Is Jack Dorsey’s Bittat really a chat app or an experiment on what a digital society looks like without a central authority?
summary
- Jack Dorsey’s experimental messenger Bitchat expands from short-range Bluetooth meshes to location-based chats, grouping users by geohash and giving them temporary pseudonyms.
- Bitchat positions payments as part of messaging itself, providing them in line with Bitcoin’s privacy and resilience principles, providing potential use cases ranging from spam control to neighbouring trade.
- The privacy risks of Apple’s in-app payment rules, repeated use of Geohash, Lightning’s reduced capacity optics, and the sustainability of independent Nostr relays remain challenged.
- Whether Vichat evolves into a real neighbourhood-level economy or is a proof of concept depends on usage, platform policy, and relay economy.
table of contents
Bitchat moves from offline mesh to city-wide messages
On August 21, Jack Dorsey announced that his experimental messenger, Vichat, would add a “Location Chat,” a feature that places people in local chat rooms based on the region.
Come to Bittat immediately: Location Chat. Chat with anyone in a nearby area (block/neighborhood/city/region/country). Or teleport anywhere in the world via geohash.
It works by using Geohashes to map the world to chat channels.
– Jack (@jack) August 21, 2025
The system uses Geohashes, a way to turn GPS coordinates into grid squares that represent neighborhoods, cities, or large areas. Each grid provides a temporary pseudonym to the user, so the ID is not tied to a phone number or account.
The message goes through the Nostr relay, a decentralized protocol that Dorsey has supported for several years and already allows Bitcoin payments. Updates are currently under review on the App Store.
Bitchat itself was only introduced a few weeks ago. On July 6th, Dorsey released a beta app through Apple’s TestFlight program and released a detailed white paper.
And here’s an ugly whitepaper explaining the protocol: https://t.co/ahj1y0jjdp
– Jack (@jack) July 6, 2025
The first version created a mesh network that allows you to pass messages to Bluetooth within a range of about 300 meters, and works without internet or mobile phone coverage.
The technical design included Curve25519 for key exchange, AES-GCM for encryption, and features such as file fragmentation, duplication suppression, and “panic mode” to instantly remove all data.
On July 9, Dorsey confirmed that the code has not yet undergone an independent security audit, revealing that the project is still in its early stages.
With the new features, Bitchat is shifting from short-range offline messaging to broader position-based communications, reflecting the same principles that form Bitcoin (BTC), including open participation, privacy as a baseline, and reliance on a single company to maintain the system’s execution.
Systems held together in three independent layers
To understand how Bitchat works, it helps you see the three pieces you hold together, including Geohashes, Nostr relays, and Bitcoin payment rails. Each performs a separate job and keeps the system together.
Geohash is a simple idea. It takes your latitude and longitude and turns them into short codes made of numbers and letters.
Instead of identifying the exact GPS location, place it in the grid. The length of the code determines the size of the grid.
For example, a six-character Geohash covers almost a square kilometre, which is sufficient to group people into the same area while keeping their exact position private.
In Bitchat, that grid appears to be a chat room, and anyone in it may get a new pseudonym that will reset when they move elsewhere. When users are inside the room, their messages are transmitted to Nostr, an open protocol for distributed communications.
Unlike WhatsApp and Telegram, which rely on corporate servers, Nostr relies on independent relays. Anyone can do it, and users can freely choose which relay to connect to.
When the relay goes down, the network continues to function as there is no central server to pull the plug. This model is designed for resilience and open access.
Payments have already been burned into this system. Nostr defines a standard called NIP, two of which are most important here. The NIP-57 describes “Zaps,” a hint of lightning that was recorded as a Nostr event. The NIP-47 covers “Nostr Wallet Connect.” This allows the app to securely call the user’s Lightning wallet.
This means that if Bitchat allows payments, people can use Bitcoin’s Lightning network to allow people to tip, pay small fees, and resolve microtransactions in real time.
These layers, geohash of locations, nostrae for transport, and lightning for payments explain the fundamentals of Vichat.
None of them are untested ideas. Geohash is widely used in mapping. Nostr has been live since 2020, and Thunder processes millions of small payments each month. What Bichat is trying to do is combine them into a single everyday tool.
