Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has recently officially launched Bitchat, a unique messaging app that works completely without an internet connection.
Instead, Bitchat takes advantage of the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) network to create a decentralized, encrypted and secure form of communication, opening up effective communication solutions in the context of increasing concerns about privacy and network monitoring.
Unlike traditional platforms such as WhatsApp or Telegram, which require users to register by email, phone number and depend on a central server, Bitchat does not need an account, does not have a centralized database and all messages are stored directly on the user's device.
After a while, the messages will be automatically deleted, ensuring privacy and anti-censorship capability.
Technically, Bitchat operates based on a Bluetooth mesh structure. The devices within a range of about 30 meters will automatically form Bluetooth clusters, allowing encrypted messages to be transmitted from one device to another.
When users move, messages can jump across multiple devices, crossing the normal Bluetooth connection limit to expand the communication range. This application does everything without Wi-Fi or mobile data.
Currently, Bitchat is only available in the beta testing phase through Apple's TestFlight platform. Within just a short time after its launch, the application quickly reached 10,000 test sessions.
This is a figure that shows great interest from the technology community and iPhone users. Dorsey has also published whitebooks and opened a wide range of invitations to participate in the experiment.
The beta phase is now focusing on optimizing battery consumption and increasing stability when transferring messages. In the future, the development team plans to expand support for additional Wi-Fi protocols to increase bandwidth and allow sharing of multimedia content such as photos and videos.
Bitchat is one of Jack Dorsey's latest efforts to promote decentralization, as traditional models are revealing many weaknesses in security and control of personal data.