Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, is a more resolute spokesperson for crypto-punk than Armstrong, the founder of Coinbase. His investment in Bitcoin has continued for over 10 years, even when the investment exceeds the profits.
We can give a simple example, the well-known Bitcoin Lightning Network, where Jack launched the LDK development kit, even advocating for Twitter to support Lightning Network payment functions.
Not only that, he pays attention to everything about Bitcoin, so after reintroducing Bitchat, he also plans to support Nostr networking in the future, providing physical layer support for freedom of speech.
Three rebirths, rethinking Bitcoin.
Humans can achieve moon landings with tens of KB computers, but need hundreds of GB to host public chains.
Jack Dorsey is one of the co-founders of Twitter. Although his subsequent ventures, such as Cash App and other financial products, continued to succeed, he has never forgotten about more free social interactions and more decentralized networking methods.
BlueSky is one example, and although it doesn't have much volume like Farcaster, it can be assured that this is not a project for launching tokens for profit, but an exploration of the next generation of social product forms for humanity.
So, Bitchat has arrived. Interestingly, Bitchat was also the name of two previous on-chain social products. I think Jack Dorsey pays some tribute in this.
Image description: Three generations of Bitchat Image source: @zuoyeweb3
• In 2019, based on the Bitcoin OP_RETURN opcode, @_unwriter created the first free Bitcoin on-chain social tool Bitchat, which is actually similar to the inscription method, writing information into the transaction notes, akin to sending messages over a public network.
• In 2022, based on the cheapness of BSV, TonicPow CEO Luke Rohenaz launched a truly on-chain social product Bitchat, sending messages via on-chain channels and requiring payment for use.
• In 2025, Jack Dorsey draws from the ideas of the above two, hardware support + free usage model, launching Bitchat based on local Bluetooth Mesh networks, which can operate completely offline, achieving total decentralization and censorship resistance.
It's not hard to see that the 2025 version of Bitchat draws from the thinking of Bitcoin itself, but breaks away from the mindset that it must be done on-chain, moving towards scenarios more suitable for ordinary people. You might not have a Bitcoin mining rig, after all, it got caught up in the mining pool, but you certainly have a Bluetooth device.
This aligns with Satoshi Nakamoto's original thinking when creating Bitcoin. According to Moore's Law, chips and storage devices will become increasingly cheaper until everyone can participate in the operation of the Bitcoin network. Unfortunately, the ultimate storage of Bitcoin's value has exceeded its actual functionality.
Jack Dorsey clearly considered this issue and realized that it must be compressed or even stripped of economic stimulus factors to promote usage among ordinary people, avoiding a return to centralization and capitalization.
Here it should be noted that Mesh can use not only Bluetooth for networking, but also WiFi. Essentially, Mesh is a way of 'organizing' the network, while Bluetooth, WiFi, and even Starlink belong to the 'transmission methods' of the network. Starlink Mesh could theoretically also be established.
Offline group chat first, possibly online in the future.
Another way of living after achieving financial freedom.
After carefully reading the documents and code, I feel a strong vibe of coding traces. However, it's good to reduce development and deployment costs, making it easier for secondary development and improvement.
Image description: Group security Image source: Bitchat technical white paper
First of all, Bitchat is an offline, anonymous, free, IRC-like social tool, and it is almost impossible to develop into a cryptocurrency project or go the financing route, so it is extremely pure, or it is unlikely to have the explosive popularity of Clubhouse or the longevity of TikTok.
• Offline: Bitchat is entirely based on local Bluetooth Mesh networks to store and propagate messages, which means it can work without any network signal, making this the most ideal working environment for Bitchat.
• Anonymous: Bitchat is extremely lightweight, it does not store data on the cloud at all, and Mesh devices are the storage online. Therefore, it does not design a permanent account system or data persistence storage system, but the downside is that it can only be used as a chat room, basically saying goodbye to emojis and audio/video.
• Free: The only expenditure is purchasing Bluetooth Mesh hardware, but in this era, everyone has a smartphone, it can be said that Bitchat only needs to utilize existing devices without any paid features.
• IRC: Returning to the group chat mode of the Web 1.0 era, the interface of the third generation of Bitchat is basically like this. Americans still very much enjoy tools such as podcasts, Reddit, and email, which reflects a cultural difference.
In the architecture of Bitchat, it can be categorized into three main parts: information transmission, privacy protection, and networking functions. The extreme simplicity brings extreme focus, emphasizing point-to-point and group modes for information transmission. Privacy protection applies cryptography to ensure security, and networking functions will be added later for WiFi/LoRa/ultrasound, or integrating Nostr networking.
Regarding information transmission, Bitchat's information transfer is essentially suitable for point-to-point mode. Although it supports multiple hops or bridging of information, efficiency will greatly decrease. The ideal Bluetooth Mesh is only usable within 30 meters.
Bitchat also thoughtfully designed group chat functions, but it requires more powerful Bluetooth Mesh devices. You can refer to similar products from Xiaomi, with Bluetooth Mesh components supporting multiple devices priced above 200 RMB, which determines that group functionality will not be the focus of Bitchat.
However, in terms of privacy protection, Bitchat is still somewhat complex, with encryption modes designed for individual and group interactions, such as using Argon2id in group mode to resist potential side-channel attacks. However, memory consumption will increase, as this algorithm is more commonly used in finance, defense, and other high-security clients, making its use for group protection somewhat excessive.
However, this is an important lesson learned from Bitcoin; having something is better than having nothing, and it is difficult to assess subsequent performance before large-scale practical applications.
From the current progress, Bitchat is still at the experimental stage. Its style may not be well accepted by users of this era, but it is full of creativity. Jack Dorsey also believes that in extreme scenarios such as future disaster relief, relying on ultrasound, LoRa, or even WiFi networking could become a backup communication method.
This is still somewhat reliable; a phone without internet is just a brick, but Bitchat turns the brick into a text intercom.
Conclusion
What makes Crypto users most happy may not be Bitchat's retro chat room style, but the possibility of integrating Nostr. In Jack's vision, local Mesh networking + global Nostr networking creates a truly hardware-based, censorship-resistant social tool.
Perhaps we don't believe it, but someone has to try.
