Elon Musk Launches XChat with Bitcoin-Like Secrets—

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Elon Musk Launches XChat with Bitcoin-Like Secrets—

Well now, folks, late on a Sunday, ol’ Elon Musk decided to entertain us with some grand news right on his favorite social platform, X: “All new XChat is rolling out with encryption, vanishing messages, and the ability to send any kind of file. Also, audio/video calling. Built on Rust with (Bitcoin style) encryption, whole new architecture. You can do audio/video calls without a phone number across all platforms.” 🌟

By Monday mornin’, the engineers at X had already begun shoving the first versions to their Premium subscribers. A memo seen by Business Insider reveals that these early versions lock each chat behind a four-digit pass-code—because what could possibly go wrong—until the bugs get hammered out. After that, the fancy features will “cascade to all tiers,” whatever that means. 😏

What “Bitcoin-Style” Encryption Might Be

Now, Musk didn’t exactly spell out what “Bitcoin-style” encryption entails, but I reckon we can make some educated guesses—like trying to find the chicken in the egg. 🐔

Bitcoin’s blockchain data isn’t encrypted per se, but it’s protected by a fancy cryptographic primitive called secp256k1 elliptic-curve and ECDSA/Schnorr signatures—making things as secure as Fort Knox, if Fort Knox also let you send money around willy-nilly. Those very same cryptographic tricks are part and parcel of BIP 324, a nifty transport layer for peer-to-peer traffic that encrypts your messages with an Elliptic-Curve Diffie-Hellman handshake, then tucks the packets in a cozy little ChaCha20-Poly1305 blanket. It’s now partly baked into Bitcoin Core, just to add a bit of spice. 🌶️

Rust implementations of these cryptographic libs—rust-secp256k1 and its kin—have been rigorously audited by folks who eat, sleep, and breathe blockchain security. In plain speak, they allow a stateless, low-latency communication channel that promises “forward secrecy”—a fancy way of sayin’ your secrets stay secret even if someone later finds a way to crack the code. All of this maps neatly onto Musk’s dream of encrypted messages that vanish into thin air and don’t depend on a phone number. 🚀

Some smart folks like James O’Beirne argue that without transport-layer encryption, claims of “censorship resistance” are about as dependable as a dry straw in a fire. And Olaoluwa Osuntokun from Lightning Labs says BIP 324 “is a pretty big bump,” because finally, it hides the link-level metadata light clients hate to see. 📡

If XChat ends up adopting this secp256k1 handshake, we’re talkin’ about forward secrecy and lightning-fast performance—just like that snappy Lightning network you hear so much about. As of now, nobody’s published an independent review of XChat’s cryptographic innards, so we’re all waitin’ to see if it’s as secure as a safe in Fort Knox. 🏦

A Musk-Bitcoin Love Affair, Still Going Strong

Musk calling this “Bitcoin-style” encryption isn’t just show; it’s got some historical backbone. Back in February 2021, Tesla announced a cool $1.5 billion investment in BTC—just to keep their options open, I suppose. They sold off most of it in 2022, but still hold around 10,725 BTC, according to the latest shareholder update. 💰

Aside from tossing money into the Bitcoin pot, Musk’s been a warm supporter of the ecosystem, even starting up a “Bitcoin Mining Council” temporarily in 2021, trying to get renewable energy folks excited about mining. At the time of writing, a single Bitcoin trades at a hefty $104,879—probably enough to buy a new yacht or two. 🛥️

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2025-06-02 10:43