This is sort of privacy-adjacent, but over the weekend I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about mesh networking and LoRa radio. While more technical posts may come in the future, yesterday I wrote down some thoughts I had about the right tools for the job for anyone who may be interested in this topic.
TL;DR I think https://reticulum.network/ is very cool.
I will say big tech has flirted with mesh networking. Amazon has their Sidewalk and Apple and Google have the Find My network and Find Hub. I could see something like WhatsApp or iMessage maybe supporting mesh networking in the future to send messages. LoRa does seem really promising but it seems like it’s held back by the software and doesn’t scale that well.
Would be cool in theory, but would probably just be more ecosystem lock-in in practice. If there was an open mesh standard between devices that iMessage/WhatsApp ran on top of, but the devices were capable of carrying data for other apps too, it could be interesting. Seems more likely Apple would develop an iMessage-only mesh though, like how Find My and Find Hub are ecosystem-specific. I’m not sure about Amazon Sidewalk, but I think it is Ring-specific and not open to other IoT device manufacturers?
I personally disagree it’s likely to happen either way though. It seems like bespoke satellite-connectivity is the current play for Big Tech companies concerned about connectivity, which is even more centralized than cellular networks, much less the internet at large.
It’s also held back by geography. If your home is in a valley or blocked by other buildings then the range will suffer. Antenna height is might. The higher the better.
I am radio amateur (no license, AKA “free” one). The most serious of meshstastic cons is limited amount of hops. You cannot connect through that from like London->Berlin.
It would be nice if someone developed ready-to-use tool working on MW or HW, that can “bounce” farther. Plus 1W transceiver? It should have at least 10W as portable radio station.
I tried to amplify it, even used Hack RF + amp to 8W, but i caused interference and ceased experiments not to harm community.
So mesh network, to be actually usable in regular life, should have no limin in “hops” and better frequency to “shoot” farther.
Even going up to 1 watt LoRa is illegal in many countries, so the USA is lucky that 1W is allowed in this regard.
Though, this is exactly why I’m building a Reticulum mesh that uses LoRa for street-level connectivity, and better radios (or fiber internet as a temporary measure) to bridge longer distances between independent LoRa networks.
Thanks god. I tried to push more power, but got only interference. So i think that those things should be redesigned to avoid interference if there is node that send more power
This kills the idea of Mesh, since you will have to pay for internet bill or even internet outage will break connection between peers.
I think wireless is overregulated. I understand that critical frequencies should be restricted (like cell etc), but restrictions on others? It feels like “big bro watching you”… that’s why i am not going to get license
I’m mixed on this. If it were a free-for-all system, all the available RF would certainly be plundered by big companies. Amateur radio licensing at least ensures only individuals are operating on these frequencies, and they’re typically the same frequencies around the world. I do think certain restrictions on ham radio are unfortunate, like the general encryption ban.
I don’t think so, especially if multiple people on the mesh are running their own internet gateways for redundant access, but it does certainly increase the failure possibility. With Reticulum I can connect to you over LoRa, Microwave, and the internet simultaneously, so if one link goes down there are always backups.
I like the idea of making a globally interconnected mesh through any means necessary, even if it’s not immediately the most resilient. If everyone on the mesh can access anything then it immediately becomes more enticing for more people to join, who will in turn hopefully organically strengthen the network themselves.
I’ve been looking into whether I could purchase access to spectrum under a Business Band license and use it for a mesh. Haven’t deciphered all the regulations here yet, but that would maybe help a lot with range. I’m also not sure if I’d be able to run at the bandwidth required yet in the first place, which is probably the bigger question lol
I played before with meshtastic but mesh core is still on my todo list. Cool stuff.
Really wanna try it, so thanks for the info. I watched the Benn Jordan video “Gifts for anarchists” and I’ve wanted to learn more ever since
How “snoop-proof” are those networks? Since they use radio waves just like every other types of wireless communications, can’t they be hacked into??
Reticulum is E2EE. Meshtastic and MeshCore are practically unencrypted by default but do support encryption if you configure it.
I’m not too sure about how metadata is handled on Reticulum yet, will have to look into that further. I would imagine it’s not super challenging to see who’s communicating with who even if you can’t read what they’re saying.
