How It Works
From your pledge to measured coverage on the mesh.
Curious why this matters in the first place? Read the problem →
1. Subscribers pledge a small monthly amount
Choose any amount between $2 and $20 a month. Your pledge goes into a pool that rewards node operators for the coverage their nodes deliver.
2. Airborne Operators carry a node on flights they were already taking
Verified pilots carry their own registered Meshtastic radio on flights they had their own reasons to make. Higher elevation gives these devices enormous range, bridging nodes on the ground that could never otherwise reach each other. Fuel The Mesh does not ask anyone to fly, and has no say in whether, when or where they do.
3. High Elevation Operators put a node somewhere useful and leave it there
A node stationary with significant elevation, on a ridge, a tower, a rooftop or a mast, is there on the nights nobody flies, which is most of them. Fixed sites are funded on exactly the same basis as airborne nodes, out of the same pool, and for most meshes they are the part that makes coverage continuous rather than occasional. Aircraft prove what elevation buys. Fixed sites keep doing it.
4. Network contribution is measured and verified
What counts is how much of the mesh depends on a node: how many others it reaches, and how many of those have no other route home. We work that out from traffic the mesh reported for itself, not from anything an operator told us. We never ask how high a node is, because height earns nothing on its own. It earns through the nodes it demonstrably reaches.
5. The pool is shared out by contribution
Each period the pool is divided among operators in proportion to validated network contribution. Reaching nodes nobody else reached, bridging areas that were cut off, and staying on the network are what earn a share. Distance covered and time in the air do not. Being the only link to a node earns far more than being one of ten routes to a busy one. Subscribers can optionally direct their pledge to a specific city or campaign.
Airborne operators have the bigger advantage by a wide margin. Fixed operators have the one that never goes home. Both are paid out of the same pool, on the same basis.
What we reward, and what we do not
Operators independently run personally owned Meshtastic nodes, some airborne and some fixed to the ground. Fuel The Mesh rewards verified contributions those nodes make to the network. We neither request nor compensate for flights, and we have no control over whether, when, where or how participants operate aircraft. A node simply happens to perform exceptionally well when its operator is flying.