ESP8266 Community Forum

your idea is not far fetched, Bill Gates is thinking about something like this too (ok maybe not with esp8266).
but an idea is only and idea, the realization of an idea is something else...

Hairyloon wrote:

pangolin wrote:I'm not proposing for something to last the duration of the pandemic

did you see that Spiess video about running esp a year on 1 coin battery?

it's not running one year on a coin cell, it is practically sleeping one year on a coin cell….

QuickFix wrote:Though I have to agree with pangolin on a couple of things, it's always good to brainstorm on the issues at hand and possible solutions to it.

Bizarre. I'm sure I replied to this post already. Perhaps I stopped to check something and never pressed "Submit". Or if my post is here and I'm repeating myself, then I'm sorry.

Since "Everybody" in the modern world nowadays has and uses a mobile phone with installable apps, writing an app would be more fruitful than trying to create dedicated hardware that is, in all it's fairness, pretty limited

This is true, but a lot of people are concerned about the security issues involved in giving Mr Cummings access to your phone's data.
While many of those concerns may be grounded only in paranoia, it may still be easier to persuade some people to use a separate device than that their data is safe...
Certainly it is easier than persuading them that Mr Cummings is trustworthy.

Here in the Netherlands we've got an app that works with BlueTooth, which is somewhat better suited since it needs less power and the range is only limited to 3 - 10 meters or so

Yes, bluetooth does seem to be the sensible way.

Though I always encourage people to work out their ideas, you might want to have a look at the ESP32, the bigger brother of the ESP8266: it also supports BlueTooth as well as WiFi and has better power management.

You are right, but I think the principle of the idea wants exploring more than the choice of hardware. You seem like friendly intelligent people who might give useful input, even if this is not the ideal hardware.