I think one problem with these initiatives is that money is usually not involved. When things like bandwidth are free, the demand tends to be higher than supply

I think one problem with these initiatives is that money is usually not involved. When things like bandwidth are free, the demand tends to be higher than supply. Limited bandwidth then limits the possibilities. I'm not proposing a system where you would pay to "TOR Ltd" for their services. Instead the "economy" should be network based, with no single entity controlling it. If I wanted to send stuff through the network I could say that I'm willing to pay x coins for this. The network would figure out cost efficient route and the participating nodes would get the payment. If I wanted to earn money (or credits), I could do so by putting my machine as part of the network and offering my network capacity to others. If thinks would work out well, there would be people earning some money by running nodes on the network. Just like they are people investing in Bitcoin mining rigs.