I want my mesh networks to be signed, not encrypted

我希望我的网状网络是经过签名的，而不是加密的

I want my mesh networks to be signed, not encrypted. Lately (last few years) user-friendly mesh networks have started to become a thing. As a radio amateur I am heavily in favour. Both Meshtastic and Meshcore allow people to easily set up a quick little mesh for their friends or large city/region spanning networks. 我希望我的网状网络是经过签名的，而不是加密的。最近（过去几年）用户友好的网状网络（mesh networks）开始流行起来。作为一名业余无线电爱好者，我非常支持这一点。Meshtastic 和 Meshcore 都允许人们轻松地为朋友建立一个小型的快速网状网络，或者覆盖整个城市/区域的大型网络。

It’s frankly a bit impressive how much can be accomplished using low power (0.5W) on highly congested frequency bands. But quite frankly I think this kind of radio experimentation falls squarely within the domain of amateur radio and it would be nice to be able to use bands where we have primary status and higher power limits. 坦率地说，在高度拥挤的频段上仅使用低功率（0.5W）就能实现如此多的功能，这令人印象深刻。但老实说，我认为这种无线电实验完全属于业余无线电的范畴，如果能使用我们拥有主要地位且功率限制更高的频段，那就太好了。

And in order to use amateur radio bands you need to not encrypt your transmissions. MT/C are therefore a bit inconvenient for this. This is because they’re encrypted by default and disabling encryption is cumbersome/impossible. You can use “default passwords”, but while that works to some extent, it’s not a solution I’m happy with. 为了使用业余无线电频段，你必须不对传输内容进行加密。因此，MT/C（Meshtastic/Meshcore）在这方面就有些不便。这是因为它们默认是加密的，而且禁用加密非常麻烦甚至不可能。你可以使用“默认密码”，虽然这在一定程度上有效，但这并不是我满意的解决方案。

What I would like is a protocol where every message is in cleartext, but signed. I’m not saying that signing should necessarily be mandatory, but it would be nice to have. Benefits include: You can actually be sure about who’s talking to you. Other people can’t pretend to be you. Repeater operators can filter out unlicensed operators, making legal operation easy. Everyone can see that people are talking, making it easier for people to join in. 我想要的是一种协议，其中每条消息都是明文，但经过签名。我并不是说签名必须是强制性的，但如果能有这个功能会很好。其好处包括：你可以确定是谁在和你交流；其他人无法冒充你；中继站运营商可以过滤掉无证操作者，从而使合法操作变得简单；每个人都能看到有人在交流，这让新人更容易加入。

There are however some downsides: No privacy other than not participating. People can dump all your messages online with your signature attached. Getting a radio amateur license is a barrier to entry as you need to pass both an exam and pay a license fee. If you want to verify the signatures then you need some sort of Public Key Infrastructure. Either ad-hoc key-parties (scales poorly) or some Certificate Authorities (politics). Every signature uses up bandwidth. For ed25519 you need to spend 64 bytes per message for the signature. 然而，这也有一些缺点：除了不参与之外，没有隐私可言。人们可以将你所有的消息连同你的签名一起发布到网上。获得业余无线电执照是一个准入门槛，因为你需要通过考试并支付执照费。如果你想验证签名，那么你需要某种公钥基础设施（PKI）。要么是临时的密钥交换聚会（扩展性差），要么是某种证书颁发机构（涉及政治）。每个签名都会占用带宽。对于 ed25519，每条消息需要额外占用 64 字节用于签名。

Some readers might have been shouting at the monitor “But why not just use APRS!?”, well I don’t have a good answer so I’ll quote a past Prime Minister: No, don’t wanna. 有些读者可能正对着屏幕大喊：“为什么不直接用 APRS 呢！？”，好吧，我没有好的答案，所以我引用一位前首相的话：“不，我不想。”

In conclusion: I think it would be nice if meshes were open. If you agree/disagree, have comments, et cetera, please let me know. 总之：我认为如果网状网络是开放的会很好。如果你同意或不同意，或者有任何意见等，请告诉我。