Born in 1874, Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi invented wireless communication technology. He became interested in radio waves as a young man and experimented with electromagnetic waves hoping to send information without wires. In 1899, he made the first wireless transmission across the English Channel. The use of wireless communication became known as radio. The technology freed people from the monopoly on wired telegraphy owned by large corporations and allowed anyone to communicate wirelessly [1].

In the 1980s, the Internet was born. It was a project developed by the US military in collaboration with Universities. It relied almost exclusively on landline communication, controlled by the Military-Industrial Complex [2]. Through the 1990s, both NSA and the GCHQ doggedly fought Public Key Cryptography which posed a threat over their control of information. The Clinton administration came up with the idea of the so-called ‘Clipper Chip’, a small device in every computer that the Government could directly access to bypass any encryption used by the owner. However, it was soon shown that this device was easily disabled [3]. The Establishment, in their search for control over the population, came up with an even better idea: connect every device to the Internet, thereby being able to read and see all messages sent even if encrypted. What good is encryption of a message if the Government can see a live feed of what is being shown on your screen? All information is visible to the Government unless proven impossible for them to reach [4].

Inspired by Marconi’s intentions of decentralisation, Beechat was developed. Beechat is not software nor hardware. Beechat is a defense against the Military-Industrial Complex that allows users to communicate in an Internet-disconnected manner. Beechat contains two main communication functions: the first one is the encrypted peer-to-peer chat, whereby only the intended recipient can decrypt the message. The second function is the public broadcasting function, which allows any node to broadcast a message to the entire network giving unbannable freedom of speech. The only way for Beechat to survive is for the software and hardware to outlive the group that founded it through the necessity of the community behind it. Beechat is a technology that decentralises the use of communications and gives the power of privacy back to the general population.

[1]= Sonneborn, Liz, Guglielmo Marconi: inventor of wireless technology
[2]= The Guardian - How the internet was invented - Web https://archive.is/oRaOI
[3]= Richard J. Aldrich - GCHQ
[4]= GNU - Microsoft’s Software is Malware - Web https://archive.is/WNGkG

🐝Development update🐝

We are currently working on the "Beechat Clip", which is different to the Buzz. The Buzz acts as a router to which multiple devices can be connected to access the network.

The Clip is a new radio device that clips on to your phone, plugging into the charging port and provides access to the network. Some users might prefer having a device attached to their phone, and others might prefer to have a separate device connecting wirelessly.

We decided to launch the Clip before the Buzz, due to shorter development time. The hardware has been published on our GitHub under CCSA 4.0.
https://github.com/BeechatNetworkSystemsLtd/BeechatClip

We have also published the alpha pre-release version of the Beechat Android App under GPLv2 on our GitHub:
https://github.com/BeechatNetworkSystemsLtd/BeechatNetwork-Android

Post quantum cryptography update: We have ported the code to Android of kyber-JNI (encryption) and dilithium-JNI (authentication). The next step is to integrate them into the Android App.
You can test (1) creation of keys, (2) encryption, (3) decryption, (4) signing and (5) authentication with post quantum cryptography by installing the APKs we will post shortly. You can also build the APKs by yourself by following the build procedure on the GitHub repos.
https://github.com/BeechatNetworkSystemsLtd/kyber-JNI/
https://github.com/BeechatNetworkSystemsLtd/dilithium-JNI/

🐝 Clip development update 🐝
We finally received our first batch of prototypes for the Clip. We conducted successful range tests with low-efficiency antennas, and will replace the antenna for a high efficiency AVX Ethertronics part 1002436. We are now waiting for the enclosure/case to arrive as we ordered it today. We published the designs of the case today on GitHub. We are actively looking for a better solution to the current cable we are using.

GitHub link to the Clip case files: https://github.com/BeechatNetworkSystemsLtd/BeechatClip/tree/main/Step%206%20-%20Enclosure%20case

With the Beechat Clip in late stages of development, we would like to invite everyone to share their questions and comments in our Telegram chat. See you there! https://news.1rj.ru/str/joinchat/BqWmuLmQ9LcxOTk8

🐝 Conducting some tests on the Demo App with our prototype Clips on 868 MHz 🐝

MJF 3D printed cases are arriving soon, and then we can start range tests.

