I want my mesh networks to be signed, not encrypted
A radio amateur argues for open mesh-network traffic with optional signatures: cleartext would fit amateur-radio rules that restrict encryption, while signatures could authenticate senders and deter impersonation. The author acknowledges the costs—no confidentiality, identifiable messages, signature overhead, and a difficult key-distribution problem.
Lobsters commenters agreed that an open, signed LoRa mesh could be useful, but pushed back that cleartext protocols can still carry encrypted payloads and questioned how users would bootstrap, bind, and revoke keys. One commenter pointed to M17 as a related amateur-radio project.