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

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

#441

Post by bravoetch »

jahsome wrote: post #427
baobun wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care for some more constructive criticism?

I'll ask more directly: What's the use case and/or value proposition for the average person? I've heard about it a few times over the last 24 hours, and I'm relatively off social media, so that to me indicates a considerable buzz. But the only thing that gets headlines is "Jack did a thing!" And the readme is primarily jargon. I can't speak for GP, but it's not clear to me _why_ it's a Really Big Deal.

For the average person, probably not much use. But we're in an interesting time where laptops and phones are ubiquitous and all of them have bluetooth. It being open source, and already ported to Android, is a bit special too. Seems like a coinflip whether it catches on, and if people start using it for concerts, festivals, group camps or whatever, then in a disaster it will already be there for people.

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

#442

Post by jahsome »

theultdev wrote: post #439
jahsome wrote: post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean useful in general or useful in this specific application? If the goal is transmitting a message how do coordinates from a "read-only" device facilitate a p2p transfer?

I meant useful in general. It's slightly off topic, but I think many people overlook the fact they are just a bluetooth mesh network as well. Imagine one just as large as the airtag + iphone ecosystem but with messaging capabilities! Would be cool to see one built into android + iphones but that will never happen. But a 3rd party could get so popular that it achieves somewhat close to that. I'd imagine remote village…

Ah! I see the connection of your points. Thanks so much for your thoughtful responses.

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

#444

Post by theultdev »

jcon321 wrote: post #443

What's the usecase for this? Texting your classmates right next to you when wifi is down and you didnt pay your phone bill? It requires peers to be running bitchat. So is this only going to be useful if everyone has bitchat installed?

- hiking

- protests

- festivals / events

- remote communities

details are in other comments in this thread.

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

#445

Post by jahsome »

bravoetch wrote: post #441
jahsome wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll ask more directly: What's the use case and/or value proposition for the average person? I've heard about it a few times over the last 24 hours, and I'm relatively off social media, so that to me indicates a considerable buzz. But the only thing that gets headlines is "Jack did a thing!" And the readme is primarily jargon. I can't speak for GP, but it's not clear to me _why_ it's a Really Big Deal.

For the average person, probably not much use. But we're in an interesting time where laptops and phones are ubiquitous and all of them have bluetooth. It being open source, and already ported to Android, is a bit special too. Seems like a coinflip whether it catches on, and if people start using it for concerts, festivals, group camps or whatever, then in a disaster it will already be there for people.

I feel like it probably has particilar applications, especially if seamlessly integrated, but I also can't but help feeling like there's a certain level of "protocol fatigue" for non-tech folks.

In my experience a lot of people dont really understand the distinction between WiFi and Cellular for example. Or maybe more relevant, SMS vs MMS vs RCS.

That's not to say it can't or won't work, but rather the tech is interesting but I imagine a lot of potential friction for early adopters, which seems (to my limited understanding) self defeating as it only works if there's a critical mass of users.

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

#447

Post by tgv »

rtkwe wrote: post #413
tgv wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are other difficult scenarios as well, and that you might underestimate the size of an island. There are isolated cities, e.g. Perth with 2M inhabitants, and practically nothing around it. One option --but it might require some centralization-- is that people announce they're going to travel, and stash a bunch of messages. If the sender can provide information about the geographical destination, that co…

Building the map of what nodes are where is definitely a hard challenge and why most mesh networks have just resorted to flood broadcasting with occasional replays instead of trying to build actual routing in then adding 'mesh tunnels' over the internet like Meshtastic's use of MQTT to link geographically disparate clusters of nodes. It's better with static nodes where you don't have to constantly rebuild your routin…

I'd recommend building simulations before you spend time on implementing any strategy. You could also looks up random graph theory. There might be some usable results wrt. connectivity.

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

#448

Post by strangattractor »

immibis wrote: post #389
strangattractor wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody ever addresses the money laundering issue or wash trading that goes on that gives Bitcoin the illusion of liquidity. >".... one entity in charge which gets to set the level of fairness" Exactly what is unfair about the current system? The way we insure fairness is with laws and regulation. A system without those will suffer - well - lawlessness. How is it centralized? The vast majority of dollars only exist as…

If you don't think the government is corrupt, I don't know what to tell you. You can keep on using your "fair" government currency (which the government prints by the hundred billion and gives to its billionaire friends) for everything, I'll be over here wishing for alternatives to Bitcoin. Do you even hold significant government currency, or do you only hold the layer-2 bank currency, and stocks?

Yes my entire retirement is in "gov't currency" called US dollars and Stocks.

I asked for specific evidence or instances of corruption or unfairness. Making an accusation (gov't is corrupt) without evidence or example and saying something is true repeatedly is not a substitute for actual evidence. There are many documented cases of money laundering and wash trades with Bitcoin. These same activities are done using fiat currencies, but in the US at least BT (before Trump), they were illegal and people doing it were subject to criminal investigation. I do agree that there are many gov't policies that have lead to inequities in the distribution of the money that should be addressed.

Bitcoin will only make a fixed number of Bitcoins but they forked Bitcoins into 2 separate coins years ago which some might consider as printing more Bitcoin since everyone got a copy of their existing coins. New ShitCoins are minted to scam people on a regular basis. If anything the barriers to printing too much money are lower with Crypto because it is so easy to make a new coin type. Have you invested in any NFT's lately? What about coin front running? [0]

[0] https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentina-main-stock-...

Thinking Crypto is not subject to corruption is very naive.

>"If you don't think the government is corrupt, I don't know what to tell you. " If you cannot explain of give examples then I have to assume you don't really know - it is your opinion. I am sure people living in certain deeply corrupt countries - Russia comes to mind - like Bitcoin because their countries currencies are unstable and access to other currencies is limited. That said the reason they like it is BC can be exchanged for stable currencies to buy things. If those stable currencies did not exist BC would be useless for them also.

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

#450

Post by molszanski »

rtkwe wrote: post #394
molszanski wrote: post #202

I've tried a couple of apps like that with use case of communicating during festivals with next-to-none wifi/cell service with a big group of people. None of them worked. Fingers crossed for this one

Checkout Meshtastic nodes you can get them pretty cheaply at 30-40 USD each and get way better ranges than BTLE.

Thank you!
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