// history
Reticulum started as one person's project, Mark Qvist's. Now several teams work on their own implementations. Below is how that came about.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2016 | The Reticulum protocol is made public domain by Mark Qvist |
| April 2025 | License change: anti-AI and "no harm" clause added to the reference implementation |
| Summer 2025 | Mark Qvist takes a break from the project |
| Autumn 2025 | RNS 1.0.0 is released |
| December 2025 | "Carrier Switch": Mark steps back from public involvement. The issue tracker is hidden. |
| February 2026 | FOSDEM meetup in Brussels about the future of Reticulum. The community organizes itself. |
| 2026 | Ratspeak, Leviculum and other independent implementations grow. The project carries on without its founder. |
The protocol is public domain, so anyone may implement it. As a result, there are now several independent versions.
| Name | Language | Status | Maintainer |
|---|---|---|---|
| RNS (original) | Python | 1.0+, stable | Mark Qvist (inactive) |
| rsReticulum | Rust | Active, basis of Ratspeak | Ratspeak team |
| RetiNet | Python | Fork of RNS, AGPL | Community (Codeberg) |
| Leviculum | Rust | Feature complete, with RNode support | Lew_Palm (Codeberg) |
| microReticulum | C++ | Transport only | attermann |
| go-reticulum | Go | In development, WASM support | quad4 |
They all talk to the same RNode firmware and the same apps. Which one you run makes no difference to the rest of the network.
A common confusion: the RNode firmware on the LoRa board is something different from the Reticulum software on your computer or handheld.
FIRMWARE (on the LoRa board): RNode firmware always the same, regardless of the software flash with: rnodeconf --autoinstall SOFTWARE (on your computer): rnsd (Python) | rnsd-rs (Rust) | pick one, they all talk lnsd (Leviculum) | to the same RNode firmware
The RNode firmware is maintained by Mark Qvist, who has stepped back. Current boards (Heltec V3/V4, T-Beam, RAK4631) work fine and will be sold for years to come. Support for future boards depends on the community.
Reticulum is still in a transition phase. The protocol itself is stable and public domain. The Rust implementations are faster and lighter than the original Python stack.
The community organizes itself around Codeberg, Zulip and gatherings like FOSDEM. See glossary for the technical terms and comparison for how Reticulum relates to MeshCore and Meshtastic.