The Hong Kongers would never get away with what they are doing to the police in the United States.
Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app
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Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app
#12How is it safe? I doubt its complicated to figure out which nodes are broadcasting/unicasting the most frequently, without looking at the content if you have cops at every block logging bluetooth traffic. What's interesting is how quickly China has reacted to all this, in terms of pumping massive disinformation onto Twitter/Facebook/Youtube. There have to be upper limits on scaling that capability. And that is where…
It's encrypted and the only information it gives up, only when you do a system wide broadcast, is the broadcasters phone number. So the leaders use burner phones and the problem is solved.
What's important compared to other apps is that the protesters self selected it. If the US government were to provide some funding the next step would to build higher powered repeaters that can be placed on top of tall buildings. Can you imagine a city wide communication system for pro-Democracy forces in Hong Kong or Teheran?
Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app
#13Don't they require a state-run app on everyone's phones as part of their social credit system? It should at least know who is using the mesh app if nothing else?
Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app
#14The Hong Kongers would never get away with what they are doing to the police in the United States.
The Hong Kong government would never get away with what they are doing to the people in the United States.
Situation is two sides of a coin. That said, your comment is not adding to the topic of the app.
Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app
#15Don't they require a state-run app on everyone's phones as part of their social credit system? It should at least know who is using the mesh app if nothing else?
I don't think that applies to HK (yet), which auxiliarily is related to what the protesters are protesting about (separation of legal zones)
Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app
#16Super interesting. At Burning Man this year it seemed like a significant percent of the city had goTennas, which had never been true before. I also remember reading about a big mesh in Brooklyn being a thing recently. I bet we’re going to be hearing more about practical mesh networks in the coming years.
Reminds me of Nintendo's PictoChat, a peer-to-peer, physical proximity-based chat application that was built into the DS. I've written about it on here before [0]:
> [You could] chat on one of four available channels with nearby users over local wireless, by exchanging text and hand-drawn pictures.
> At about the peak of its popularity—right before smartphones became truly prevalent among kids my age—I was doing middle school science fairs. This involved lots of standing around waiting in front of your trifold posterboard while judges slowly worked their way along the rows and rows of other projects. We weren't supposed to leave our own stations in the meantime, and they were spaced out enough to make talking with your neighbors inconvenient. Instead, the whole room was on PictoChat, filling up all four channels with streams of chatter and doodles and mutual commiseration on our anxieties over presenting to the judges.
For a company known for perpetually trailing behind its competitors in online services, Nintendo was oddly ahead of its time here (and with the Download Play feature, too: peer-to-peer software distribution and wireless networking!).
Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app
#17How is it safe? I doubt its complicated to figure out which nodes are broadcasting/unicasting the most frequently, without looking at the content if you have cops at every block logging bluetooth traffic. What's interesting is how quickly China has reacted to all this, in terms of pumping massive disinformation onto Twitter/Facebook/Youtube. There have to be upper limits on scaling that capability. And that is where…
It's encrypted and the only information it gives up, only when you do a system wide broadcast, is the broadcasters phone number. So the leaders use burner phones and the problem is solved. What's important compared to other apps is that the protesters self selected it. If the US government were to provide some funding the next step would to build higher powered repeaters that can be placed on top of tall buildings. C…
> the next step would to build higher powered repeaters that can be placed on top of tall buildings.
Nice sentiment, but technically counterproductive for mesh networks. Wide coverage nodes create/suffer the “hidden transmitter problem”. Mesh performance degrades overall. Smaller footprint repeaters, and more of them, are a better solution.
Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app
#18I just tried the app via the US App Store and it requires you to verify through SMS before use. This means that it’s neither anonymous nor fit for use in a disaster zone.
Good example of software that would be better if open source.
Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app
#19Obviously since it’s the only safe option, I can see why the Chinese are using it, but I have to wonder what sort of bandwidth can realistically be supported by any mesh network.
Re: Hong Kong protestors using Bridgefy's Bluetooth-based mesh network messaging app
#20The Hong Kongers would never get away with what they are doing to the police in the United States.
Arguably it's the right of the people to bear arms against tyranny.