Elon Musk announced plans to release a new messaging software dubbed “XChat” to compete with WhatsApp and Telegram, as part of his larger effort to transform X(Twitter) into an “everything app.”
Musk stated that the service will employ “a peer-to-peer-based encryption system similar to Bitcoin” and be accessible as both a stand-alone app and an integrated feature on X in a recent conversation with podcaster Joe Rogan.
App release in a few months
“On X, we just rebuilt the entire messaging stack into what’s called XChat,” Musk said. “It’s using a kind of peer-to-peer-based encryption system, similar to Bitcoin. Very good encryption. We’re testing it thoroughly.”
“XChat has no hooks for advertising. I’m not saying it’s perfect. But our goal with XChat is to replace what used to be the Twitter DM stack with a fully encrypted system where you can text, send files, and do audio and video calls. I think it will be the least insecure of any messaging system,” he added.
Musk stated that the app will be “released in a few months,” although he did not say when. He also stated that XChat will have “no advertising hooks.”
He claimed that WhatsApp has enough information about our texts to determine what advertisements to display. That is a serious security flaw. He noted that anyone could just use the same hook to access the messages.
Elon Musk has stated that the X ecosystem would someday incorporate social networking, payments, and AI-driven services, similar to WeChat in China. These remarks are the most recent in his frequently aspirational discourse about expanding the ecosystem.
More on XChat
According to Moe Levin, Chief Marketing Officer of Hemi, an execution layer for Bitcoin, Musk’s depiction of Bitcoin-style encryption is ambiguous, more branding than a true cryptographic breakthrough.
“Bitcoin’s network uses peer-to-peer (P2P) connections and public-key cryptography for transaction validation,” Levin said. “For a messaging app, a P2P system could route messages through peers and encrypt them, allowing only the intended recipient to read them.”
Levin disputes that XChat can match the technological capabilities of the Bitcoin network, arguing that such a “comparison is loose” because “Bitcoin itself does not encrypt network traffic or protect message content.”
According to experts, P2P frameworks have the potential to lessen the need for centralised servers to store message data. However, Levin pointed out that it is difficult to develop such a system at scale. He claims that users will be dubious about XChat.
For a long time, Elon Musk has been a fervent advocate for Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency sector. And now, he expanded on that support by stating that, in contrast to conventional money, Bitcoin cannot be counterfeited since it is an energy.
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