Another day, another Big Tech hack/outage. The decentralized, agorist architecture of Beechat makes it a network you will be able to depend on. We aim to launch soon, so tell everyone you care about, so that they can be free from the dependence and control of Big Brother.

The Beechat Clip enclosure has finally arrived! Here's a sneak peek picture of it on an ungoogled Pixel phone. The granular texture is due to the 3D printing method, MJF. The final product's enclosure will be produced using injection molding providing a smooth finish. 🐝🐝🐝

For those with a deeper interest in cryptography: How Beechat uses cryptography to encrypt data and prevent man-in-the-middle attacks

🐝cybersecurity & performance update 🐝

Our application development strategy involves developing the Android app on one front, the cryptography layer on another, and merging them together in the end product app. This allows us to develop the app at a faster speed without stretching ourselves thin. We have made many achievements, including porting the post quantum cryptography algorithms Kyber and Dilithium to Android. While implementing our Entity Verification System, we found that BLAKE3 was recently launched, however there is no Android port for it. The performance increase is orders of magnitude larger than all other existing hashing algorithms and we wish to implement it into Beechat. So, just like with Kyber-JNI and Dilithium-JNI (which are already available on our GitHub), we will be porting BLAKE3 to Android through a JNI wrapper and we hope by making it open source, other developers will find it useful in their projects.

Article on BLAKE3:
https://www.infoq.com/news/2020/01/blake3-fast-crypto-hash/

Slight addendum:

In Beechat, as specified in the document we posted last week, hashing is used in the process of verifying another user’s identity in a decentralised manner. This will mean faster verification, and if we ever decided to make our own cryptocurrency, we will be using both the most advanced cryptographic key generation (Kyber + Dilithium), and most advanced hashing algorithm (BLAKE3).

How will users back up their private keys for Beechat?

As Beechat is completely decentralised, you have full control and responsibility over your account. An account is composed of the hash of your encryption (Kyber) and signing (Dilithium) keys. Only the holder of the private key files corresponding to those public keys can decrypt and sign data as that user.

To store private keys we developed Beechat Vault, a secure NFC tag that you can password protect and load your private keys onto. It has 200 years of data retention, and can hold up to 3 Beechat accounts.

How will it work?
When you are running the Beechat app for the first time, you will create your private keys. You will then be asked by the app if you wish to store the private keys as a backup. If you do, you will approach a Vault tag to your phone’s NFC reader, and the app will write the private keys to the tag. We recommend you use a secure password to keep your private keys secure. The tag is only 1x1 cm (25/64 in sq.) and easy to hide.

All files for the Vault have been released under GPLv2:

https://github.com/BeechatNetworkSystemsLtd/BeechatVault

We just pushed the V1.2 of the Beechat Crank to our GitHub

New modifications:
* Added a Molex type connector to the PCB to connect the motor.
* The Zener diodes were changed, by means of a rectifier bridge.
* A new and improved Texas Instruments brand battery management chip was selected.
* Added a boost converter to allow different voltage batteries.
* New Portescap brand two-phase generator with 90% efficiency and peak power of 4.5 Watts was selected.

https://github.com/BeechatNetworkSystemsLtd/BeechatCrank/

The first prototypes for the Vault have arrived, and development to integrate it into the Beechat phone app is underway.
To store private keys we developed Beechat Vault, a secure NFC tag that you can password protect and load your private keys onto, with 200 years of data retention.
Please note this is an optional layer of security you can opt for, but it is not necessary to communicate over the Beechat radio network.
Version 2 of the tags are on the way already, with double the reading range, and IP68 rating. Phone for scale.
You can read more at: https://github.com/BeechatNetworkSystemsLtd/BeechatVault

This is the first phase of Beechat solutions we are working on bringing to you. With your support, we will deliver these devices to people who need them most and hopefully expand in the future with more ambitious projects. We will release a Kickstarter campaign for these solutions in the coming months. In the meantime, you can help by spreading the word, and forming a community of like-minded individuals & groups. Thank you for being with us so far