Defense tool CarnationFM is a decentralized radio that plays songs with encrypted hidden messages

Berlin, Germany: EthBerlin 2024 has given rise to a music-focused FM radio that uses songs as a vehicle for hidden messages. CarnationFM was developed by five hackers and a mentor as a defensive, decentralized and encrypted communication tool that enables private messages while maintaining anonymity.

The verdict rocked the decentralized community because it suggested that a programmer could be held responsible for everything that happens to that code. Perstev was found guilty because his open-source mixer Tornado Cash enabled the notorious North Korean Lazarus group to launder millions in cryptocurrencies.

The name CarnationFM: “Broadcast for a libertated future” has a cultural-historical undertone.

It comes from the Carnation Revolution in Portugal, which took place 50 years ago and Europe’s longest dictatorship. The dictatorship was overthrown by a military coup that turned into a popular revolution. Decolonization of the territories controlled by Portugal began and the carnation became the symbol of the revolution. Civilians celebrated the end of the dictatorship by putting carnations in the barrels of guns and on the uniforms of soldiers, like almost no shots were fired.

“The revolution began with the broadcast of two specific songs on the radio: one on the evening of April 24, 1974, which marked the beginning, and the second on April 25 at twenty past midnight; it confirmed the action and initiated the revolution by occupying strategic points,” said MF, one of the co-founders, who asked to use an acronym for reasons of anonymity. “That’s why we chose the name ‘Carnation’.”

It is decentralized because the music is transmitted through swarma decentralized data storage solution that runs on the Ethereum blockchain.

“Anyone can listen to the music or song, anyone can download it, but only the people who have a public key can actually see the encrypted message,” MF said.

The method, publicly available on GitHub, requires the key to be sent to the recipient in advance, along with the time the song will play. “It uses a radio as a conduit through which people can play and upload music, but the music files themselves have underlying encryption that can hide any message up to 250 kilobytes per minute,” MF said.

The developers would like to continue working on the product, but are limited by resources and are seeking support. “We are continuing to research how we can apply similar encryption to sound waves to take it to the next level, in an analog way,” MF said. “In theory, you can encrypt Morse code so you can share even more information without having to download it.” They are also looking into applying the same logic to videos that could be uploaded to YouTube or broadcast on TV.