Discovering MeshCore

Someone asked us a simple question: “Why aren’t you on MeshCore yet?”

First, we had to establish that MeshCore wasn’t a new sub-genre of thrash metal.

It turns out to be something much more interesting: a decentralized messaging network designed to work without internet access, mobile networks, or a traditional ISP.

Instead, it uses small radios, antennas, and repeaters to move messages between users.

Which immediately raised the obvious question: how does that actually work?

Radio and Repeaters: How It All Works

At its simplest, MeshCore starts with a radio and an antenna.

For longer distances, the network relies on repeaters operated by other people. Messages can travel through these repeaters, extending the network well beyond the range of a single radio.

In theory, enough repeaters could allow someone in southern Sweden to exchange messages with someone much farther north without using the internet or a mobile network.

At that point, you’re not really talking about just another messaging app anymore.

You’re building radio infrastructure.

License-Free Doesn’t Mean Rule-Free

MeshCore can operate in license-free spectrum, including the 869 MHz band used by short-range devices in Europe. That means you don’t need an individual radio license just to participate.

But license-free doesn’t mean unrestricted.

There are still rules governing things such as transmission power and how much airtime a device can use. After all, you’re sharing that spectrum with everyone else using it.

We’ve seen something similar with Wi-Fi. Unlicensed spectrum works remarkably well, right up until enough devices want to use the same piece of air.

A decentralized radio network doesn’t make spectrum unlimited.

Encryption and Privacy

MeshCore encrypts message content, but encryption doesn’t make the communication itself invisible.

Someone observing the network may not be able to read the messages, but traffic can still reveal information about how communication moves through the network.

That’s not a problem unique to MeshCore. Traffic analysis has existed for about as long as we’ve had communications networks.

It’s simply an important distinction:

Encrypted doesn’t necessarily mean invisible.

“Everybody can hide what you’re saying, but it does not mean that you are saying it or wherever the conversation is traveling.”

Everything Old Is New Again

The basic idea isn’t entirely new.

Long before internet access became commonplace, amateur radio operators and computer hobbyists were already building packet radio networks that allowed computers to exchange messages and files over radio.

MeshCore takes some very familiar ideas and applies them to modern hardware, smartphones, and today’s expectations of messaging.

Different technology, different implementation, but there’s something wonderfully familiar about computers talking to each other over radio again.

Different Network, Different Dependencies

MeshCore removes some familiar dependencies, but it doesn’t remove infrastructure.

The network still depends on radios, antennas, repeaters, power, coverage, and people willing to install and maintain all of it. If a repeater disappears, loses power, or simply stops working, that can affect everyone depending on it.

That becomes particularly relevant when MeshCore is discussed as an emergency communications network.

Getting rid of the ISP doesn’t get rid of infrastructure.

It just means the infrastructure is now yours.

Conclusion: Another Network to Play With

So, is MeshCore the future of messaging?

Probably not. But that’s not really the point.

It’s an interesting alternative way to communicate without depending on the internet, mobile networks, or an ISP. It may have useful applications when conventional infrastructure isn’t available, and it’s certainly an interesting network to experiment with.

But decentralized doesn’t mean infrastructure-free. The dependencies haven’t disappeared. They’ve changed.

You still need radios, repeaters, coverage, power, and people willing to keep the whole thing running.

And perhaps that’s what makes MeshCore interesting.

It’s not magic.

It’s another network.

And we do like networks.