Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 457 posts

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

#281

Post by rtkwe »

miketery wrote: post #253
Aurornis wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

In helium there was no input revenue. OP mentions payment to send. This is a very different scheme.

It's the same scheme. You had to purchase Data Credits to send on Helium too, there was no input revenue because no one was choosing to use it but it's largely the same as the scheme behind the Helium network. 1 DC/24 Bytes sent and successfully delivered.

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

#282

Post by dylan604 »

deweller wrote: post #223
repeekad wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

Cryptocurrency transfers are irreversible, publicly verifiable and pseudonymous. For a privacy focused application, these attributes make crypto a better choice than USD and the traditional banking system.

> For a privacy focused application, these attributes make crypto a better choice than USD and the traditional banking system.

So is cash. What we really need are ways of scanning a piece of fiat currency that instantly transfers that money to an account while then disabling the physical copy from the registry as valid. That's how silly I see crypto for anything other than illicit transactions

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

#283

Post by cpeth »

sardine5 wrote: post #143
cpeth wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any chance it could use seamless transport switching? It would be so awesome if it could switch to cellular(if available) or wifi-direct as needed on the fly. I have been thinking about creating such an app but lacked the time. If it's open source, I would love to help. I will give your app a try.

I actually have this kind of working on a branch - really don't fancy hosting any infrastructure myself though - so I was intending it to be a Windows service or docker container you have to setup and pair with. Once you've done that - the endpoint is included in any group you create, and treated as an extra node in the graph. If available and lower latency than other routes, it'll be used. Was trying to keep things…

This sounds perfect for my use case. I'm a mountain biker who doesn't mind setting up hosting infra. It's fairly common when mountain biking to unintentionally get separated by line-of-sight or more than 75M even among very similarly skilled riders. Even on straight easy trails, just the dust cloud generated by the rider ahead can cause you to back off significant distance if it's dusty.

I've used these[0] in the past and they worked ok. I lost the pair I bought when traveling and thought using the plethora of radios I have with me anyway on my phone with an earbud headphone would be much better replacement. Would be great for group rides to just send an app link instead of suggesting they all buy $100 hardware.

Honestly I think a well marketed and polished commercial app would have both Sena and Cardo[1] both quite existentially scared.

[0]: https://www.sena.com/en-us/product/pi/ [1]: https://cardosystems.com/

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

#284

Post by dylan604 »

pizzafeelsright wrote: post #234
deweller wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cryptocurrency transfers are irreversible, publicly verifiable and pseudonymous. For a privacy focused application, these attributes make crypto a better choice than USD and the traditional banking system.

How? Irreversible is bad because mistakes happen. I lost ~$1,000 in a bad transfer because of a typo. Publicly verifiable -- not good because I don't want the public knowing what I buy. Pseudonymous is the worst of both. Is it or is it not me? them? I am thinking digital cash using pub keys on a network run from space on something like starlink sats.

> I lost ~$1,000 in a bad transfer because of a typo.

Was the option of doing a much smaller amount available to validate the account before following up with the full transfer? I've never understood not doing a test transfer first.

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

#285

Post by rtkwe »

simondanerd wrote: post #204
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…

I'd like to point you towards Meshtastic [1]. It's off-grid, decentralized text messaging that allows for encryption, and is inexpensive to get into (a basic node is about $30 or less), and don't require a license to operate. The firmware on these devices is open source (minus proprietary blobs for ESP32 WiFi, etc.) and the community is active. Check the Meshmap [2] to see some nodes that have made their location pub…

The meshtastic coverage might be much better in your area than it looks on Meshmap too. It relies on being connected to the main MQTT [0] server to get placed there and lots of people don't do that because the chatter there can be spammy and irrelevant to you locally. There are many city or state specific MQTT meshes that are far more popular. For example NCMesh [1] has way better coverage in NC, though most contacts still happen over MQTT instead of via RF, compared to the same area on Meshmap.

So long as you're using the standard long fast and 0/20 frequency slot you'll still have your messages passed via NCMesh nodes even if you're using the broader US Mesh as your MQTT server.

[0] MQTT here simply tunnels the messages over the internet so you get placed in a broader chat room and pseudomesh than you could reach through RF.

[1] https://ncmesh.net/learn/#coverage

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

#286

Post by jdelman »

My wife and I have been using Berkanan (an iOS app) for many years for this purpose. It's not very good - unlike literally every other chat app, it presents conversations in reverse chronological order, and the interface is janky. But it gets the job done when there's no WiFi (airplanes, though this is becoming less of a problem) or cell service (crowded venues).

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

#287

Post by bigyabai »

8fingerlouie wrote: post #121
thejazzman wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They shut it down because 30%. There was a version of Apple at a point in time where I agree with your rhetoric. They have completely lost credibility to uphold that position IMO. Apple definitely does not spend billions guaranteeing "quality". To prove my point, where does Apple even define what they consider "quality"? How can you quantify such an aubjecrive and ambiguous term? They spend billions paying out the 70…

The 30% also covers refunds, legal stuff (not stuff IN your app, but regarding the sale of it), taxes, GDPR and much more. The infrastructure running the app store probably also isn't cheap. I'm not saying Apple doesn't profit from it, but they're not just pocketing every penny. As for "quality", they mostly check that your app isn't using unauthorized APIs, or doing other scetchy stuff, like leeching all of your dat…

> the damage will be somewhat limited if it can't use private APIs.

That's a runtime feature, it has nothing to do with the App Store.

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

#288

Post by sneak »

simondanerd wrote: post #204
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…

I'd like to point you towards Meshtastic [1]. It's off-grid, decentralized text messaging that allows for encryption, and is inexpensive to get into (a basic node is about $30 or less), and don't require a license to operate. The firmware on these devices is open source (minus proprietary blobs for ESP32 WiFi, etc.) and the community is active. Check the Meshmap [2] to see some nodes that have made their location pub…

Meshtastic barely works. There are only a few hundred nodes in Las Vegas and already the main public channels are at high utilization with almost no real end user traffic on it.

I love the project and participate, but people mentioning stuff like this in response to buzzwords irritates me. Like ipfs it is a buzzword-driven curiosity, not a real solution to real problems that anyone has.

Additionally, the meshtastic encryption is a toy. In 2025 when you say encryption you make people think of modern features like replay resistance, perfect forward secrecy, etc. Meshtastic doesn’t do any of this.

Post reply on HN