Looking at the https://rmap.world/ is pretty cool, but it’s a bit creepy as some of these seem to be hosted and listed from peoples homes.
I wonder if anyone has worked with local lawmakers or institutions like their schools, libraries, and public buildings like city halls to volunteer to set up and maintain nodes for people to connect to and to serve as the core locations of each town, but then once those are set up, encourage others to set up their own unmapped nodes to stretch that into residential areas.
I’m in the Chicago suburb area and I think it would be cool to come up with strategies at the city level to encourage local advocates to do this. But it would be more effective to develop shared materials on how to present this to your local city, who you might talk to, what to propose and how that will benefit the city, etc….
I think focusing on it from a city planning and disaster communication system would be effective, and also showcasing how this has been done by NYCMesh and the benefits that has for impoverished areas to gain connectivity, decrease censorship, and keep citizens plugged in locally and safe. Perhaps even pitch it as a local warning service.
Are there already resources around this type of approach or communities helping with this?
Great read!
Thanks for doing that! With everything that is happening and so fast, we never know if this could help even save lives.
So thanks!
On a bit offtopic note, from your article, I tried searching for a program that uses reticulum for an airtag replacement, but couldn’t.
Do you think that for luggages tracker, meshtastic would work or would you still recommend Reticulum for that use case?
I’m testing Meshtastic now. Interesting if you like to tinker with stuff like that. Several users in my area but unsure how useful it will really be long-term.
I think Meshtastic is probably best for sharing location/sensor data like that, although it will never be a global network in the same way AirTags on the Find My network are.
Personally, I’m more interested in information sharing & communication, where Meshtastic and MeshCore fall far short of what’s ideal.
Thanks!
I’ve been a later-phase early adopter of Reticulum since early 2024 and active in the Matrix community since — not just experimenting, but deploying it operationally, after wrapping my head around it. Haha!
On the privacy/mapping thing — this is visibility bias IMO, not a new privacy risk (if I’m reading the concern right). We’re already blanketed by LTE microcells, fiber plants, ISP junction boxes, microwave backhauls. Community-owned infrastructure just makes it legible, which feels weird because we’re trained to ignore corporate grids. Reticulum doesn’t require public mapping anyway — it assumes sovereignty by default.
The key distinction most people miss: Reticulum isn’t competing with Meshtastic or MeshCore. (Some of you were alluding to this and @jonah certainly nailed it in his blog) — props for articulating this clearly, because it’s rare to see someone actually grok the technical docs and nail the distinction. It’s a full networking stack, not an app. Think LAN parties (shoutout to the elder millennials in the room, who remember those days of Command & Conquer or Age of Empires with your buddies) — plug into a switch, instant network, no internet needed. Reticulum extends that autonomy across LoRa, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, microwave, even internet backhauls. Routing stays consistent regardless of medium.
On the “RNode doesn’t scale” thing — early internet infrastructure was messy and required constant tinkering too. We integrated Reticulum into our org’s continuity planning as an experiment, honestly because it was fun and we could. Reticulum’s core is stable; what’s needed now is deployment and applications. I’d rather see this stay community-built, even if it takes longer.
I truly think that at some point collective society needs to embrace digital sovereignty and even what might be tedious to achieve that vs. what is implemented for us, but I digress.
I made an edit, because @jonah is already in the Matrix server. I loved your blog post! I’ve been super excited about Reticulum for a while now, so it’s awesome to see it break out to other spaces.
@PrivacySnipe The crypto itself (X25519 + AES-256) isn’t getting broken without your keys. But RF is RF—you’re broadcasting into the air. Anyone with an SDR can log when you transmit, packet sizes, and direction-find your radio. Content is locked, metadata and physical transmission patterns aren’t.
@jonah Reticulum strips source addresses—only destination hashes are visible. Mapping who talks to who needs sustained traffic analysis and correlation. Harder than IP sniffing but not impossible. Manual sections 3.2 “Physics of Trust” and 6.4 on transport cover what leaks.
Thanks for reading!
I didn’t yet know that, very cool 
If you’re responding to the https://rmap.world comment I would agree, plus that map only shows volunteered data, it isn’t an automatic map like some Meshtastic maps are, which is one reason there are barely any nodes listed lol
I think this is very cool in a way that most people will never care about, but that’s fine.