Offline, Encrypted Messaging Inspired by Bitcoin

Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter (now X) and fintech company Block (SQ), has published a whitepaper for Bitchat, a decentralized messaging protocol that enables fully encrypted communication – without the internet.

Bitchat would operate over Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), allowing nearby devices to form a mesh network that relays messages hop-by-hop, according to the whitepaper published on Sunday.

When a message is sent, it would travel across nearby devices acting as temporary nodes until it reaches its recipient, making it resilient in offline or censored environments.

Messages are end-to-end encrypted using Curve25519 and AES-GCM, ensuring that only the intended recipient can read them. The protocol does not collect metadata, user identities are obfuscated and messages vanish by default after delivery unless explicitly saved by the user.

While not making explicit references to Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or blockchain, Dorsey describes Bitchat as a “decentralized, peer-to-peer messaing application,” evoking connections to the Bitcoin whitepaper’s intro in which it is described as a “peer-to-peer version of electronic cash.”

Much like Bitcoin eliminates reliance on centralized intermediaries in finance, Bitchat could remove central authorities from digital communication.

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