Oddbean

I’ll let Derek speak more eloquently, but my sense is that its ability to to transmit text over radio, connected via Bluetooth to a phone or computer, encrypted if needed, provides a means of communication over a decentralized mesh network that doesn’t rely on your ISP (whether for privacy or in scenarios where centralized infrastructure goes down). Examples like coordinating gasoline or water in a natural disaster, organizing a protest against a hostile government, and (maybe? hopefully?) broadcasting nostr notes and Bitcoin transactions with reduced reliance on or exposure to unfriendly or unavailable third parties. And it’s f’ing cool toy to tinker with 😎 Do I have that about right?

This is a great explanation. I saw yesterday that someone wrote a bulletin board system to work over LoRa. I've seen handheld devices with keyboards that look like old school BlackBerry devices. No need for a Bluetooth or WiFi connection to a smartphone at that point. The tech is young, but very cool.

I love the blackberry idea, that's next level… just thinking through the opportunity/potential here in terms of democratizing/decentralizing digital comms and transfers of value… it may not be that “everyone” owns a UTXO and runs a node (nor does it need to), or buys their [insert good or service here] with self-custodies Lightning over Nostr over sovereign/community-supported mesh radio (lol am I a proper nerd yet?), but the fact that anyone who wants to CAN — and what that means philosophically and socially — is downright fucking mind blowing.

But it has a range limitation. Does it mean that we might need to create a network of these devices with certain relatively stable spatial configuration so that the signals can be broadcasted from one to another via other ones in between, allowing thus a longer range of communication?

That’s a good question and I would think the answer yes/maybe. My loose understanding is that it’s effectively interoperable with the internet (if not directly, then by being able to connect through an app to an internet-connected device, which presumably could then exchange data with online service through an API) means that you could have pretty effective connectivity with a blend of methods — radio where needed, and internet where the ISP is not problematic.