- Jack Dorsey started messing around with computers at age 15, teaching himself to code and creating dispatch software for taxi cabs and emergency services.
- Dorsey co-founded Twitter (now X) in 2006.
- Dorsey is a huge supporter of Bitcoin, believing it could become the internet’s native currency.
- He co-founded Square (now Block, Inc.), to make credit card payments easier for small businesses.
Jack Dorsey, co‑founder of Twitter and CEO of Block, has unveiled BitChat, a pioneering peer‑to‑peer decentralized messaging platform.
Operating entirely over Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) mesh networks, the app is designed for secure, offline communication without reliance on internet or centralized servers.
His White Paper explains how BitChat enables devices within approximately 30 m of each other to relay encrypted messages via a mesh network, using multi‑hop Bluetooth communication to extend range and reliability.
Its “store‑and‑forward” mechanism retains messages temporarily until recipients come online, and messages are divided into ~500‑byte chunks for efficient BLE transmission.
End‑to‑end encryption is built in for private, group, and broadcast messaging, with ephemeral data storage and no need for user accounts, phone numbers, or email addresses. Hence, no personal data is collected or stored centrally.
Dorsey shared on X that he spent recent weekends researching Bluetooth mesh tech, message relays, and encryption protocols to ensure resilience against outages and censorship. He says future updates may include Wi‑Fi integration to support larger payloads and wider bandwidth .
BitChat is pitched as an ideal tool for scenarios where internet access is unreliable or monitored, such as protests, natural disasters, remote areas, and regions experiencing censorship.
What are some of the benefits of BitChat?
True Decentralization – Runs entirely via BLE mesh, removing dependency on cellular or Wi‑Fi networks and central servers.
Privacy-First Design – No registration and no personal identifiers. All messages are encrypted and ephemeral.
Mesh Network Resilience – Supports multi‑hop relays and temporary caching, extending range and reliability beyond direct Bluetooth reach.
Censorship & Outage Resistance – Enables communication in scenarios where conventional channels are blocked, censored, or down.
Scalable Ambitions – Plans to integrate Wi‑Fi in future updates, opening possibilities for larger file sharing and higher speeds.
Jack Dorsey’s BitChat positions itself as a vital tool in the evolving landscape of secure, decentralized messaging. Its beta launch signals a potential shift in how users maintain privacy and connectivity during censorship, outages, or remote usage scenarios.