> Then, one day in February 2020, as COVID-19 swept the globe, access to FireChat was completely cut off without explanation.
If it could be shut off from one place like that, it doesn't sound very "decentralized". Anyway, are there significant obstacles to re-implementation?
Someone above mentioned an alternative that uses LoRa. That's nice but it sounds like the attraction of Firechat was that it used ordinary phones that everyone already has. LoRa by comparison is special hardware that is already a bit suspicious.
If you're willing to use special purpose radios and live with low bandwidth text communication, you can do quite a bit better than LoRa, such as with JS8CALL and HF radios. But, a sad "theorem" tells us that any communications medium will be beaten into carrying video....
Once you realize that the ability to update code, obviously, negates any advantage "end-to-end encryption" brings, or any other form of security, you'll quickly find there is not a single secure messenger.
This is an argument I've never been able to successfully make to anyone except a military colonel.
Is there really no way on an Android to keep an app forever without taking updates? Of course maybe the OS needs to be updated which then breaks the app and necessitates updating the app, but the distinction of a forced update seems important.
If it could be shut off from one place like that, it doesn't sound very "decentralized". Anyway, are there significant obstacles to re-implementation?
Someone above mentioned an alternative that uses LoRa. That's nice but it sounds like the attraction of Firechat was that it used ordinary phones that everyone already has. LoRa by comparison is special hardware that is already a bit suspicious.
If you're willing to use special purpose radios and live with low bandwidth text communication, you can do quite a bit better than LoRa, such as with JS8CALL and HF radios. But, a sad "theorem" tells us that any communications medium will be beaten into carrying video....