This is the paper on Magma to be presented at NSDI 2023 conference next year:

Building Flexible, Low-Cost Wireless Access Networks With Magma:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.10001

Seems to be a crypto based cell network thing?

"Magma provides a new way to incentive users to create their own peer to peer networks that provide cellular network infrastructure by offering cryptocurrency rewards."

From the actual link,

> Magma is an open-source software platform that gives network operators an open, flexible and extensible mobile core network solution.

It's mostly about packing network processing stacka onto pc based systems.

Yes and no.

There's a couple major groups (FreedomFi and Pollen) that are leveraging Magma's software stack to run their cellular networks, yes - those are probably the two largest Magma users right now that are publicly known and where a lot of the development resources (seem) to be going (mainly support for eNodeBs - LTE base station radios - that the FreedomFi/Pollen projects primarily use and are low cost COTS solutions).

But anyone could deploy a Magma Orchestrator in the cloud, build local Access Gateways, link everything together, and roll their own cell network around Magma's setup, no crypto required. CBRS LTE changes everything in the US.

That sounds more like Helium/FreedomFi, which is probably utilizing Magma.

Magma itself came out of Facebook Connectivity and has nothing to do with crytpo AFAIK

From the magma site itself. https://magmacore.org/deploy-magma/

Yeah it references FreedomFi directly there...

I think you are thinking of http://pollenmobile.io which uses magma

This was part of Facebook connectivity initiatives https://www.fiercewireless.com/private-wireless/facebook-s-o...

If you're having déjà vu, it's because there is also an encrypted email service called Magma:

https://github.com/lavabit/magma

There is also a Computer Algebra System called Magma: http://magma.maths.usyd.edu.au/magma/

I live in Appalachia & see many of the usual characteristics of isolated, impoverished communities. How would I start?

Radio transmitters brought to you by the same people who are boiling the oceans to produce Dunning-Krugerrand.

What could possibly go wrong?