-based reputation scoring. Large-scale urban simulations demonstrate that the proposed approach efficiently and robustly delivers content under both normal and adversarial conditions, confirming its practical feasibility and effectiveness.

Abstract

Internet blackouts, occurring due to technological mishaps or intentional governmental action, prevent citizens from accessing the internet. Citizens in regions where internet blackouts are common have utilized blackout-resistant technologies to maintain communication. Such technologies often rely on mobile mesh networks to provide limited messaging services. However, no technology currently exists which can provide continued access to knowledge sources on the web during a blackout. We present Cache to the Future (CttF): a system to cache and deliver static content hosted on the web during a blackout. CttF's distributed community ratings crowdsources caching at scale while cryptographic constructs (digital signatures, proofs-of-work) mitigate adversarial interference. Our realistic simulations demonstrate CttF delivering content at city-scale across a wide range of benign and adversarial scenarios.

Problem

• internet blackouts
• web archive
• content access
• distributed caching
• information availability

Innovation

• distributed caching
• internet blackout resilience
• cryptographic integrity
• crowdsourced archiving
• mesh network content delivery