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| writing:solarpunk_networks [2025/12/05 16:16] – JacobCoffinWrites | writing:solarpunk_networks [2026/03/03 23:57] (current) – JacobCoffinWrites |
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| **[[https://meshtastic.org/docs/introduction/|Meshtastic]]/[[https://meshcore.co.uk/about.html|Meshcore]]** | **[[https://meshtastic.org/docs/introduction/|Meshtastic]]/[[https://meshcore.co.uk/about.html|Meshcore]]** |
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| These meshnets use inexpensive LoRa radios to run long-range off-grid communication platforms. Basically you set up these small radio devices, some of which look like a microchip with an antenna attached, others of which look like small walkie talkies, and use them to send texts (usually by connecting them to a cell phone with an app or similar). There's a ton of interesting things you can do with the network as long as you can do it by sending short text messages. People run Internet of Things -style devices using these networks, they set up Tile-style trackers with small GPS-enabled chips that shout out their location on the meshnet, there's all kinds of clever stuff. But it's not equivalent to the internet - you can't set up and visit web sites or anything like that. | These meshnets use inexpensive LoRa radios to run long-range off-grid communication platforms. Basically you set up these small radio devices, some of which look like a microchip with an antenna attached, others of which look like small walkie talkies, and use them to send texts (usually by connecting them to a cell phone with an app or similar). There's a ton of interesting things you can do with the network as long as you can do it by sending short text messages. People run Internet of Things -style devices using these networks, they set up Tile-style trackers with small GPS-enabled chips that shout out their location on the meshnet, there's all kinds of [[https://slrpnk.net/post/31083746|clever stuff]]. But it's not equivalent to the internet - you can't set up and visit web sites or anything like that. |
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| [[https://www.austinmesh.org/learn/meshcore-vs-meshtastic/|How they work and how they're different]]: | [[https://www.austinmesh.org/learn/meshcore-vs-meshtastic/|How they work and how they're different]]: |
| So this one is more complicated - it's basically a lot of the above but also it's a whole alternate internet. Reticulum is a whole cryptography-based network stack which [[https://slrpnk.net/post/12490840|feels like it was developed from the ground up out of radio networking protocols]]. It can run over the same LoRa radio devices Meshtastic and Meshcore can use, but it can also use ad-hoc WiFi, data radios, modems, serial lines, amateur radio digital modes, and it can even tunnel through the Internet (meaning you could set up a local mesh of LoRa radios, old personal computers and laptops, and whatever wireless routers and other networking gear you can find, connect a neighborhood together using Reticulum as the underlying network, then connect that through the internet to Reticulum networks anywhere in the world. You can write software to run on Reticulum, and it already has a bunch of programs like [[https://github.com/markqvist/nomadnet|NomadNet]] which can do encrypted messaging (same goal as Meshtastic and Meshcore) but also host and view text-based web pages and I think some other stuff. In a lot of ways, this one feels like the meshnet you'd see in a scifi book, an all-encrypted network stack that allows you to just link together any old hardware you can scrape together and rebuild a decentralized version of the internet grounded in much more secure protocols. (I'll admit I straight up don't understand how a lot of this works on the network/cryptography level, it actually seems similar to [[https://www.torproject.org/|Tor]] in some ways but I don't understand that very well either.) | So this one is more complicated - it's basically a lot of the above but also it's a whole alternate internet. Reticulum is a whole cryptography-based network stack which [[https://slrpnk.net/post/12490840|feels like it was developed from the ground up out of radio networking protocols]]. It can run over the same LoRa radio devices Meshtastic and Meshcore can use, but it can also use ad-hoc WiFi, data radios, modems, serial lines, amateur radio digital modes, and it can even tunnel through the Internet (meaning you could set up a local mesh of LoRa radios, old personal computers and laptops, and whatever wireless routers and other networking gear you can find, connect a neighborhood together using Reticulum as the underlying network, then connect that through the internet to Reticulum networks anywhere in the world. You can write software to run on Reticulum, and it already has a bunch of programs like [[https://github.com/markqvist/nomadnet|NomadNet]] which can do encrypted messaging (same goal as Meshtastic and Meshcore) but also host and view text-based web pages and I think some other stuff. In a lot of ways, this one feels like the meshnet you'd see in a scifi book, an all-encrypted network stack that allows you to just link together any old hardware you can scrape together and rebuild a decentralized version of the internet grounded in much more secure protocols. (I'll admit I straight up don't understand how a lot of this works on the network/cryptography level, it actually seems similar to [[https://www.torproject.org/|Tor]] in some ways but I don't understand that very well either.) |
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| | If you'd like to read more about this from someone who does understand it, there's a very good beginner's guide here: https://www.carstenboll.dk/reticulum-a-beginners-guide/ |
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| === Real life Meshnets === | === Real life Meshnets === |
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| Meshtastic, Meshcore, and Reticulum are real enough, they exist, but modern history has at least a few examples of DIY mesh/street networks that operated without a formal project drafted ahead of time: | Meshtastic, Meshcore, and Reticulum are real enough, they exist, but modern history has at least a few examples of DIY mesh/street networks that operated without a formal project drafted ahead of time. The biggest one I'm aware of was in Cuba: |
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| https://gizmodo.com/cubas-illegal-underground-internet-is-thriving-1681797114 | https://gizmodo.com/cubas-illegal-underground-internet-is-thriving-1681797114 |
| **[[https://geminiprotocol.net/docs/faq-section-1.gmi|Gemini Protocol]]** | **[[https://geminiprotocol.net/docs/faq-section-1.gmi|Gemini Protocol]]** |
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| Gemini is a 'text-centric' web alternative designed for people who are stick of how complicated, surveillance-heavy, and generally enshittified the web has gotten. It enables you to set up and view text-based 'capsules' (the local equivalent of a website) and is actually pretty well hardened against adding the kind of new features and bloat which would cause it to follow in the web's footprints. It places an emphasis on reading without distraction, popups, ads, or unnecessary cruft, and allows the user to control how the sites look. It's a good fit for people who have low bandwidth, like simple tech, or appreciate privacy. So while it's not a mesh network, you might see how something so bare-bones might be a good fit for one, given the low requirements on processing power and bandwidth. And there's even an [[https://github.com/markqvist/Reticulum/discussions/860|implementation of Gemini on Reticulum]]! So if you want to get some ideas for what a solarpunk internet might look like, maybe [[https://geminiquickst.art/|wander around Gemini a little]]. | Gemini is a 'text-centric' web alternative designed for people who are stick of how complicated, surveillance-heavy, and generally enshittified the web has gotten. It enables you to set up and view text-based 'capsules' (the local equivalent of a website) and is actually pretty well hardened against adding the kind of new features and bloat which would cause it to follow in the web's footprints. It places an emphasis on reading without distraction, popups, ads, or unnecessary cruft, and allows the user to control how the sites look. It's a good fit for people who have low bandwidth, like simple tech, or appreciate privacy (it's encrypted by default). So while it's not a mesh network, you might see how something so bare-bones might be a good fit for one, given the low requirements on processing power and bandwidth. And there's even an [[https://github.com/markqvist/Reticulum/discussions/860|implementation of Gemini on Reticulum]]! So if you want to get some ideas for what a solarpunk internet might look like, maybe [[https://geminiquickst.art/|wander around Gemini a little]]. |
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