Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testifies all through a far off video listening to held via subcommittees of the U.S. Area of Representatives Power and Trade Committee on “Social Media’s Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation” in Washington, March 25, 2021.
CNBC
Ban CEO Jack Dorsey spent the weekend development Bitchat, a untouched decentralized, peer-to-peer messaging app that works completely over Bluetooth mesh networks, with out a web, central servers, telephone numbers or emails required.
The Twitter co-founder introduced Sunday that the beta model is continue to exist TestFlight, with a complete white paper to be had on GitHub.
In a post on X Sunday Dorsey known as it a non-public experiment in “bluetooth mesh networks, relays and store and forward models, message encryption models, and a few other things.”
Bitchat permits ephemeral, encrypted conversation between close by units. As customers travel thru bodily dimension, their telephones mode native Bluetooth clusters and cross messages from gadget to gadget, permitting them to achieve friends past same old space — even with out WiFi or cellular carrier.
Sure “bridge” units fasten overlapping clusters, increasing the mesh throughout higher distances. Messages are saved best on-device, disappear via default, and not contact centralized infrastructure — echoing Dorsey’s long-running push for privacy-preserving, censorship-resistant conversation.
The creation builds on his backup of Damus and Bluesky and displays a broader push to decentralize the entirety from social media to bills.
Just like the Bluetooth-based apps worn all through Hong Kong’s 2019 protests, Bitchat is designed to book operating even if the web is opposed, providing a censorship-resistant method to keep hooked up all through outages, shutdowns, or surveillance.
The app additionally helps non-compulsory workforce chats, or “rooms,” which can also be named with hashtags and secure via passwords. It contains store-and-forward capability in order messages to customers who’re quickly offline.
A month replace will upload WiFi Direct to extend velocity and space, pushing Dorsey’s seeing for off-grid, user-owned conversation even additional.
In contrast to mainstream messaging platforms like Meta‘s WhatsApp and Messenger, which can be owned and constructed via large tech firms and depend on private information, Bitchat operates completely peer-to-peer with out a accounts, disagree identifiers, and disagree information assortment.