Most messaging apps today rely on the internet, large businesses, and central servers to send messages. None of the above applies to new apps co-created by Jack Dorsey (former Twitter CEO and co-founder) and Bitcoin developer and longtime privacy advocate Calle.
Bitchat offers both the ability to send/receive messaging and Bitcoin payments.
Privacy was the main motivation for creating a bitchat. This is minimal on today’s most popular messengers, as your data is being processed by someone else. Bitchat works independently of your company’s servers, so you don’t even need an internet connection. Bitchat doesn’t need to run the internet and can send Bitcoin directly.
What is the difference between the vid-chats?
1. Privacy first
Bitchat does not request your email, phone number or personal information. This makes it difficult for businesses, governments, or hackers to sn in on you. It is built around Bitcoin’s core values: decentralization, censorship resistance and peer-to-peer freedom.
2. It works without the internet
Are you stuck at a festival without a traffic light? In the countryside? Or even a power outage? Vichat still works. This is because you connect devices directly through what is called a mesh network. Your message will jump from one mobile phone to another until it reaches the person you are chatting with.
In fact, Bitchat could have kept people connected during the major halt, just as it knocked out power beyond parts of Spain, France and Portugal in April 2025.
3. Send Bitcoin anywhere
In addition to chat, you can also send Bitcoin through the app. There is no bank or payment processor. It’s just Bitcoin’s own network. Mobile phones can also create and sign transactions offline. This will pass through nearby devices until you reach the network.
For merchants, this could be a game changer. Payment does not require an intermediary. In the future, integration with Lightning networks could potentially make transactions even faster and cheaper.
4. Extended range with mesh network
Normally, Bluetooth only works short distances. However, Bitchat uses Bluetooth mesh networking. Your message can jump from phone to phone and extend the range up to 300 meters (or even further away if more people are connected). Think of it like a digital relay race.
5. It is built on Cypherpunk’s ideal
Bitchat is more than just a technical experiment. This nods to the Cypherpunk movement, which places emphasis on privacy, independence and control over one’s communication.
How it works…
Local Mesh: Your phone connects directly using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Hop across the device until a message arrives.
Optional Global Mode: If you reach beyond local connections, Bitchat can use Nostr, a distributed protocol that runs relays over the Internet.
Encryption: Messages are protected by noise protocols, so only the sender and receiver can read them.
Efficiency: Data is compressed to save bandwidth, and the app adjusts power usage to save battery.
The app is still new and the private messaging system is strong, but has not yet been fully audited by external security experts.
Criticism and concerns…
Bitchat has attracted a lot of attention for its bold approach, but it’s not without criticism.
When the beta was launched earlier this month, Dorsey promoted it as a safe and private messaging tool. Shortly afterwards, security researcher Alex Radosia published a blog post pointing to serious flaws. It’s easy to impersonate other people in Vichat right now.
“In encryption, details are important,” writes Radseah. “A protocol with a proper atmosphere has a fundamental material flaw that compromises everything it claims to protect.”
Dorsey later admitted that the app had not yet conducted an external security review. This means that the vulnerability may still be unknown.
Another concern is app distribution. On iOS, Bitchat is available from the App Store. For Android, Github is not officially released from Github, so you will need to download it from GitHub. Unfortunately, multiple Lookalike apps have already appeared in the Play Store (with thousands of downloads), increasing the risk of being able to install fake versions instead of real versions.
The only legal way to download it is the Apple App Store for iOS users, or the official Github for Android users.
Do I need to download it?
There is a good reason to have something to messaging offline for emergencies, locations outside of cell acceptance, or places where cell towers can be overloaded, like a large event. But I refrain from trusting it with your bitcoin, the concerns raised here are legitimate, and any environment in which one user can easily pose so that another is not a place for financial transactions.
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author: Mark Pippen
London Newsroom
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