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Elon Musk Announces 'Bitcoin-Style' XChat, But Tech Experts Are Skeptical
Tech experts question the new offering's claims of having Bitcoin-style encryption.
Updated Jun 2, 2025, 12:38 p.m. Published Jun 2, 2025, 3:54 a.m.
What to know:
- Elon Musk announced the launch of XChat, a new messaging app, but it has not impressed the tech experts or the bitcoin market.
- XChat features include end-to-end encryption, disappearing messages, and file sharing without a phone number, but its security claims are questioned.
- Bitcoin's market value remained stable near $105,000 following the 3% drop last week.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, the boss of X (formerly Twitter), announced on Sunday the launch of a brand-new messaging app called XChat. Neither the bitcoin market nor the tech community is impressed.
One of the key features of the new offering is that it's built on a programming language called Rust with Bitcoin-style encryption. While it sounds exciting, the crypto community is not particularly psyched, raising doubts about what exactly it means.
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"Bitcoin primarily uses signatures, not encryption. This is like saying, we decided to run our rocket on water, since NASA uses Hydrogen and Oxygen," Ian Miers, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, said on X.
Encryption refers to the process of scrambling data so that only authorised parties with the correct keys can unscramble and read it. However, transactions executed on the Bitcoin blockchain aren't encrypted but are signed. In fact, all data shared between Bitcoin nodes is unencrypted, allowing total strangers to interact with the network.
"Needless to say "Bitcoin style" and "Rust" are not descriptions of an encryption scheme, nor are they strong indicators of security for a messaging app. Also, unless encrypted DMs are only in app, odds are they aren't just in Rust," Miers said.
Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, traded flat near $105,000, having dropped over 3% last week, according to CoinDesk data.
Other key features of the new offering include end-to-end encryption, disappearing messages, and the ability to send any type of file, including audio and video files, without a phone number across all platforms.
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