Most messaging apps today depend on the internet, big companies, and central servers to send your messages - none of the above applies to Bitchat, the new app co-created by Jack Dorsey (former Twitter CEO and co-founder) and Bitcoin developer and long-time privacy advocate Calle.
Bitchat features both messaging, and the ability to send/receive Bitcoin payments.
The main motivator to create Bitchat was privacy, which is minimal in most popular messengers today, as your data is being handled by someone else. Bitchat functions so independent from company servers, it doesn't even need an internet connection. Bitchat doesn’t need the internet to work, and it even lets you send Bitcoin directly.
What Makes Bitchat Different?
1. Privacy First
Bitchat doesn’t ask for your email, phone number, or personal info. That makes it harder for companies, governments, or hackers to snoop on you. It’s built around Bitcoin’s core values: decentralization, censorship resistance, and peer-to-peer freedom.
2. Works Without Internet
Stuck at a festival with no signal? In a rural area? Or even in a power outage? Bitchat still works. That’s because it connects devices directly through something called a mesh network. Your messages hop from one phone to another until they reach the person you’re chatting with.
In fact, during major outages—like the one in April 2025 that knocked out power across parts of Spain, France, and Portugal—Bitchat could have kept people connected.
3. Send Bitcoin Anywhere
Besides chatting, you can also send Bitcoin through the app. No banks, no payment processors—just Bitcoin’s own network. Your phone can even create and sign transactions offline, which then travel through nearby devices until they reach the network.
For merchants, this could be a game-changer. Payments don’t need middlemen, and in the future, integration with the Lightning Network could make transactions even faster and cheaper.
4. Extended Range with Mesh Networks
Normally, Bluetooth works only a short distance. But Bitchat uses Bluetooth mesh networking—your message can jump from phone to phone, extending the range up to 300 meters (or farther if more people are connected). Think of it like a digital relay race.
5. Built on Cypherpunk Ideals
Bitchat isn’t just a tech experiment—it’s a nod to the cypherpunk movement, which values privacy, independence, and control over your own communications.
How It Works...
Local Mesh: Phones connect directly using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Messages hop across devices until they arrive.
Optional Global Mode: If you want to reach beyond local connections, Bitchat can use Nostr—a decentralized protocol that runs through relays on the internet.
Encryption: Messages are secured with the Noise protocol, so only the sender and recipient can read them.
Efficiency: Data is compressed to save bandwidth, and the app adjusts its power use to save battery.
The app is still new, and while its private messaging system is strong, it hasn’t been fully audited by outside security experts yet.
Criticisms and Concerns...
Bitchat has gotten plenty of attention for its bold approach, but it hasn’t been without criticism.
When the beta launched earlier this month, Dorsey promoted it as a secure and private messaging tool. Soon after, security researcher Alex Radocea published a blog post pointing out a serious flaw: it’s currently easy to impersonate other people inside Bitchat.
“In cryptography, details matter,” Radocea wrote. “A protocol that has the right vibes can have fundamental substance flaws that compromise everything it claims to protect.”
Dorsey later admitted the app had not yet gone through an external security review, meaning there may still be unknown vulnerabilities.
Another concern is the app’s distribution. On iOS, Bitchat is available through the App Store. For Android, users must download it from GitHub since it hasn’t officially launched on Google Play. Unfortunately, multiple lookalike apps have already appeared on the Play Store—some with thousands of downloads—raising the risk that people may install a fake version instead of the real one.
The only legit ways to download it is the Apple App Store for iOS users, or their official GitHub for Android users.
Should You Download It?
There's some legitimate reasons to have something capable of offline messaging for emergencies, places outside of cell reception, or places where cell towers can be overloaded like large events. But i'd hold off on trusting it with your Bitcoin, the concerns we covered here are legitimate, and any environment where it's easy for one user to pose as another is not the place for financial transactions.
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Author: Mark Pippen
London Newsroom
GlobalCryptoPress | Breaking Crypto News
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