The Serval Mesh

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* Every address, also known as a Serval Identity (SID), is a 256-bit public key in the Elliptic Curve crypto system used by the Serval Mesh (app for Android).

* Every node device may have one address (Serval Identity (SID)) or many, which it creates itself using random key generation. The large size of the key space means that the probability of two devices having the same address remains negligible, even if the mesh grows to billions of devices.

* The payload of every MDP packet may be clear text, signed, or encrypted and signed. The encryption key is the public key (address) of the recipient, and the signing key is the private key of the sender.

* MDP is an OSI Level 3 (Network) layer, and may be carried over any wireless or wired data link, whether over a shared medium (eg, CSMA/CA used in Wi-Fi) or a dedicated medium (eg, AX.25 packet radio, serial cable).

Perhaps that wouldn't matter in an urban environment, if uptake is high enough, or if someone puts in solar-powered repeaters to span large gaps.

The solution?

I don't know, but I suspect that Wi-Fi Direct, which both apple and android now support, would enable complete functionality without rooting.

Can the author comment on why they are not using Wi-Fi Direct? Is it because older phones do not support it? If so, perhaps let it support either rooting or Wi-Fi Direct.

I'm a techie, and I don't want to root my phone, and definitely not my wife's phones, just so I can play with this. If I won't, a lot of other people, especially non techies, won't either. You need the non-techies to get critical mass.

http://developer.servalproject.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=cont...

The only unfortunate thing is the design, it's not a pretty app and it deserves a design as well-thought as the backend. I'm not a great designer but if it was open source I'd contribute to a design refactor. OP if you made the app I'm happy to help.