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Bitchat – A decentralized messaging app that works over Bluetooth mesh networks

github.com

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Re: Bitchat – A decentralized messaging app that works over Bluetooth mesh networks

#211

Post by pizzafeelsright »

Beretta_Vexee wrote: post #209

As much as I like the idea of people working on peer-to-peer networks, delay tolerant network, if I'm within Bluetooth range, it's quicker to chat with the person I'm talking to than to go through a messaging app. That technology is interesting, but it is probably not a good usecase. There are potentially lots of interesting things you could do with smart watches and bike computers, such as uploading activities witho…

I would agree although I can see a few applications of the tech that could be helpful.

Consider if at a large conference where enough participants are able to create a mesh and then leave geo tagged messages and send beyond BT range.

If there was a way to piggyback on top of the airtag network we could do a lot more.

Re: Bitchat – A decentralized messaging app that works over Bluetooth mesh networks

#212

Post by elric »

Beretta_Vexee wrote: post #209

As much as I like the idea of people working on peer-to-peer networks, delay tolerant network, if I'm within Bluetooth range, it's quicker to chat with the person I'm talking to than to go through a messaging app. That technology is interesting, but it is probably not a good usecase. There are potentially lots of interesting things you could do with smart watches and bike computers, such as uploading activities witho…

We can communicate in more ways than just with words. Would be great to FINALLY have a sensible, low-friction, secure way to transfer files to people. It's 2025 and that's still not a solved problem.

Re: Bitchat – A decentralized messaging app that works over Bluetooth mesh networks

#213

Post by Beretta_Vexee »

elric wrote: post #212
Beretta_Vexee wrote: post #209

As much as I like the idea of people working on peer-to-peer networks, delay tolerant network, if I'm within Bluetooth range, it's quicker to chat with the person I'm talking to than to go through a messaging app. That technology is interesting, but it is probably not a good usecase. There are potentially lots of interesting things you could do with smart watches and bike computers, such as uploading activities witho…

We can communicate in more ways than just with words. Would be great to FINALLY have a sensible, low-friction, secure way to transfer files to people. It's 2025 and that's still not a solved problem.

You probably don't need a decentralised, delay-tolerant network to send a photo to the person in front of you. It's even very likely that this will be much less efficient than a direct Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection or an AirDrop.

What would be the use case? Send the picture to someone at the other end of the lecture theatre? It's likely that there would be a phone network or Wi-Fi available. A crisis or emergency situation where networks are down? There isn't much population density or movement to propagate the data.

This debate is not new, many teams have worked on wireless ad hoc networks, some with very encouraging results. The real problem is what the use cases are.

That's why I personally think that the use case should be related to travel, transport, sport or vehicle-to-vehicle communication. Situations involving movement and loss of connectivity.

Re: Bitchat – A decentralized messaging app that works over Bluetooth mesh networks

#216

Post by kiernan »

moneywaters wrote: post #96

I’ve been toying with a concept inspired by Apple’s Find My network: Imagine a decentralized, delay-tolerant messaging system where messages hop device-to-device (e.g., via Bluetooth, UWB, Wi-Fi Direct), similar to how “Find My” relays location via nearby iPhones. Now add a twist: • Senders pay a small fee to send a message. • Relaying devices earn a micro-payment (could be tokens, sats, etc.) for carrying the messag…

“One hop further” sounds like an unbounded loose end… could you tighten this up further somehow? Pre-allocate a larger, more worthwhile portion to do a round trip or something else more verifiable?

Re: Bitchat – A decentralized messaging app that works over Bluetooth mesh networks

#217

Post by concats »

moneywaters wrote: post #96

I’ve been toying with a concept inspired by Apple’s Find My network: Imagine a decentralized, delay-tolerant messaging system where messages hop device-to-device (e.g., via Bluetooth, UWB, Wi-Fi Direct), similar to how “Find My” relays location via nearby iPhones. Now add a twist: • Senders pay a small fee to send a message. • Relaying devices earn a micro-payment (could be tokens, sats, etc.) for carrying the messag…

Sounds like a solution looking for a problem.

Re: Bitchat – A decentralized messaging app that works over Bluetooth mesh networks

#218

Post by repeekad »

Aurornis wrote: post #201
moneywaters wrote: post #96

I’ve been toying with a concept inspired by Apple’s Find My network: Imagine a decentralized, delay-tolerant messaging system where messages hop device-to-device (e.g., via Bluetooth, UWB, Wi-Fi Direct), similar to how “Find My” relays location via nearby iPhones. Now add a twist: • Senders pay a small fee to send a message. • Relaying devices earn a micro-payment (could be tokens, sats, etc.) for carrying the messag…

> Senders pay a small fee to send a message. • Relaying devices earn a micro-payment (could be tokens, sats, etc.) for carrying the message one hop further. The Helium Network tried something like this, but with a fixed infrastructure: People were incentivized to run Helium network nodes and could earn micropayments for running nodes and handling traffic. It revealed a lot of problems with structures like this, such…

> I think it would be interesting if someone could invent a stable coin cryptocurrency with low overhead

Like the US dollar and Postgres?

For like $200 anyone can start a business entity in the US with a tax ID and a bank, I’m still yet to understand how crypto is better other than for circumventing regulators

Re: Bitchat – A decentralized messaging app that works over Bluetooth mesh networks

#219

Post by elric »

Beretta_Vexee wrote: post #213
elric wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can communicate in more ways than just with words. Would be great to FINALLY have a sensible, low-friction, secure way to transfer files to people. It's 2025 and that's still not a solved problem.

You probably don't need a decentralised, delay-tolerant network to send a photo to the person in front of you. It's even very likely that this will be much less efficient than a direct Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection or an AirDrop. What would be the use case? Send the picture to someone at the other end of the lecture theatre? It's likely that there would be a phone network or Wi-Fi available. A crisis or emergency sit…

> Send the picture to someone at the other end of the lecture theatre? It's likely that there would be a phone network or Wi-Fi available.

Now you're back to using a centralised system using a network you know nothing about, operated by someone you don't know.

> direct Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection or an AirDrop

AirDrop is not cross platform AFAIK. Direct wifi or bluetooth aren't the easiest to work with for non-technical users.

> A crisis or emergency situation where networks are down? There isn't much population density or movement to propagate the data.

Why not? Do emergencies only occur when people are few and far between? I think I'm misunderstanding what you're saying.

> That's why I personally think that the use case should be related to travel, transport, sport or vehicle-to-vehicle communication. Situations involving movement and loss of connectivity.

That's certainly a valuable use case, but probably not something that bitchat would be useful for.

Re: Bitchat – A decentralized messaging app that works over Bluetooth mesh networks

#220

Post by Beretta_Vexee »

Tepix wrote: post #99
kragen wrote: post #76

Technical whitepaper: https://github.com/jackjackbits/bitchat/blob/main/WHITEPAPER... Presumably that is the key to getting out of the Apple ghetto.

From the whitepaper: " bitchat implements a custom mesh networking protocol over BLE " I wonder why they didn‘t implement the BLE mesh networking standard released in 2017 by the Bluetooth SIG.

There are already several open source implementations, but the Bluetooth SIG standard only supports flood propagation.

This is fine for managing a few hundred temperature sensors or lighting controls up to the building's floor concentrator, which is the main use case for this standard, but it is completely unsuitable for sending individual messages from user A to user B.

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