Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat app gains traction amid social media ban in Nepal

Jack Dorsey’s app Bitchat saw an increase in downloads in Nepal in the wake of nationwide protests. The spike in downloads came as the Nepali government banned access to major social media platforms.

Protests erupted in Kathmandu on September 4 after the Nepali government blocked access to 26 major social media platforms, such as Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Young Nepalis under the Gen Z age group initiated protests in retaliation for the government’s ban.

Nepali protestors resort to Bitchat 

The protests further escalated on September 9 after demonstrators stormed and set fire to key government buildings, including the Parliament. Amid the chaos, protestors turned to the Bitchat app, which uses Bluetooth meshes and the Nostr protocol, and works without an Internet connection. The application also emulates Bitcoin’s peer-to-peer nature.

Dorsey introduced the app on July 7 as a weekend project, saying it offers a resilient alternative by operating without central servers. He also revealed that the application is designed for scenarios where internet connectivity is unavailable, such as protests.

According to the Bitchat Protocol Whitepaper, the app’s communication is limited to third parties, and messages cannot be tampered with in transit. The paper revealed that Bitchat makes it cryptographically impossible for anyone to prove that a specific user sent a particular message. The application can also function reliably in low-bandwidth environments.

The founder of X and Cash App developed the app’s iOS version, while the Android version was built by a pseudonymous open-source developer, Calle. Calle expanded the app’s capabilities to operate without requiring names, phone numbers, servers, or even an Internet connection.

Following the social media ban, users recommended Bitchat across platforms like Reddit. One user noted that Bitchat was circulating online as an alternative to the country’s internet blackout.

Bitchat operates independently of traditional Internet infrastructure

Calle revealed that Bitchat saw more than 48,000 downloads at the height of the protests on September 8. According to him, the downloads represent more than 38% of the app’s total installs to that date.

The tech developer argued at the time that, in the worst case, Bitchat could be the only communication method still available in the country. He cited the app’s ability to operate independently of traditional Internet infrastructure. Calle said that Bitchat differs from mainstream chat platforms that depend on servers or centralized networks since it uses a hyper-local Bluetooth mesh approach that’s crucial when such services are either blocked or surveilled.

He also compared the app to Bitcoin because it is built for censorship resistance and accessibility. The developer noted that tools that bypass centralized controls become invaluable during political unrest or financial repression. Calle acknowledged that Bitchat enables communication in much the same way, saying that it’s useful even when governments try to restrict or monitor digital exchanges.

Calle also confirmed that the app was not yet in its final form. He explained that the recent use cases in Indonesia and Nepal have pushed the team to work on adding financial capabilities through Bitcoin and Ecash. The developer said the goal is to use Bitchat’s infrastructure and functionality to enable private financial exchanges and even support commerce.

Calle revealed that another goal is to iterate Bitcoin through Cashu, an open-source Chaumian Ecash protocol for BTC. Cashu allows users to send and receive BTC payments in various ways, and even an emoji could carry an embedded amount of Bitcoin.

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