The former CEO of Twitter (now X), Jack Dorsey, unveiled BitChat, a messaging app that enables users to send encrypted messages without having internet connectivity.
In an X post on Sunday, Dorsey unveiled the app, which is currently in its early phases.
According to him, it was a side project that investigated decentralized communication, message encryption, and Bluetooth mesh networking.
He added, “I learned about Bluetooth mesh networks, relays, store and forward models, message encryption models, and a few other things over the course of a weekend.”
The source code and white paper for the app have been made public on GitHub, and iOS users may now access a beta version of the app through TestFlight.
How it operates
The documentation that Dorsey gave indicates that BitChat has a store-and-forward architecture in which messages are passed from one Bluetooth-enabled device to another until they are received by the designated recipient.
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The software, according to the document, provides end-to-end encryption, with the noise protocol framework (NPF) being used for authentication and Curve25519 public keys for message security.
The internet relay chat (IRC), a text-based system popular in the early internet era, served as the model for its simple interface.
Dorsey’s lifelong interest in decentralized technology is in line with BitChat.
Prior to departing the board of Bluesky in May 2024, the American businessman had also supported the decentralized social media platform.
After leaving Twitter as CEO in 2021, he has since concentrated on digital payments and Bitcoin infrastructure through his business, Block, Inc. (previously Square).