Crypto cannot add that plain chat
Vichat could act as a regular messenger, but the key reason for the crypto world is that payments are already part of the underlying protocol.
Nostr, reportedly used by Bitchat to relay messages, natively supports Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, opening use cases where normal chat apps cannot provide without bolting external services.
One clear example is spam control. Most messaging platforms fight spam with phone number verification, identity verification, or moderation teams.
In Nostr, users often rely on “Zaps.” This relies on tips of lightning as small as a single Satoshi. Some communities already require a small payment to post. This costs little to no cost for real users, but it stops bots and mass spam.
On Bitchat, this could work at the local room level, enough for a refundable microfee to keep the conversation clean without the need for a central moderator.
Another area is local commerce. In 2024, Nostr clients like Damus handled millions of Lightning Zaps, showing people comfortable sending small payments within the app.
When applied to location chat, the behavior can lead to tilting street performers, paying neighbors for services, or posting small prizes for quick help.
Lightning payments can settle instantly and can be as low as a fraction of a cent, making them suitable for casual exchanges that are too small for traditional banking systems.
The same model could also extend to restoration during a standstill. Where internet access is restricted or unreliable, Bluetooth mesh still allows you to communicate your message over short distances, while Lightning allows you to exchange value without waiting for your bank to recover.
Past crises have shown the demand for this type of tool. During the 2019 protest in Hong Kong, downloads of mesh apps like Bridgefy surged as they worked without cell service. In theory, systems like Bitchat can bring the same benefits, but they have money embedded.
Nostr’s payments are also more private. Currently, some wallets use Cashu and create anonymous Bitcoin aid tokens. This allows Bitchat users to pay each other within their location rooms in a way as untrackable as passing physical cash.
Practical tests to determine the future of Bitchat
To move from experiments to everyday tools, Bitchat needs to overcome some real challenges.
The first is the platform policy. In 2023, Apple requested another Nostr-based app, Damus client, to remove Lightning’s “Zap” from individual posts on iOS.
Apple has been allowed to send only hints at the profile level, claiming that payments directly linked to content could potentially bypass in-app purchase rules.
If Bitchat enables payments or tips in the location room, you may encounter the same restrictions. Unless there is a workaround, Apple’s policies can prevent apps from offering different features.
The second issue is privacy and safety around the location. Geohashes is designed to hide accurate GPS points by grouping users into a wider area. However, researchers have shown that repeated activities within the same grid can reveal patterns over time.
Even if accurate coordinates are hidden, consistent participation can reveal where someone lives or works. Bitchat tries to address this by providing new pseudonyms to users in each Geohash, but on a large scale, protecting anonymity becomes more difficult than looking at paper.
There is also the current optical issues in Lightning. Public channel capacity has dropped from around 5,400 BTC in 2023 to around 3,800 BTC as of August 2025.
Bitcoin Lightning Network Capacity Chart | Source: Bitcoin Magazine Pro
Critics argue that this indicates a weaker usage. Developers counter that capacity is not the best measure, as modern wallets route payments more efficiently and the success rate remains above 98%.
Both reality is important. While the network is actually working, headlines on reducing capabilities can affect how outsiders perceive the stability of payments for Vichat.
A further challenge lies in relay economics. NoStr depends on an independent server or relay to carry messages. Epicential events, like events used for Geohash chats, reduce storage needs, but require bandwidth and uptime.
If only a handful of well-funded relays controls city-level traffic, the system can return to centralization. How these relays will be maintained through integration with fees, donations, or lightning payments remains unresolved.
Therefore, apps need to find ways to comply with platform rules, protect user privacy, maintain trust in payments, and ensure the incentive for relay operators to keep their systems running.
Collectively, these tests define experiments in clear terms. Bitchat shows whether local conversations can be combined with Bitcoin payments in a private, resilient and practical way.
With usage increasing, payments reliably functioning and platform hurdles managed, the app can withstand as the first step into a social layer built on the same foundation as Bitcoin.
Otherwise, it remains a proof of concept and is valuable for what it teaches, but is not ready for mainstream adoption.
